2007 GMC Savanna CV 4.3l and GVWR Questions

blt2ski wrote:
If you stay in the under 1000' elevation range, ie mostly in FL, you should generally speaking do fine to about 5K maybe 6K with that motor. BUT a typical 6% freeway/interstate grade can be found ANYWHERE in the US, and you WILL slow down. It only takes around 135HP to motovate a 15K rig with 90sqft of frontal area. So if you can keep said frontal area to nice rounded edges, like an airstream, you can pull a bit more lb wise, not loose as much performance as you will with a box. Also going with a smoother sidewall vs the corrugated aluminum, despite the 3-400 lbs heavier wt of the fiberglass, you will be better off from an ease of towing standpoint.

The chassis is probably capable of upwards of 7-8K lbs handling. Your engine and lack of hp will be your biggest issue. I am also assuming you have a 4 sp auto?!?!?! not the more recent 6 sp. If you have teh 6 sp, your 3.42s are better off than a 4.10 geared rig with the 4l60 trans! so not a real problem.

There was a day, when you 4.3 was a typical BB monster motor in the specs it has! ie in 81, the GM 454 was 195hp and around 330 lb ft of torque! with a much worst trans option too!

Marty

I think you reference the old Turbo 400. Remember it well. But the 454 had more torque than v6 can hope for and torque is king. Yes my van does have the 4 speed transmission.

Since the trailer (9.5' x 7') is only slightly larger than my van's body (7.5' x 6.6'). Shouldn't that produce less drag on the entire structure vs pulling with a smaller TV? I think total additional frontal added by the trailer would be around 30 sq/feet. Or am I off the mark?

One thing for certain everything up to the point where I get this thing hooked up and motivate down the road is theoretical. Then all bets are off.

Funny, I didn't see the middle part of your message until I quoted it. The html formatting engine on this site hacked out everything past the word BUT.