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sologal70's avatar
sologal70
Explorer
May 23, 2016

1988 GMC 3500K Sierra advice

I have owned a 1988 GMC 3500K Sierra for many years. I want to buy a travel trailer and am wondering what limitations I should be concerned about. My thought is to "practice" hauling in my home state (Iowa) to shake down my future used travel trailer and before going on the road. I don't think I would want to use this old of a truck to do long distance trips. It has about 135,000 miles on it. Or maybe I'm being paranoid as I guess a new truck can have problems too. I guess I'm thinking as I practice camping more locally I will eventually run across a sale of a newer (diesel?) truck. Then I can tackle doing longer term trips.

I have a brake controller installed as I used it for my gooseneck horse trailer. It has a pretty heavy duty towing hitch (big springs). I had a friend pull a 30' sailboat from western Nebraska to Eastern Iowa one year.

According to the web, my wheelbase is 141.5" (club cab with full bed) which sounds like it can pull up to a 27' travel trailer. Does that sound correct? It is a 5.7 L V8 which according to charts is 185 hp (138kW) @ 4000 rpm 295 lb.ft (400 N.m) @ 2400 rpm. The GVWR is over 8500 lb. Is there other specs I need to know?
Kim in Iowa.
  • Kim you have good things and bad things going for you. The good thing is you have a big truck that can handle a bunch of weight on the tail.

    The bad thing is you have a 100 LB weakling for an engine. Under a 200 HP is not a good thing.

    Bottom line is this. This truck will pull a trailer under 9,000 lbs very well on a flat road. When you get into some mountains is when the trouble is going to start. Not so much trouble, but it will just take forever to get up a big mountain.

    The lucky thing is there is not many big mountains in Iowa or in many states around Iowa. :) So if your just planning on camping out around Iowa then you won't have any problems. I wouldn't want to come too much west of the western boarder of Ks though. Camp on!
  • With that particular 350, keep yourself under 6000 lbs loaded. Not sure of Adel ratio, more than likely a 4.10. Granny should be a th400 auto. Or if you have a manual, srm465 Muncie. Better of two granny options.
    I had a long box ext cab and a 454 auto 410s, 2nd worst GM I've ever owned. Worst was a 89 R3500 flatbed.


    Marty