tow vehicle
We have a 1987 Coachman 5th wheel. We pull it with a 77 C20 Chevy Camper Special It has a 454 from the factory the rear is a 3.21 ratio our problem is long steep hills. We hit the bottom doing 65 and ...
Forum Discussion
Charles F Fisher wrote:
We have a 1987 Coachman 5th wheel. We pull it with a 77 C20 Chevy Camper Special It has a 454 from the factory the rear is a 3.21 ratio our problem is long steep hills. We hit the bottom doing 65 and by the top we are at maybe 30. Do I change the rear to 4/11 or build up the engine. The truck is like new been in storage a long time with no rust and the camper is in the same condition.
You could do both, but changing gear ratios would likely help a lot. If you are down to 30 mph it sounds like you are in first gear at the top of the hill. Lower gears might allow you to pull the hill in second to give you another 10-15 mph. But like was pointed out, you only have around 200 hp or so. If you change the gear ratio to 4.11 a GearVendors unit would give you about the same final drive ratio in overdrive as what you have now. It's a little spendy and like was mentioned previously doesn't work in 4WD.
