How much HP & torque do I need ?

Denny & Jami wrote:
There's a lot more to towing than just the weight of the trailer, frontal area plays a very big part and if you dig into tow rating you may find rating somewhere were frontal area is listed. There is a big deference between a utility trailer that weighs 4K trailer 8 ft tall and 8 ft wide box going down the road.

Denny

AGREED !! Many people don't seem to appreciate that. My situation is the latter, only it's 10'6" high by 8' with not much aerodynamic design to it ! It's a bit like pulling a sail through the air !

Campfire Time wrote:

bmanning wrote:
Performance is so subjective; some are happy to motor all day at 55mph & 35-40mph in big hills while others will clench their teeth is they slow from 75 to 74 on a climb. Most of us fall in the middle.

This is perhaps one of the best, most balanced comments on towing I have ever read here.

Ha ha. Not only that, but some guys want need to hold 75 and never downshift. OMG DOWNSHIFT MY TRUCK IS FALLING APART I NEED MORE POWER!!!

It seems as though you don't need to focus on HP and torque, since your Trailblazer had plenty to do the job. You need a vehicle that is properly engineered to tow your trailer without overheating which sadly your Trailblazer can't do. I used to tow a trailer almost as heavy as yours with a Ford Aerostar with only 160 hp and 235 torque. It would go up the Cascade passes at 45 but more importantly it never heated up. Like others said any 150/1500 series pickup or larger SUV should handle your trailer with ease. A big diesel would be ridiculous overkill but if you plan on getting a much bigger trailer at some point go for it.

you are getting a lot of good answers but you do NOT need a dually with the weight you are pulling. My personal requirement would be a 250/2500 with v8 and I would need 4 wd as I use it to pull boat for fishing.

I have towed a 3500# GVWR, 7ft wide HTT trailer through the mountains in Wyoming and Montana with our 2003 I6 Trailblazer that has less HP than yours (271). Out Trailblazer has 150k miles on it with the original transmission and no axillary cooler.

We now have a 4750# GVWR HTT (Jayco X20E in sig) that rides higher and is wider than the old HTT. Lots more weight and lots more frontal area. So, we know we are pushing the capacity of our Trailblazer but we have no intention of towing this combo through mountains. We had our "maiden voyage" last weekend on a 360 mile round trip. I can run 55-58 mph or so just fine with very little shifting going on save for a long hill. Wisconsin is pretty flat and we aren't taking it more than a couple of hundred miles at most.

That said I would NOT want to tow it for long days though mountains. Its the constant shifting that will burn up the transmission, even with an extra cooler. Still you should add an axillary cooler if you haven't already. But I agree with the others, you need something a little beefier to get through those mountains.

bmanning wrote:
Performance is so subjective; some are happy to motor all day at 55mph & 35-40mph in big hills while others will clench their teeth is they slow from 75 to 74 on a climb. Most of us fall in the middle.

This is perhaps one of the best, most balanced comments on towing I have ever read here.

If a 385 hp Ram can tow 38,000 lbs combined truck and trailer, a 261 hp suv should be all sorts of power for 9000 lbs combined. Anything with a hitch should be able to handle a 4000 lb trailer.

Simple answer is, any 1/2 ton truck with a V-8 and tow package will easily handle a 4000# trailer. IMO, the tow package is the critical piece if you are towing through the mountains because of the transmission cooler and the brake assist function of the tow'haul option.

There's a lot more to towing than just the weight of the trailer, frontal area plays a very big part and if you dig into tow rating you may find rating somewhere were frontal area is listed. There is a big deference between a utility trailer that weighs 4K trailer 8 ft tall and 8 ft wide box going down the road.

Denny

All full sized trucks are about the same size for the same cab/bed length. Titan, Tundra, F150, etc. If you go to that size, pick the one you like best.

For that size/weight trailer, I recommend at least a more capable mid-sized SUV, with a V8 or turbo diesel 6-cyl. VW Touareg, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Durango, etc. Skip the V6s, like Frontier, Tacoma, and any gas V6 in the full size half tons.

Forced induction is good for high elevations. More transmission gears is good for towing.

I came out of an I-6 Envoy (yes, smoked the transmission even with an additional cooler) towing a 4500# hybrid. My "line in the sand" was 350 ft-lb of torque for the next TV. At 420 ft-lbs, the Eco-Boost has it covered.
Alas, bigger TV=bigger TT. It's a vicious cycle, I tell 'ya.