Need advice on choosing another Tow Vehicle?

jungleexplorer wrote:
Thank you for the personal experience info. I do appreciate it. The two differences between your truck and mine are going to be the rear end gear ratio and the trans. Since my truck gets 6 MPG better then your empty, I am going to assume that your truck came with the lower gear ration rear end. My trans id a 5 speed (4 with Overdrive) and yours is a straight 4 (according what you said). Your truck came stock to be a hauling/towing truck, so I am not surprised by the dependability you have, especially in low flat land Florida.

I know my truck can pull my trailer, and my mechanic said that as well. My concern is if it is going to wear my trans out faster then normal. All my mechanic said is that towing my rig (I guessed at 5K loaded, could be more) would put heavy stress on the trans and possible wear it faster then normal. He did not say that my truck could not tow my TT.

My concern is not what my truck can do, it is what my truck was designed to do. Heck! I hauled a 1986 16 foot TT that was heavy as a brick for 1600 miles with my 1992 Nissan pathfinder all over Texas. I cloud not go over 55mph, but us still got 14mpg. Of course Pathfinder was a stick shift and 4-wheel drive. It had power out the wazoo and I pulled a loaded UPS truck out of a bar ditch with it one time. My point is, it had a small engine, but it had gear ratio that gave it power. Gear ratio is everything when it comes to power.

I guess at the end of the day my question is this. Do I use what I have a risk blowing the trans out, in which case I would have no truck, nothing to sell and no money to buy a another one. Or do I try to convert my truck into something better while it still has good value? Just to give you a better idea of what my thinking is.

If your Truck is a GM 1500, it is either a 4 Speed Auto or a 6 Speed Auto. Since it's a 2007, it is most likely a 4 Speed. GM never had a 5 Speed Auto in their trucks. If you keep it in 3rd gear pulling your TT, you will have no problems. Will it wear it out faster than not towing at all? Yes, but that is the case with almost any truck. I have pulled many TTs and other items using a truck very similar to yours with no problems. I'd advise against trying to pull a TT in overdrive with that truck as it is unlikely the torque converter will ever lock up in OD and therefore overhead the trans. I ran tests with my 2008 Silverado Z71 Crew Cab (also a 4 speed auto) while pulling my 26' Jayco. I always pulled it in 3rd gear (1:1 ratio) and would get around 8-10 MPG. One day on a flat stretch of highway I decided to see what would happen in OD (4th gear). Well, the mileage never changed and the trans temp went up. So from then on, I always pulled in 3rd. This truck also had the Tow/Haul mode as most new trucks do.

If you're just looking for rationale to buy a new truck, go ahead, otherwise happy camping.

Also, by your pictures, your's has the same trans cooler mine had and it had the towing package. To find out what gears you have, look at the codes on the sticker in your glovebox. This has all of the option codes. GU5 is a 3.23 gear. No problem for that trailer, just means you'll accelerate a little slower is all.