ANY truck, will always have less 5w capacity than bumper pull. If you have 1000 lbs of payload, max 25% HW for a 5w, that equates to a total of 4000 lbs of trailer. If you do a bumper pull with 10% HW, you now have 10K lbs of trailer to work with.
Your truck probably weighs around 5000 lbs empty, you have a gvwr of 6000-6600 or so, so max payload after loading you and GF, is around 1000 lbs. Now will your TBI5.0 v8 with maybe 175 HP tote a 10K trailer well.....that is up to how you feel your power to wt ratio is. A 5.0 with 3.42 gears, gm gave it a 10K rating max. If you have 3.73's, it will be 11500, 4.10s 13000. BUT, you are over warranty, so per most if not all state laws, max trailer capacity per the manufacture is a non legal issue.
I personally would not tow more than 2x the grawr of your truck, which is probably 3000-3500 or so, maybe 4000, so 6000-8000 max. I would also not worry about the 3.42 gears, as your trans has a lower ratio in first than a 2500 like mine with 4.10's, your actual initial overall low take off ratio is lower than mine! You also probably have smaller diam tires, so that lowers the ratio even more.
SHort trips are not always a killer, need to have a high hp motor.
Marty
