c1500 advice on towing

[rob37dawn]

We have a 98 chevy c1500 5.7 three door 3.42 4l60e 31s in the back. We are looking at a 6200lb on the sticker 29.11 TT (heartland TT SLE 26). They tell me at the dealer ship i should have no problems but i am looking for advice from users. In the cab i will have 700lbs of meat between people and dogs.

Should i change the 3.42 out to a 3.73 or 4.11.
Do you use OD. what is a good rpm range.

We live in Mississippi with some hills but most of our trips should be with in five hours. I am not planing on going though any mountains.

Going to be our first TT any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Rob

[Sinnettc]

FWIW, I have a 95 K1500 4x4 with 190K miles overall and about 70K on the 5.7L engine (bent a rod @ 123K). Our new to us TT stickers at 5,940 loaded and that's about as much as I'd want to tow with the truck. If I could talk DW into a 'new' truck I'd trade up to a 3/4 ton.

That said we haven't really done a road trip with the TT yet so I'm not sure how it's going to do beyond the fact that the truck takes longer to get up to speed, etc, than when we're towing our sailboat. I'm sure that's partly because the TT is nowhere near as aerodynamic as the sailboat and it probably weighs half again as much as the boat/trailer combo.

[Captain_Obvious]

I had a 97 K2500 with the 5.7 and 4L80E and 4.10 rear end pulling a 5k ish TT. We also had a 700lb quad in the bed. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Flat roads were fine, but hills were 2nd gear all the way.

[APT]

Towing any high walled RV is hard work on the truck with all that wind drag. So going lighter helps a little, and more so with hills.

Now 900 pounds of tongue weight on 14 year old leaf springs with worn out shocks might not be fun either. So evaluate the condition of your truck to make the best judgement.

4-spd trans with 3.42 axle means 3 usable towing gears. Are you willing to change to 4.56? 4WD truck will cost more for both axles.

Or, your truck is worth something. A similar vintage 3/4 ton big block will more comfortably tow pretty much any TT at not much more cost than the value of your current truck.

Just listing ideas. You may find the combo acceptable for a while to do anything.

[rob37dawn]

Thanks guys, i was looking for the truth. Might have to look at lighter trailers.

[APT]

I don't think you'll be very happy towing 7000-ish pounds with that truck when it was new. Can you afford to get a more capable truck first? It's a 14+ year old truck - how well has it been maintained?

If you go through with something that size/weight, what happens if you are not satisfied with how it tows? What can you afford to do to improve then?

[boogie_4wheel]

Gonna be close.

I had a '97 K1500, 5.7/60E/3.73, on stock 265/70R17 pulling my sig trailer. Trailer was/is ~6k (give or take a couple hundred pounds). I think my trailer has a large frontal area (it is tall inside, ~7' inside at the front), so it grabs a lot of wind.

Adding an aux trans cooler IS A MUST! Your truck may or may not have the factory aux cooler (passenger side of grille). I added a B&M unit that was piped inline and mounted to the driver's side, and read transmission temperature from the pressure test port (remove plug on driver's side of transmission, located above shifter linkage).

The truck will not have a chance of OD unless headed down hill. Lock 3rd. Pay attention to when the torque converter locks in 3rd and try to keep it there. As you start up a hill and apply more throttle the TC will unlock and generate more heat.

If you plan on swapping the R&P, go with the 4.10! Peak torque was near 2500-2600rpm, which you wont achieve in 3rd unless your going faster than you should be. The 3.73 were still tall for if I was going to pull the trailer very much.

Summer time with a head wind and all I did was stare at my transmission temperature. I never took the trailer far with that truck, ended up selling and purchasing something a little more up to the task. Don't get me wrong, the power was there but the wink link is the transmission/axle gearing. If that truck would have been a 5spd manual I might still have it.

My trailer left me with a sour taste toward that truck and pulling a trailer. It just wasn't the right combination, I simply had too much trailer, and bought my trailer knowing that it was going to be close... The 6k weight on a flat bed would have been different since it wouldn't grab near as much wind.

I'm sure this muddied the water a little. Don't have high expectations of the truck, and don't expect the trans to live much longer if you do not monitor its temperature.

Oh, and of course the sales person says your half ton can pull the trailer. What they are failing to realize is the difference between towing capacities of today's half ton truck versus what they were 15 years ago!