newbie and confused

[rubsal70]

Merry Christmas,
I am new to this forum and looking to Buy a TT and I have done some research. I have a Chevy Silverado 1500 4.8 with 3.23. Max trailer weight is 4700 and gcwr is 10000. Well if I change my gears to 3.73 that would raise my Max trailer weight 6700 and 12000 gcwr. Well that's my truck.

The TT that I am looking at is a jayco Jay swift 264bh. The yellow stickers on the TT range from 4500-4600lbs. My question is, is this safe? With the gear change or not? Please advice
Thanks in advance

[rubsal70]

gmw photos wrote:

rubsal70 wrote:
Guys Merry Christmas again. Thank you all for the info that y'all have given me. As of right now it looks like I'll be changing to 3.73 gears. I also will be adding a transmission cooler to it. What else would I need. The way we camp with the family is we just take clothes, cooler and some gear. It never totals 500 lbs of cargo. Besides the cooler what else do y'all recommend. My truck is not a 4x4 so only rear axle change would be needed. I do plan on getting a WD with sway control and obviously brake control for the trailer. Do I need to upgrade brakes to my truck also? I appreciate the info. I'm a little confused but to me it makes sense that changing gears will add max tow as per manual and like others have confirmed. To the person who posted the video to me and like someone said it doesn't look stressed. Any one else have any more advice please let me know. I will try to make a decision in the next week or two
Thanks

My opinion is that the brakes that GM fit to your truck is certainly fine for what you are going to do. Lets face it.....it's a truck, so it was made for carrying and towing more of a load than a car.
Lots of choices in WD hitches, and several also in brake controllers. I chose a BlueOx swaypro, and a prodigy P2 brake controller, but there are certainly others out there that would, I'm sure, work just as well. Hopefully others will chime in with their experiences of their chosen gear.

Well my truck is coming on needing new brakes so maybe someone can chime in. How do trailer brakes work?

[rubsal70]

jerem0621 wrote:

rubsal70 wrote:
Guys Merry Christmas again. Thank you all for the info that y'all have given me. As of right now it looks like I'll be changing to 3.73 gears. I also will be adding a transmission cooler to it. What else would I need. The way we camp with the family is we just take clothes, cooler and some gear. It never totals 500 lbs of cargo. Besides the cooler what else do y'all recommend. My truck is not a 4x4 so only rear axle change would be needed. I do plan on getting a WD with sway control and obviously brake control for the trailer. Do I need to upgrade brakes to my truck also? I appreciate the info. I'm a little confused but to me it makes sense that changing gears will add max tow as per manual and like others have confirmed. To the person who posted the video to me and like someone said it doesn't look stressed. Any one else have any more advice please let me know. I will try to make a decision in the next week or two
Thanks

Here is a thought... Instead of 3.73 why not go to a 4.10 now. The cost is the same and you should not notice much difference between the two in daily driving. However, towing will be much nicer with the 4.10.

Thanks

Well my truck's manual has two options under the same engine. My current 3.23 and the 3.73 gears. I thought I was only able to do 3.73. If I do 4.10 what is my max tow? Also with the 3.23 the gcwr was 10000. With the 3.73 it has 12000 gcwr. What would it be for 4.10?

[gmw_photos]

rubsal70 wrote:
Guys Merry Christmas again. Thank you all for the info that y'all have given me. As of right now it looks like I'll be changing to 3.73 gears. I also will be adding a transmission cooler to it. What else would I need. The way we camp with the family is we just take clothes, cooler and some gear. It never totals 500 lbs of cargo. Besides the cooler what else do y'all recommend. My truck is not a 4x4 so only rear axle change would be needed. I do plan on getting a WD with sway control and obviously brake control for the trailer. Do I need to upgrade brakes to my truck also? I appreciate the info. I'm a little confused but to me it makes sense that changing gears will add max tow as per manual and like others have confirmed. To the person who posted the video to me and like someone said it doesn't look stressed. Any one else have any more advice please let me know. I will try to make a decision in the next week or two
Thanks

My opinion is that the brakes that GM fit to your truck is certainly fine for what you are going to do. Lets face it.....it's a truck, so it was made for carrying and towing more of a load than a car.
Lots of choices in WD hitches, and several also in brake controllers. I chose a BlueOx swaypro, and a prodigy P2 brake controller, but there are certainly others out there that would, I'm sure, work just as well. Hopefully others will chime in with their experiences of their chosen gear.

[jerem0621]

rubsal70 wrote:
Guys Merry Christmas again. Thank you all for the info that y'all have given me. As of right now it looks like I'll be changing to 3.73 gears. I also will be adding a transmission cooler to it. What else would I need. The way we camp with the family is we just take clothes, cooler and some gear. It never totals 500 lbs of cargo. Besides the cooler what else do y'all recommend. My truck is not a 4x4 so only rear axle change would be needed. I do plan on getting a WD with sway control and obviously brake control for the trailer. Do I need to upgrade brakes to my truck also? I appreciate the info. I'm a little confused but to me it makes sense that changing gears will add max tow as per manual and like others have confirmed. To the person who posted the video to me and like someone said it doesn't look stressed. Any one else have any more advice please let me know. I will try to make a decision in the next week or two
Thanks

Here is a thought... Instead of 3.73 why not go to a 4.10 now. The cost is the same and you should not notice much difference between the two in daily driving. However, towing will be much nicer with the 4.10.

Thanks

[rubsal70]

Guys Merry Christmas again. Thank you all for the info that y'all have given me. As of right now it looks like I'll be changing to 3.73 gears. I also will be adding a transmission cooler to it. What else would I need. The way we camp with the family is we just take clothes, cooler and some gear. It never totals 500 lbs of cargo. Besides the cooler what else do y'all recommend. My truck is not a 4x4 so only rear axle change would be needed. I do plan on getting a WD with sway control and obviously brake control for the trailer. Do I need to upgrade brakes to my truck also? I appreciate the info. I'm a little confused but to me it makes sense that changing gears will add max tow as per manual and like others have confirmed. To the person who posted the video to me and like someone said it doesn't look stressed. Any one else have any more advice please let me know. I will try to make a decision in the next week or two
Thanks

[gmw_photos]

bhh wrote:
Not to add to the confusion or to hijack the thread, but I got a "pre-owned" Silverado (Contractor's edition). It has a button on the gear shift for "trailering" But I've yet to determine what it really does do. Does it just change the shift points or something else?

Edit: Maybe this is the answer from another thread?

mdamerell wrote:
Generally speaking there is a Tow Haul mode (button)which changes the shift points/pattern when engaged. It will hold a gear longer to help it pull better. Should minimize gear hunting. When slowing it will down shift the engine to give some braking assist.

Depending upon terrain and how much trailer you are pulling will determine how useful Tow Haul mode will be for you. Since it will reduce fuel economy some, some people only use it in the hills.

Put her in drive and see how your truck behaves with and without tow haul mode and use your best judgment.

Yes, you answered your own question there with that other quote.
To add a little to it, I would always use the tow-haul feature when pulling. The following may seem counter-intuitive, but letting the engine rev out a bit more, and sometimes even holding a lower gear at cruise speed will usually result in lower engine and transmission temps. Contrary to what some would have you believe, engines do not like to be lugged ( too low in the rpm band ) while under load.

[bhh]

Not to add to the confusion or to hijack the thread, but I got a "pre-owned" Silverado (Contractor's edition). It has a button on the gear shift for "trailering" But I've yet to determine what it really does do. Does it just change the shift points or something else?

Edit: Maybe this is the answer from another thread?

mdamerell wrote:
Generally speaking there is a Tow Haul mode (button)which changes the shift points/pattern when engaged. It will hold a gear longer to help it pull better. Should minimize gear hunting. When slowing it will down shift the engine to give some braking assist.

Depending upon terrain and how much trailer you are pulling will determine how useful Tow Haul mode will be for you. Since it will reduce fuel economy some, some people only use it in the hills.

Put her in drive and see how your truck behaves with and without tow haul mode and use your best judgment.

[gmw_photos]

Well, as is often the case, I am going to play devils advocate here to some of the other comments.
First regarding the youtube video of the GMC truck pulling the trailer, I saw nothing there that indicated to me he would have to be over stressing the truck. He was running it a lot harder than most people would anyway....80 mph ? Most of us do not run that hard, and there is really is no "need" to rev it out to 5500 rpm. But even if you do, that is likely not "hurting" it in the overall sense, as the engine only spends a few seconds at a time there. Yes, if you had to run it near redline constantly to get the job done, that would be different, but from what we saw there, it could easily run at normal tow operation with probably no more than 3500 to 4500 rpm. That's nothing at all to a small block gas engine. It looked the trans temp stayed reasonable as well, but I do agree a large, quality trans fluid cooler would be a good addition.

Regarding changing the rear end to lower gears, yes actually, that sometimes is the only difference made when the factory states a different tow or load capacity. For instance, our '06 diesel dually has 4.10 gears, and a GCWR of 23,500 pounds. If it was fitted with 4.30 gears, the GCWR goes up to 26,000, with no other changes.

To the OP, is your truck 4WD ? If so, changing the gears in both the front and rear is going to be fairly costly.

As to whether your truck will be a good match for whatever trailer you want to pull, as is almost always the case with the lighter duty trucks, the first limit you run up against is payload (GVWR) or rear axle weight capacity (GAWR) of the truck.

Good luck with your choices, and have fun picking out a trailer.

[PapPappy]

I may be wrong, but adding different gears will only help performance, not change the weight ratings for the vehicle. Those numbers are based on the suspension, axles, wheels, tires, etc.

Someone said that you may be expediting the death of the TV by making this sort of change for towing...I agree. Chevy designed that truck for a certain use, and overloading it will only hurt it.
Either upgrade the truck, or downsize the trailer.....though I think you may still be OK with the trailer you mentioned, but be aware of the limitations.

Did I add to the confusion:?

[OpenRangePullen]

4.8 V-8 with a 4-Speed(?), Thats a lot of work on the engine and Trans, think above the new rear end and consider a new tow vehicle. Here's a video I found on YouTube with a 1500 4.8 pulling a 4700 pound TT, Seams stressed out even with 4700 pounds 2011 sierra 4.8 towing 23 Foot RV
Good Luck you'll need it :S

[Ron_Gratz]

rubsal70 wrote:
Merry Christmas,
I am new to this forum and looking to Buy a TT and I have done some research. I have a Chevy Silverado 1500 4.8 with 3.23. Max trailer weight is 4700 and gcwr is 10000. Well if I change my gears to 3.73 that would raise my Max trailer weight 6700 and 12000 gcwr. Well that's my truck.

The TT that I am looking at is a jayco Jay swift 264bh. The yellow stickers on the TT range from 4500-4600lbs. My question is, is this safe? With the gear change or not?

First, your owner's manual will contain a statement such as:

Trailer weight rating (TWR) is calculated assuming the tow vehicle has only the driver but all required trailering equipment.
Weight of additional optional equipment, passengers and cargo in the tow vehicle must be subtracted from the trailer weight rating.

For example, if the weight of optional equipment, passengers, and cargo (including about 100# for a weight distribution hitch) is 700#,
the maximum loaded trailer weights would be 4000# with the 3.23 ratio and 6000# with the 3.73 ratio.

Second, if you add 1000# of cargo (including liquids) to a trailer, the loaded trailer weight will be approximately equal to the sticker UVW plus 1000#.
With the 3.23 ratio, you would be limited to a sticker UVW of about 4000-1000 = 3000#.
With the 3.73 ratio, you would be limited to a sticker UVW of about 6000-1000 = 5000#.

Given the above assumptions, if you want to tow a trailer having a UVW of 4500-4600#, the TV will need the 3.73 gears.
If the loaded trailer weight is, say, 5500#, the tongue weight should be around 700#.
With a payload capacity of 1650#, you would have about 1650-700 = 950# of capacity available for optional equipment, passengers, and cargo.
And, you might need to use a weigh distribution hitch depending on what your owners manual or receiver rating says.

Ron

[jerem0621]

Welcome to the forum!

The swift will likely be 5500-6000 lbs loaded. A gear change may help some with perceived performance but that is not all there is to pulling... Now to your safety question.....what do you mean by safety?

The safety of the drivetrain? Or your personal safety?

That truck will be able to pull that trailer around at 55-60 mph on the interstate. So your personal safety really depends on you as a driver. The truck is up to the task here.

Now the safety of the drivetrain.... The motor will be fine. 3.73 gears put you in the 7000 lb tow rating range. It will have to spin at higher RPM's but that's fine. The transmission is the weak link. I would put the biggest Derale or B&M transmission cooler on it I could find. Keep the tires aired up to max psi, use a WD hitch and sway control, and use a good brake controller.

Question...why not consider the Jayco Jay flight 26bh? The weights are similar but you get heavier duty axles, bigger fresh water capacity and nicer cabinetry. The price is only a few thousand difference as well. Same basic floor plan.

Thanks

[old_guy]

you know the tranny is geared for the 3:23's and if you change out the rear end you might still work that poor truck to death.

[JJBIRISH]

Merry Christmas, welcome to the forum and you’re in good company, there are a lot of us confused, and we will do our very best to keep you confused, so you have to keep coming back for more… :B

Others on here are much better and more qualified than I to answer your question, some very qualified, so I will leave that to them… just don’t be too surprised if someone suggest you need a diesel one ton dually or better to move almost any trailer…


Edit::: you may want to ask about more than the gear, like the suspension, brakes, cooling capacity, tires, engine oil and transmission oil coolers…


.

[rubsal70]

Forgot to mention my payload is 1650lbs. And the hitch weight is about 500lbs