Practical tow capacities not the extremes or limits?

[FlyingBison]

I recently Sold my expedition so that I could more easily tow my TT which is a 27ft flagstaff bunk house weighing 6500lb GVWR. I have decided that a Chevy 2500HD is going to be my next truck but I'm stuck between two vehicles in my area that are both appealing and I have not a clue which to go after. I've been trying to find people that tow somewhere in this range with the 6.0L with 4.10 to see how well it does with something around 7-7500lbs but all anyone talks about is max weight. Everyone seems to want to push the limits. I'm looking for practical weight limits and not extremes. So here's how it will be used and I am hoping I can get some insight from those that have something similar or experience with this kind of setup to help me decide. I live in Iowa, mostly want to camp around our area but it would be nice to maybe once a summer make a trip out to Colorado or Tennessee. My travel companions would be my wife and three small children. Not much in camping supplies weighing us down and usually travel dry. The two vehicles I'm looking are are nearly identical except for the engine. I have found a well looked after 2003 2500HD Chevy 6.0L with 4.10 and 4x4, the other is the 8.1L and 2WD, prices are nearly the same so thats not much of a factor. I'm just curious how the 6.0L handle hills and he rare but possible trip to Colorado every once in a while. I like the 6.0L setup but I can't seem to find people talking about how it tows in this weight range. I would sorely hate to buy it and find that i'm in the same boat I was in with the expedition where everything sounded good on paper but really didn't perform well in practical applications. Any help or insight would greatly appreciated.

[LVJJJ]

the 6.0 is a heck of an engine. We had an '05 Class B Road Trek (4L80E trans) motorhome that weighed 8,000 lbs and towed a 6,000 24' Rainier travel trailer and could go as fast as we wanted up most hills, just set the cruise (in tow/haul mode). Got about 11 mpg. Always thought there was no substitute for cubic inches, not true anymore. Towed a lot better than my '88 454

[FlyingBison]

I would like to say thank you for all the help and insight you guys have providing, helping me decide on my next tow vehicle. We have bought a 2002 Chevy Silverado 2500HD with the 6.0L. It is an awesome truck. It has minimal rust and looked really clean. We traveled 3hrs away to pick it up from a dealership and while the long trip was not desirable I do appreciate the long trip home driving our new truck, becoming familiar with it along the way. It drove incredibly smooth for a truck as big as it is. I was blown away. The dealership that sold it to us was familiar with all the owners as well which was nice. The owner before us only owned it for 4,000 miles but in that time replaced all the suspension, exhaust and had a goose neck mount put into the bed. The dealership said that he had wanted to use it to tow but decided on getting a diesel after only having it for a year. It is ready to go. It even has a nice brake controller installed. We are really excited about getting out and using it. For a high mileage as it is, it still gets "good" gas mileage. On my trip home with it, it managed 15mpg which really surprised me. So again, I want to say thank you for all your help. Real life experience and knowledge is invaluable to me when decide things like this.

[FlyingBison]

LukeS wrote:
I have an 06 HD crew cab 2wd 4.11 with 6.0. I tow a 6500 dry weight trailer plus goodies 10 mpg 60 mph goes down with hills. Also have an 06 Diesel crew cab 4wd with allison tranny 4.11 pulls gooseneck commercially 13/14 mpg 60 loaded. Had Suburban HD with 8.1 with allison tranny 4.11 11/12 mpg 65 mph or less. Towed Travel Trailer 6500 lbs great. Have Suburban 1/2 half ton with a 6.0 I put in 2.73 gears and beefed up rear to tow travel trailer. Mileage similar to others. 4.8, 5.3 and 6.0 are same family of blocks different guts. Just came back from Riverside to Valencia difference in 1/2 ton vs 3/4 for me was ride especially through crappy freeways in LA was ride. My trucks are harsher on me but most parts of country just fine that why I beefed up my burb.
So if up to me 6.0/8.1 2wd crew cab hd 4wd optional if in area you need it. If you need to tow more you have the capability. Pretty bulletproof just keep up on maintenance. Shifts down a gear on steeper grades but maintain a constant 55/60 mph depending on traffic for me. Hope this info helps a little

Dang, you've sampled the whole range! I think for our uses, after much praise and confidence inspiring, we're looking at getting the 2500HD 6.0L. The 8.1L would be nice but unnecessary, if I need that much power, I should probably be considering a diesel. Most every thinks that the 6.0 should be more than enough for 7500-8000lb range even if we go up in the mountains once in a while. The 4.10 gears will be nice for a little extra oomph on the highway.

[LukeS]

I have an 06 HD crew cab 2wd 4.11 with 6.0. I tow a 6500 dry weight trailer plus goodies 10 mpg 60 mph goes down with hills. Also have an 06 Diesel crew cab 4wd with allison tranny 4.11 pulls gooseneck commercially 13/14 mpg 60 loaded. Had Suburban HD with 8.1 with allison tranny 4.11 11/12 mpg 65 mph or less. Towed Travel Trailer 6500 lbs great. Have Suburban 1/2 half ton with a 6.0 I put in 2.73 gears and beefed up rear to tow travel trailer. Mileage similar to others. 4.8, 5.3 and 6.0 are same family of blocks different guts. Just came back from Riverside to Valencia difference in 1/2 ton vs 3/4 for me was ride especially through crappy freeways in LA was ride. My trucks are harsher on me but most parts of country just fine that why I beefed up my burb.
So if up to me 6.0/8.1 2wd crew cab hd 4wd optional if in area you need it. If you need to tow more you have the capability. Pretty bulletproof just keep up on maintenance. Shifts down a gear on steeper grades but maintain a constant 55/60 mph depending on traffic for me. Hope this info helps a little

[FlyingBison]

Acdii wrote:
Seems like a bit overkill considering I tow a 7700# GVWR trailer with an F150 Lariat. If there are future plans to upgrade to a 5th wheel, then I can see it, but just seems to be more truck than actually needed. Will it also be a daily driver or a garage queen when not towing? Take into account the non towing uses of it as well.

Those old iron pushrod engines are good motors, outdated, but good, reliable. Don't think you should have to worry about the engine. What about the transmission?

Yeah, I was hoping for a little more truck than needed so that in the future if we plan to make trips to or over the mountains it would be capable or if we chose to upgrade to something a little larger. For now though, it'll mostly be used for towing and a little bit around town. Probably won't put more than 4-5k miles a year on it. The transmission that comes with the 6.0l is the 4R80E which is supposed to be a good transmission, good for towing which will be nice to have. It's not the nice Allison that comes with the 8.1L but still a good transmission.

[shelbyd]

Good point on overkill. My only reservation is the travel out west. Never done that so cannot comment on how the 6.0 would do. So far with with what you have told me I would likely go with the 6.0. The engine has been super reliable, even the ones that had the cold start knock. I had two.

[Acdii]

Seems like a bit overkill considering I tow a 7700# GVWR trailer with an F150 Lariat. If there are future plans to upgrade to a 5th wheel, then I can see it, but just seems to be more truck than actually needed. Will it also be a daily driver or a garage queen when not towing? Take into account the non towing uses of it as well.

Those old iron pushrod engines are good motors, outdated, but good, reliable. Don't think you should have to worry about the engine. What about the transmission?

[FlyingBison]

shelbyd wrote:
I have never had a 8.1 but I recall back then folks talking about how they were diesel like in their pulling power. I can also tell you the Allison is one awesome tranny. The 6 speed tranny is very nice and allowed me to go from 4:10's to 3:73's and actually have a better towing experience. With the 4 speed I was dropping to third on the hills. It did the job though, and I don't recall going much slower than the traffic flow.
I bet with the tools and other heavy stuff I carry, two dogs and us not being know to be skinny, we likely easily had 8,000 pounds. Truck did fine. Makes it's torque at 4400 Rpm's if I remember correctly.
I would also be very leery of the 6 owners. Need someone to look both over and see if anything negative stands out. How many miles on these trucks?

Both trucks are high mileage, near 200k miles. I've done lots of reliability readings on both and they both seem quite reliable, the 6.0l seems to edge out 8.1l on reliability though. I've just found another 6.0l today that is 2.5k cheaper than the 8.1l for nearly the same mileage. It was a one owner and was brought in on trade. The owner even had the undercarriage coated with bed liner so it is remarkably minimally rusted. Rust has been something I've been worried about with high mileage vehicles and being in the Midwest. It's definitely one I'm leaning to now because the generous price gap but I haven't decided yet, I'm still reading and looking around, double checking, triple checking to make sure I'm getting what I need this time around. I don't want to rush finding anything I'm gonna tow with.

[shelbyd]

I have never had a 8.1 but I recall back then folks talking about how they were diesel like in their pulling power. I can also tell you the Allison is one awesome tranny. The 6 speed tranny is very nice and allowed me to go from 4:10's to 3:73's and actually have a better towing experience. With the 4 speed I was dropping to third on the hills. It did the job though, and I don't recall going much slower than the traffic flow.
I bet with the tools and other heavy stuff I carry, two dogs and us not being know to be skinny, we likely easily had 8,000 pounds. Truck did fine. Makes it's torque at 4400 Rpm's if I remember correctly.
I would also be very leery of the 6 owners. Need someone to look both over and see if anything negative stands out. How many miles on these trucks?

[APT]

No 6.0L/4-spd. Get the 8.1L or 2007.5+ 6.0L with 6-spd for towing. Huge difference from 6.0 to 8.1 of GMT800 or 4-spd to 6-spd.

[FlyingBison]

rbpru wrote:
Let's make sure the OP keeps in mind there is a difference between what it can pull and how much cargo it can carry.

My F-150 can pull 9500 lbs. but it's max cargo capacity is only 1411 lbs. Since my family and gear weigh close to 700 lbs. I can only carry about 700 lbs. of tongue weight. That limits me to a loaded a TT weight of about 6000 lbs.

Yeah, I'm aware of the differences. When I was towing with my expedition we had no cargo in it (part of that was because it was the shorter version with no cargo room with the third row up) and only had my wife and three small children inside, the rest of our gear was stowed within our camper. We also travel pretty light, my kids don't need much and my wife and I only packed limited items such as food, wood, chairs and sleeping stuff. We also traveled dry, not having water on board. Part of the reason I looking for the 2500HD is so that I could put some cargo in the bed (bicycles) but nothing heavy and not having to worry about it. I don't forsee our cargo weight increasing any from what we were towing in the expedition by much with a truck.

[rbpru]

Let's make sure the OP keeps in mind there is a difference between what it can pull and how much cargo it can carry.

My F-150 can pull 9500 lbs. but it's max cargo capacity is only 1411 lbs. Since my family and gear weigh close to 700 lbs. I can only carry about 700 lbs. of tongue weight. That limits me to a loaded a TT weight of about 6000 lbs.

[FlyingBison]

myredracer wrote:

MFL wrote:
Unless you need the 4x4 for winter use, the 2wd 8.1 will make a much better tow vehicle.
Jerry

I was going to post the same thing until I got to this. ^^

We tow a 29 footer weighing about 7K lbs and upgraded to an F250 at the same time. Truck has 4.10 gears that I love - excellent on all the steeper/longer climbs in the mountains up and down the west coast and also for the better acceleration.

The F250 with the specs we wanted happened happened to be a lease return sitting on a used car lot and had to take the 4WD it had. We just never use 4WD. Unless you really want or need 4WD, I'd say get 2WD - less to go wrong, reduced maintenance cost, lower to the ground and more payload cap. With 4WD being something like 5" higher from the ground, climbing in & out of the bed is annoying.

If you have a choice, get a truck with a longer wheelbase, either long box or extended cab or both. I'd get a mechanical inspection done by a reputable shop. I'd esp. want to know that nothing in the front end is worn with excessive play and causing handling & tracking issues.

I would recommend installing a set of new HD shocks, like Bilstein. (FWIW, installing shocks on the TT will also help significantly.)

I knew would be different but I hadn't considered the differences in ride height and the additional maintenance. I am looking at a crew cab either way so the wheel base should be ok. The shocks and suspension is also something that would be good to upgrade, another thing I hadn't thought about. Thank you for the insight, its good to get this stuff from the experienced towers.

totaldla wrote:
If you don't mind, could you give me an idea of what it was like pulling that trailer with the Expedition? I'm wondering what it was lacking as a tow vehicle for a 6000lb trailer.

I had a 2004 5.4L Eddie Bauer Expedition with the HD tow package(3,73 gears, double radiator, external transmission cooler) and it towed our trailer ok on smooth roads but when I hit a head wind or steady inclines, it was a dog. We took it out to Bellevue Iowa and there was a stretch where there was barely an incline and it was just stuck in 2nd. Now I dont mind hitting higher RPMs but if its for nothing, I have a problem with that. It seemed like it just struggled on anything but flat smooth conditions. The trailer tracked well though, we have a equalizer hitch that keeps everything in line. The suspension did sink quite a bit in the rear but it rode ok. I will admit though, when it gets windy, there was some white knuckle driving because it would blow the trailer around a little bit. longer wheel base would have helped that a lot. So while it wasn't a bad tow truck, it just couldn't handle as much as it said on paper. I wouldn't go over 6000lb with that truck. If i had a smaller TT, it probably would have been fine.

[totaldla]

FlyingBison wrote:
I recently Sold my expedition so that I could more easily tow my TT which is a 27ft flagstaff bunk house weighing 6500lb GVWR.

If you don't mind, could you give me an idea of what it was like pulling that trailer with the Expedition? I'm wondering what it was lacking as a tow vehicle for a 6000lb trailer.