Towing in 3rd gear rpm high?

[kwslvdo96]

Hey guys new to the towing a travel trailer and I Have a 1996 Silverado extended cab 4X4 with 5.7 Vortec and factory 3.73 gears and factory size tires 265/75/16 and the truck only has 50K original miles. I'm towing a 21ft Wilderness bunkhouse camper dry weight I believe is 3850lbs (at least that's what the salesman told me) My truck loaded with firewood and all the rest of the goodies im guessing I'm towing around 4500 to 4700lbs. My truck can not tow this camper in overdrive without upshifting and downshifting so I was told to just run it in third gear which in this truck the owners manual says to do anyways to keep transmission from overheating. The problem is at 60mph in third gear I'm at 2400 to 2500rpm! The truck pulls it no problem in third gear but the rpm being so high for a long distance is bothering me. I was thinking instead of doing 4.11 gears because I still don't think I could keep it from downshifting of doing 3.42 gears and when I replace my tires to go just one size up and that would put me at 2300 to 2350rpm at 65 in third gear. What do you guys think?

[CavemanCharlie]

Well, I do have chrome center caps and chrome lug nuts on mine. I get mostly compliments on the black rims that way. Never had anybody complain but, maybe they are just being polite.

[kwslvdo96]

fireman41 thanks I love this body style too I lucked out on it and I'll keep this truck till it dies haha. Its funny I sold my 2004 5.3 with 65k miles for this truck originally had 41k miles but just rolled 50k original miles the torque of the 5.7 vortec seems to tow my camper a lot better. But in my old trucks defense it was a short box standard cab 2wd.

[kwslvdo96]

when I bought the camper I showed up at the dealer and I went to check the tire pressure in the camper tires before I left and the tires were so dry rotted they had leaked 15lbs of air since the day before and one of the valve stems broke off while I was checking the air so the dealer panicked about loosing the sale so they gave me the new wheels and tires off another unit that they upgraded to aluminium wheels. I lecture wheels because they really didn't bother me but I'll probably paint them white to match because I plan on buying a new camper next year and I think resale value will be better with them being white.

[fireman41]

CavemanCharlie wrote:

kwslvdo96 wrote:
Cavemancharlie I reposted the photo should be able to see it now?

Yup, I can see it now. Looks nice. I like the smaller TT like yours and mine more then the bigger ones . I also have black rims. I painted them that way because mine were rusty. I think the black rims look better then the white ones my TT originally had.

My 21 foot TT weighs 4580 loaded up with everything and ready to go.

I just going to tell him nice set up but get rid of the black wheels. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

And I love that body style of Chevy truck.

[CavemanCharlie]

kwslvdo96 wrote:
Cavemancharlie I reposted the photo should be able to see it now?

Yup, I can see it now. Looks nice. I like the smaller TT like yours and mine more then the bigger ones . I also have black rims. I painted them that way because mine were rusty. I think the black rims look better then the white ones my TT originally had.

My 21 foot TT weighs 4580 loaded up with everything and ready to go.

[kwslvdo96]

Cavemancharlie I reposted the photo should be able to see it now?

[Hannibal]

2700 on the flats and 4200 on the up-hills is our norm. Won't hurt a thing.

[CavemanCharlie]

The picture of the camper does not work for me.

[kwslvdo96]

Here's my Camper 21ft Wilderness trail bunkhouse dry weight 3850lbs all loaded up im guessing im towing 4500lbs.

[kwslvdo96]

Here is my transmission temp gauge I installed over the weekend.

[kwslvdo96]

Im going to leave my stock tire size and leave the stock 3:73 gears and just not stress about the rpm. I got my transmission gauge hooked up I ended up going with a autometer cobalt series transmission gauge and bought a mpx performance billet aluminum gauge pod so I didnt have to drill holes anywhere looks really good and works great. What kind of transmission temps do you guys see when not towing and when towing? Its been cold here but just normal driving around my trans temps haven't gone above 138 degrees which seems like a good thing.

[Timtation]

Back when I was young and there was no replacement for displacement 72 mph=3000 rpm. Check curve for hp and torque of your engine and pick your gear for torque.

[RinconVTR]

kwslvdo96 wrote:
Awesome thanks a lot for the info, I still think im going to go one size bigger in my tires to knock off a little rpm.

You'll lose power doing so. Highly NOT recommended.

Don't worry so much about RPM's. You can run redline all day long if you really had to, it aint gonna blow. (Unless you don't maintain it...then it might!)

[Jayco254]

My Expedition has 3:73 gears and a 5.4 engine with 6spd trans My trailer only weighs in at about 6100lb. but on level ground I leave it in o/d it doesn't have tow haul so on hilly areas when my trans temps go up according to Scan Gauge then I take it out of o/d and just use from 4th gear on down. In the midwest most of my driving is in o/d. I also get better mileage.