My 2014 can no longer pull my trailer now what, recall changed capacit

[dkeven]

Just verified with manual I lost 2000 lbs of tow capability from 8500 to 6500 with the supplement not a small consideration (edited previous post) And yes it is for the 2014 and yes again 3.08 gears. Nice

[[email protected]]

You still would have a GVW for your truck of 7200lbs. Dont go over that and you will be fine. What is important is your GVW of your vehicle, 7200lbs, your Rear Axle Weight RAWR and FAWR. If you are ever stopped by DOT or whatever, those are the numbers they will look at, inside your door jam. They will not look for your paper manual for the Manufacturers "Recommended" max towing weights. (I know this because its part of what I do up in the great white north) Your trailer has its own GVW, dont go over that as well.

 

Shitty that the dealer is claiming that is applying to your 2014 though. I have not seen anything online about it applying to the 2014s

[00Silverado4x4]

GVWR of the truck is not the same as what the truck can tow.

[TxTruckMan]

It sounds like there was a mistake in his 2014 owners manual and this has nothing to do with the new 2015 numbers. The 3.08 gears are for fuel efficiency, not heavy towing. If you regularly tow close to 10k pounds, you should have gotten the max tow package with 3.73 gears. I think you're SOL in this case. The real numbers are posted all over the internet, brochures, and in the door jam.

[newdude]

mine is the much maligned 3.08 gearing and 2014 GMC z71 crew cab 5.3. according to the door I was right at max trailer weight with my tool trailer. Not at the truck so cant tell you what that is. Was told when I questioned the supplement pages being added to my 2014 that it had gone from close to 9.4k to 6500 max trailer weight. for my truck have not confirmed this as of yet. But my tool trailer is 7-9k depending on job configuration, dual 5200 lb axle trailer. Not going on trips or anything with it just short hauls 100 miles or less one way.

 

 

No not 9.4k,. 2014 5.3 3.08 4x4 crew cab short box is 6600lbs, standard box is 6500lbs, both pre J-2807 new standards. Under the new standards, crew cab 4x4 short box is 6200lbs, standard box is 6100lbs. Both cab configs dropped 400lbs.

 

All these numbers above came straight from GM.

 

2014:

http://www.gmfleetorderguide.com/NASApp/domestic/proddesc.jsp?year=2014&regionID=1&divisionID=2&type=0&vehicleID=14683&section=trailer_specs&page=&butID=8

 

2015:

http://www.gmfleetorderguide.com/NASApp/domestic/proddesc.jsp?year=2015&regionID=1&divisionID=2&type=0&vehicleID=16825&section=trailer_specs&page=&butID=8

 

Sorry dude but you either under bought or were undersold a truck. Never was rated to pull 7-9k from day one. Sounds like you need a max tow 5.3 or a 6.2. Or another HD.

[Silverado-Hareek]

Checked my numbers and my tow capacity went from 9,600 lbs to 9,200 lbs based on these changes. Looks like most all of the changes are within a few hundred pounds. I agree with others that the original poster either was wrong about his initial tow capacity when he bought the truck or is not reading the new numbers correctly but there shouldn't be a change of a few thousand pounds in tow capacity.

 

I also still maintain that if you buy a 1500 truck to REGULARLY tow near it's limit of towing capacity, you should be in a bigger truck. If you're pushing the limits of the 3.73 geared 1500's with the max tow package, then you should be in a 2500 truck. You don't want a truck working at it's maximum capacity regularly. Once in a while is ok, but it's much better for a truck to be able to tow comfortably on a regular basis, not pushing hard on a regular basis.

[Ventilator]

Just have GM put in 3.42 gears. Then you will be up to the old 9600, now new 9200 lbs for short box CC, and old 9500, new 9100 lbs for standard box CC.

 

The 2014 with 3.08's was never set up to trailer that much weight from the get go. Says 6600 for the short box CC, and 6500 for the standard box CC in the brochure.

 

I was considering the 3.08 when I bought my DC for the gas mileage, but ended up going with the 3.42. Still get great gas mileage, and 3000 lbs more towing capacity.

[1997SierraSLT]

I can't even imagine trying to use a half ton pickup to tow close to 10,000 lbs with 3.08 gears.

[fondupot]

Sounds like you didn't have any business buying a half ton truck in the first place. The 3.08 gearing is meant for a commuter truck who might tow/haul a light trailer a few times a year. It was never meant to tow 7000-9000 lbs on a regular basis, much less once or twice...

 

You have options though. You can swap the gears out in your truck for a different set, this will help the towing, but still you would need to upgrade the suspension. Either by swapping in NHT springs, or the like.

 

The kind of work you sound like you are doing is better for a 3/4 ton truck. Should have kept that Duramax....

 

Sorry mange.

[johne]

I downsized to the Silverado from a Cummins Dodge Ram, mainly because I rarely towed more 7k pounds with that 3/4 ton truck when I had it and wanted better fuel economy with the new Silverado. I thought the sales guy told me it could tow almost 7k pounds when I bought it. I really don't think I would not want to tow much more than that even occasionally on this 1/2 ton truck even if I had the other gears. But just wondering now...how big of a deal would it be to swap out the 3.08 gears for the 3.42s later if I wanted to later on?

[Spurshot]

2wd? No sweat. A good shop can do it in a few hours. 4wd is 2 gear sets.

 

If you're towing 9k the brakes in a 1/2 ton ain't up to the job in my opinion.

[Spurshot]

If I were towing 7000 lbs or more, I'd have bought a Duramax. These tow ratings wars are about selling trucks. Some people buy a half ton and want to put a gooseneck or fifthwheel on them. Just put some pad in these ratings and you'll stay out of trouble.

[Copterfixer]

May I tell the OP and some others a little secret about towing that some may not be aware of? Well, I will anyway.

 

Tow what you know your truck can handle and your mental capacity can wisely cover. the Chevy 1500 and Sierra 1500 are NOT commercial trucks. Therefor you are not subjected to highway regulatory laws. They are guides for you, unless you get into an accident then insurance may be a problem..

 

If you can manage to pull whatever you want safely and have the ability to recognize that you are not within the specs of the truck, then pull what you want. A piece of paper in the glove box does not actually know what you and your rig can handle. Only you know that. Not even the engineers know what you AND your rig can handle. That is determined all in how smart you are with the equipment you are operating.

 

I weighed by rig on a truck scale at 12000 Yes I said 6 tons with my V6 Dodge Dakota SXT from coat to coast and back. It is rated to tow 4500 pounds. my trailer ed weight was approximately 8500 pounds. I doubled the tow recommended specs and put almost 40k miles on my truck by riding the bump stops. Dangerous definitely! Effective, I sure as hell got the job done. I had no accidents or issues. I did not even have any mechanical issues. Know the limits of your truck and you will be just fine.

 

Did Dodge ever find out during services? Hell no. How would they know?

 

When I traded it in for my Silverado 1500, the dealer thought it was funny that my leaf springs were virtually flat.

[Copterfixer]

2wd? No sweat. A good shop can do it in a few hours. 4wd is 2 gear sets.

 

If you're towing 9k the brakes in a 1/2 ton ain't up to the job in my opinion.

If you are towing more then 2k you are supposed to have trailer independent brakes. If you do not you are a fool.

[Jon A]

If you're towing 9k the brakes in a 1/2 ton ain't up to the job in my opinion.

 

Based upon what? Have you had issue with them while towing? I don't think I've heard of anybody having any braking issues while towing with one of these. We now know for a fact these brakes will pass the SAE J2807 braking tests with a 12,000 lb trailer without any trailerbrakes! Compared with that, a 9K trailer with trailerbrakes is cake.