UWSkier

We're about 3200 miles into a 4000 mile round trip from Arizona to WI and back via Colorado. I did this trip last year in my 2016 Denali half ton with the 5.3L and 8 speed for comparison. I'd say the Allison and 6.6 gas combo is "just OK." It REALLY loves to drop down into 6th gear and rev to about 3250-3500 RPM on almost any hill, and it struggles to stay in 8th gear on the flats if the headwinds are over 7 MPH. Granted, I tow pretty fast around 70-72 MPH. But I expected more out of the big gasser. I know it's not a diesel, but I figured it'd race up the grades my old 5.3L did at 4500 RPM down around 3000 RPM or so. Climbing the Mogollon Rim in AZ, this was not the case. Maybe closer to 4500 RPM vs 4000 RPM. Maybe I just had a really strong 5.3! The chassis is great, and so is the tech. The truck is certainly more composed than the half ton was handling-wise, and I barely run any weight distribution at all, which improves the ride. It gets about 1 MPG better than the Denali did towing, but it's an absolute thirsty pig not towing. I'm still happy with the decision. I don't mind the sound of a V8 doing work, and the transmission stays cool even in AZ. Just expected a bit more jam. Feels like GM left a ton on the table with this engine.

I'm sitting right around 3200 miles into my 4000 mile round trip towing my camper too. The roads in this country are terrible. Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa are rotten. My TV mount in the RV came loose from the vibration and practically had the TV laying on the floor. This is with the RoadArmor suspension upgrade in the TT!

When this happens, what messages are you guys seeing on your info screens? I get a "check trailer wiring" message every few hundred miles it seems, followed immediately by a "trailer brakes connected" message. I don't ever see one saying trailer disconnected, and I always give the brakes a test squeeze when I see a message pop up and thus far, they've always worked. Only time they didn't was when the truck was brand new and I was testing the truck/trailer combo, before I disconnected my solar. Super disconcerting, for sure though. Can't believe GM pushed this garbage out to the market without any real-world testing as they would have found this issue in the first day...

Get the Pilot Flying J app and look for RV friendly stations. These have RV lanes with diesel and gasoline. I just used it on my 2000 mile tow from Arizona to WI and it was great. On the truck, after towing for 2000 miles with my gasser and a travel trailer about your size, I'd go diesel for anything with a higher wind profile than a TT. Gasser and Allison will have no problem getting that load moving, but it'll run in 6th or 7th gear in headwinds.

I've never seen the "red carpet" once on my trailer. I have it programmed correctly for trailer length. I think it's because my anti-jackknife can't get itself figured out due to my hitch being a ProPride, which changes the location of the pivot point from a traditional hitch.

I use the GM lock-out all the time. I just towed my camper cross-country with my 6.6L with Allison. I kept it at 8th gear for pretty much the whole trip, unless I saw some grades coming up. I'd manually downshift so the cruise didn't have to sense load and over-correct. Works great. I don't really care to know what gear I'm in. I can tell from the tach what gear it is.

Has anyone else noticed the touch screens on the new trucks are not very sensitive... at all...? I find I have to hit it two or three times most of the time to get it to recognize a tap when I'm trying to do something like pause playback on a song, change a screen view, etc. I mostly notice this with Android Auto. Has anyone else noticed this, and is there a fix? I love the screen size, resolution, etc, but I miss the sensitivity of my 2016 screen? While we're on that screen, the aluminum trim piece under it looks nice but is a really stupid design. It glares a lot.

I've also had the issue of the audio controls not working sporadically too.

Noticed mine started doing this around the 2000 mile mark. Few fast flashes, then normal flashing. Both directions. No errors.

It's incredibly smooth and great at getting and keeping the load moving. It's definitely nice having 8 gears, sometimes 9 usable when towing the 8000ish lb travel trailer at 70ish MPH. It spent most of its time in 8th gear for sure. 7th in stiff headwinds. 9th on flats with favorable tailwinds. Mileage was quite good for how fast I was driving. Cruise was pretty much set between 68 and 72, including through the hilly country of Oklahoma and Arkansas, and got right around 8MPG over 2000 miles. That's better than my half ton with 5.3L did going slower than that last year.

This sure isn't the case with the 2024 gasser and 10 speed. The thing will downshift aggressively with a drop of 1-2 MPH of cruising speed. I'm hoping the transmission is just learning, but it seems to me like it will always grab one more downshift than is necessary to maintain momentum going uphill, like it thinks my trailer is heavier than it is. There were some uphill pulls on my recent drive where about 3400 RPM would have done the job while only losing perhaps 1-2 MPH, but it decided it wanted to use 4200 RPM to do it, accelerate to set speed, then shift up again, while still climbing. Manual shifting helped somewhat, but not always.

It does beg the question how much real world testing actually goes into these things. Seems absurd they wouldn't have tested extensively with production 5th wheels and travel trailers during the QA cycle.

2000 miles so far with the generator running, solar disabled. I got the occasional "check trailer wiring" message but the brakes were there the whole time. Still, awaiting this fix!!!

I'm about 700 miles into a 4000 mile tow with my new gasser, and I agree. This thing could use more power. I'm towing about 8000 lb travel trailer and doing about 70 MPH. It downshifts far more than I expected it would to maintain speed. Not revving like my old 5.3L did with the same load, but there have been several times I didn't expect it to need to make 4000+ RPM and it did. Seems the Allison in this truck likes to down shift one more gear than is necessary when it senses a load. I'm hoping it just needs to learn a bit. Plus, the truck only has about 1200 miles on it so hoping things continue to loosen up. Surprising mileage though. Getting about 8.2MPG. That's climbing up over the Mogollon Rim in AZ, through NM, into TX and OK with some wicked crosswinds.

I've been running it for two days and so-far-so good. Although it seems that the generator surge load when the AC kicks in is much greater with the truck attached than without. Not sure why that's the case. What happens if I completely sever the 12v link between the trailer and the truck with a switch? With a generator and/or solar, I don't need the truck 12v to keep the trailer battery charged for the emergency brakes.

It's stiff, and it's set back from the wheel farther than it was on my 2016. I've missed it a few times when reaching. That muscle memory is a beach...

Doesn't the new one have a heavily changed electrical architecture, all new trailering modules, etc?

Interesting. I WILL definitely be running my generator while underway on this trip. There's nothing worse than getting to a 100F campground with a 95F interior trailer temp. I disconnected my solar. The WFCO converter provides a max output of 13.6v, 13.2 in float mode which is where I imagine it will stay most of the time with the truck charging it. The charge pin on the 7 way in tow/haul mode SHOULD have a higher potential than that. Will let everyone know how it goes!

I noticed my trailer brakes disconnected randomly once today too. I'm about to head out on a 4000 mile RV trip. I'll be mighty upset if I don't have trailer brakes 100% of the time... RANT: These stupid electronics on these new trucks are just dumb. I get the "smart trailer" nonsense, but if you're going to do that, why make it so fragile? And why make it wreck other stuff, like my existing camera system? I had none of these issues with my last truck... Didn't need to drop money on a stupid adapter for cameras, etc.

That's a great way to describe how mine feels when downshifting into first gear approaching a stop sign or stoplight. It makes nice linear stops kindof a pain. I have about 400 miles on my truck so far so I'm hoping that improves. It's going on a 4000 mile RV towing trip pretty much the second it hits 500 miles. Maybe that'll teach that transmission a thing or two.

They are? Mine didn't come with trailer TPMS but I was hoping to buy the ones on Amazon and fitting them to my RV trailer eventually.

I've always liked the roll-up covers. Since my last one, a new entry to the market has popped up. I'm super impressed with the quality of my Gator SRX, having had Access and Truxedo covers before that cost twice as much. The difference between this Gator and the Truxedo Lo-Pro I had on the truck I just traded in is indiscernable from the outside. Only difference really is the Truxedo had nicer clamps.

Inflate the tires to recommended value at as close to 70 degrees ambient temp as possible, and you should be good. I thought the same thing here in AZ when seeing my pressures get super high, but have been told that more pressure is better than less when it's hot. Sidewall flex is what kills tires so keep them aired up and firm when it's hot out.

Ordered the 7-way to dual 12v plug and happy to report it works with the ignition off. This will satisfy the 12v inflator use case. Doesn't solve for those needing higher-amp 12v in the cab but it's better than nothing.

A lot of the dealers out here in Arizona that make that mandatory. They "treat every vehicle when it arrives" so you can't opt out of it. Same with window tinting. $1200 to tint the front side windows... That's a $120 job if using the BEST film on the market... The one fee that gets me the most, the whole Chapman auto group charges you $399 for the nitrogen in the tires. $399 for the most abundant atmospheric element on the planet! I'd love to see the Tesla model gain traction. So many dealers are just crooked. I will say though, I had a good experience buying my truck at O'Rielly in Tucson. One of the few who don't do the funny business.