What are you towing with your 2014?

calgator73 · September 10, 2014

Wow, that's a heavy trailer. 10,500 GVWR. 1100 hitch, dry...you have max tow? How's it pull/stop loaded?

Gvrw is actually right at 11,500 with my actual dry hitch at 1266. Yep 5.3 and 3.73. Had to upgrade the hitch to a 2" class V because my tongue exceeded class IV standards. Pulls well and stops perfectly fine. My actual GCW is ~ 16200 and with the equalizer 1400 axle weight limits are safe.

Wow, triple slides? That has to be heavy...

Actually four.

peejaykay · September 11, 2014

Cool. I'm looking for a '14 with NHT on the lot, right now.

Jon A · September 11, 2014

From this weekend. ~400 miles, 13.6 mpg over some rather hilly terrain. Around 6klbs on the trailer, another 200lbs in the bed + 5 passengers in truck.

Towing a 4th Gen to the track and back! It doesn't get any cooler than that! I finally put some pics of mine up:

I started out using the tow/haul mode, and this just wasn't enough weight for it. The gears held waaaaay too long and all it resulted in was lower gas mileage and more noise. About halfway to my destination I turned it off, picked up at least .5 mpg. I don't know if it's the truck, tuning, engine or what, but this setup just does not need the tow/haul mode unless you are running quite heavy.

Yeah, I think they had a summer intern program the tow/haul mode which is sad because as you said it's nice to use for other reasons--mainly more aggressive grade braking. I've reprogrammed mine so it's much better but I know many are afraid to tune due to warranty issues. Hopefully they'll do a better job with the 8-speed.

Jon A · September 11, 2014

Basically too little causes not enough steering authority due to not enough front load while too much transfer causes rear unloading which basically induces jackknifing due to tv oversteer.

In a nutshell, yup.

The recommendations from this post helped alot. I put 45lbs of air in the rear tires, 40lbs up front then put 45lbs of air in the air bags. The porpoising was almost totally elimated. I was looking to put a WDH on it but will hold off for now.

Excellent news! Of course adding a WDH still woudln't be a bad idea.

CoasterCOG · September 11, 2014

Well this past weekend I towed my 20' enclosed trailer with my Vette inside from NJ to Carlilse PA for Corvettes at Carlilse. The recommendations from this post helped alot. I put 45lbs of air in the rear tires, 40lbs up front then put 45lbs of air in the air bags. The porpoising was almost totally elimated. I was looking to put a WDH on it but will hold off for now.

Great to hear that the tire pressure helped. I was ready to spend the $$$$ to replace my tires to fix the issue. Adding a few more PSI was much cheaper...

Jon A · September 11, 2014

I'll go 5.3 NHT and take it easier going up the hills. Its not going up that worries me, its going down and the video I saw with the 6.2 w/ tow haul mode engaged was confidence inspiring. Is the 5.3 to haul mode just as effective on the way down? Not a speed demon, don't need to be the first up the hill. I just want it to be safe and not grenade.

Grade braking effectiveness with a gas engine is going to be roughly proportional to displacement, so the 6.2 should do it better. I don't know of anybody who has tested the two side-by-side to see how noticeable a difference it is though.

I can't tell you if you'd be happy with how well the 5.3 does it, but I can tell you the 6.2 does an amazing job. It is truly something to behold if you’ve towed with older trucks and had to ride the brakes really hard all the time down the hills. From the most similar tests I’ve seen online it appears to work at least as well as the newest Duramax’s exhaust brake, and that's quite impressive.

I do think the bigger difference is going to be in going up the hills though. With that many trips in the mountains with that much weight the 6.2 is certainly going to handle going up much more easily.

Gatorboy112 · September 13, 2014

Towing my little tracker. This'll be as heavy as it gets until I buy a wake boat.

502ss · September 13, 2014

Going to be towing this beast with my 2015 4wd sierra. Dealer says 12 weeks for delivery

I went with the 5.3 with max trailering (3.73)

Boat and trailer is 9600# with about 800# of tongue weight!

peejaykay · September 13, 2014

I agree, the 6.2 probably would do the up grade better. I think we both saw the same video. Silverado 6.2 towing a 10k trailer up a grade, temp readings on the brakes before and after a hill. 6.2 did great up and down. The 5.3 should be similar on the way down and slower on the way up. Might be warmer on the way down, but not unsafe warm.

Grade braking effectiveness with a gas engine is going to be roughly proportional to displacement, so the 6.2 should do it better. I don't know of anybody who has tested the two side-by-side to see how noticeable a difference it is though.

I can't tell you if you'd be happy with how well the 5.3 does it, but I can tell you the 6.2 does an amazing job. It is truly something to behold if you’ve towed with older trucks and had to ride the brakes really hard all the time down the hills. From the most similar tests I’ve seen online it appears to work at least as well as the newest Duramax’s exhaust brake, and that's quite impressive.

I do think the bigger difference is going to be in going up the hills though. With that many trips in the mountains with that much weight the 6.2 is certainly going to handle going up much more easily.

snarkee · September 15, 2014

8300 wet weight

Dres79 · September 15, 2014

redwngr · September 20, 2014

Grade braking effectiveness with a gas engine is going to be roughly proportional to displacement, so the 6.2 should do it better. I don't know of anybody who has tested the two side-by-side to see how noticeable a difference it is though.

I can't tell you if you'd be happy with how well the 5.3 does it, but I can tell you the 6.2 does an amazing job. It is truly something to behold if you’ve towed with older trucks and had to ride the brakes really hard all the time down the hills. From the most similar tests I’ve seen online it appears to work at least as well as the newest Duramax’s exhaust brake, and that's quite impressive.

I do think the bigger difference is going to be in going up the hills though. With that many trips in the mountains with that much weight the 6.2 is certainly going to handle going up much more easily.

I gotta call ya on that one.

The dmax is a 6.6L, with much higher compression and with both an eb (exhaust restriction via turbo vane position) and grade braking. No way the 6.2 will have the hold back ability that the LML Dmax has on highway downgrades.

Jon A · September 22, 2014

It’s not really that simple. CR has little to do with it, and regardless of displacement without a Jake brake or Exhaust brake a Diesel is basically open at both ends and provides little resistance. How much resistance it provides comes down to the design and execution of the exhaust brake, the mere fact that the engine has one doesn’t tell you that it’s a good one.

That said, it does seem to be pretty good on the new Duramax. I don’t know which is better, I doubt anybody outside of GM has actually compared the two in a scientific manor. The only similar tests I’ve seen are one with the 6.2 pulling 11,000 going down a 7% grade and the guy didn’t need to touch the brakes at all the whole way down. In a different test with the duramax going down a different 7% grade with 12,000 lbs, the driver needed to hit the brakes a couple times.

Obviously not a controlled scientific test by any means, but it’s enough to tell me they’re roughly in the same ballpark. Given the 6.2 didn’t need the brakes at all with 11K, if the duramax was really that much better it shouldn’t have needed any brakes with 12K. In a test with the duramax towing 19K down the same 7%, it needed quite a bit of brakes—they were 450 degrees at the bottom.

It’s kind of a moot point as both are obviously more than enough at that weight level. Since the 1500s top out at 12K, the 6.2’s engine braking is clearly more than adequate for any legal load. It’ll be more of an important issue if they put the 6.2 into the 2500’s so it can be tested with a lot more weight.

A better test that would help answer what was asked above would be to see what the 5.3 would do with the same 11K trailer down the same grade. I don’t know of any published tests with the 5.3 with that much weight.