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"Inaccurate Towing Capacity" letter from Chevy

dagwood2001

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dagwood2001 Enthusiast

dagwood2001

Posted
Posted

Just came this AM. Says basically that they misreported the towing capacity in both the Owner's Manual and the sales brochures. Assuming we will all be getting this?

 

Mine went down a hundred lbs......wonder if everyone is affected and we'll be getting refund checks. I doubt it, but hey I paid for a pound and got .95 of one.

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keakar Enthusiast

keakar

Posted
Posted

Just came this AM. Says basically that they misreported the towing capacity in both the Owner's Manual and the sales brochures. Assuming we will all be getting this?

 

Mine went down a hundred lbs......wonder if everyone is affected and we'll be getting refund checks. I doubt it, but hey I paid for a pound and got .95 of one.

ya well we might get a couple dollars for the fuel mileages lies but a minor change in towing capacity I cant see any reason to expect anything other then oops we're sorry bout that

dagwood2001 Enthusiast

dagwood2001

Posted
  • Author
Posted

ya well we might get a couple dollars for the fuel mileages lies but a minor change in towing capacity I cant see any reason to expect anything other then oops we're sorry bout that

 

Yea you are probably right. And that's basically what the letter says-"sorry". I was more thinking if the impact was greater (say a thousand lbs) that it might be a different story.

JumpMaster82d Enthusiast

JumpMaster82d

Posted
Posted

I got the same letter and my truck dropped 2000lb on both the tow rating and the GCWR. My truck is a CC 4x4 5.3l w/3.08.

 

Needless to say I'm not happy and very interested to see what the dealer can do.

14'SilveradoLT Enthusiast

14'SilveradoLT

Posted
Posted

I got the same letter and my truck dropped 2000lb on both the tow rating and the GCWR. My truck is a CC 4x4 5.3l w/3.08.

 

Needless to say I'm not happy and very interested to see what the dealer can do.

 

Whoa....That would piss me off. I almost bought a 3.08 but knew instantly ~7400-7600 lbs of towing ability would not cut it. I plan on getting a travel trailer around that 7200 lbs limit and I know it would never tow it.

nards444 Senior Enthusiast

nards444

Posted
Posted

I got the same letter and my truck dropped 2000lb on both the tow rating and the GCWR. My truck is a CC 4x4 5.3l w/3.08.

 

Needless to say I'm not happy and very interested to see what the dealer can do.

hes going to tell you to buy something else. Not sure what hes going to do for you

Amiodynski Enthusiast

Amiodynski

Posted
Posted

I got the same letter and my truck dropped 2000lb on both the tow rating and the GCWR. My truck is a CC 4x4 5.3l w/3.08.

 

Needless to say I'm not happy and very interested to see what the dealer can do.

 

Your Selling Dealer might be able to assist you once you get ahold of GM themselves. But the dealer themselves has nothing to do with it. They are not the ones that removed bumpers/ spare tires etc when they were figuring out payloads and towing capacities.

primpickins Enthusiast

primpickins

Posted
Posted

I got the same letter, went down 2,000 lbs. furious! Apparently from research the early builds of the 2014 (bought mine dec 2013) are the ones with misrepresented capacity charts. Newer ones as early a April as I can see have been adjusted already. So I bought a truck beig told it would tow 8500 and now only 6600, false advertisement or something? I've read a couple guys have been put in new trucks already. Waiting do my dealership manger to call me back

Silverado-Hareek Senior Enthusiast

Silverado-Hareek

Posted
Posted

I don't understand. 3.08 gears were always indicated to tow around 6,600 lbs, 3.42 gears got you to about 9,600, and 3.73 got you to around 11,000 lbs. Engine type plays a role as well obviously.

 

I can't imagine they revised the towing capacity by thousands of lbs unless the window sticker on your truck listed the wrong options. In other words if you have a 5.3LV8 with 3.42 gears as I do, before you though the vehicle could tow 9,600 lbs. I could see them being wrong and revising it to say 9,400 lbs. But a difference in capacity by thousands of pounds.....that's just a complete misprint of options by the dealer or a misunderstanding of truck features/options by the consumer.

 

GM is only revising tow capacities by a couple hundred lbs. There was a news article about this. If you are seeing a drop in capacity by 2,000 lbs, I'd argue you misunderstood what your truck could tow in the first place as your tow capacity likely only changed by a couple hundred pounds.

Silverado-Hareek Senior Enthusiast

Silverado-Hareek

Posted
Posted

I got the same letter and my truck dropped 2000lb on both the tow rating and the GCWR. My truck is a CC 4x4 5.3l w/3.08.

 

Needless to say I'm not happy and very interested to see what the dealer can do.

 

 

See like this truck here....5.3L w/ 3.08.....6,600 lbs is what I'd expect that to tow. What does your letter say it can tow now?

 

EDIT: My numbers might be a little off as I have not accounted for 4WD vs 2WD, body style, etc. But my original point remains, your towing capacity shouldn't change by more than a couple hundred pounds with these revisions.

JumpMaster82d Enthusiast

JumpMaster82d

Posted
Posted

I don't understand. 3.08 gears were always indicated to tow around 6,600 lbs, 3.42 gears got you to about 9,600, and 3.73 got you to around 11,000 lbs. Engine type plays a role as well obviously.

 

I can't imagine they revised the towing capacity by thousands of lbs unless the window sticker on your truck listed the wrong options. In other words if you have a 5.3LV8 with 3.42 gears as I do, before you though the vehicle could tow 9,600 lbs. I could see them being wrong and revising it to say 9,400 lbs. But a difference in capacity by thousands of pounds.....that's just a complete misprint of options by the dealer or a misunderstanding of truck features/options by the consumer.

 

GM is only revising tow capacities by a couple hundred lbs. There was a news article about this. If you are seeing a drop in capacity by 2,000 lbs, I'd argue you misunderstood what your truck could tow in the first place as your tow capacity likely only changed by a couple hundred pounds.

I'm on my phone but look up the thread I started about this letter, it has the picture of it that states they tested the truck and it overheated towing the max trailer weight of 8500lbs which is indicated in my owners manual (which is also in my other thread).

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Silverado-Hareek Senior Enthusiast

Silverado-Hareek

Posted
Posted

I'm on my phone but look up the thread I started about this letter, it has the picture of it that states they tested the truck and it overheated towing the max trailer weight of 8500lbs which is indicated in my owners manual (which is also in my other thread).

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

Ok I'll check it out. I've since pulled out my owner's manual to see all the different tow capacities based on engine, axle ratio, and body style/bed length so I forgot how many different combinations there were. I guess I'll wait to see what my tow rating comes out to.

primpickins Enthusiast

primpickins

Posted
Posted

From what I can tell early purchases of the truck have this problem, i have seen people say as early as April Purchases that their manuals have the correct chart in them

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