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Will 1500 tow my trailer?

gmckenzie

By gmckenzie
in Towing, Hauling & Hitches

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gmckenzie Enthusiast

gmckenzie

Posted
Posted

I have a 2010 Cougar 30RKS travel trailer that I have been towing with a 2001 2500HD Duramax. I tow every second weekend from May long weekend to Labour day. Most of my towing is to local Provincial campsites in the Okanagan in BC, Canada. So hills are involved. We also go somewhere for a couple of weeks at a time. Often over the Coquihalla (if you have ever seen Highway Through Hell, that's the highway).

 

Trailer weight loaded is ~8,200 lbs with tongue weight around 1,000, and ~7,200 on the axles.

 

The truck is getting old and I'm looking at new. I am looking at a Sierra 1500 with Max Trailering package and 7,600 GVWR. From what I've read, I am within the limits and the only thing I will be close on is payload.

 

I know it won't tow as well and I will miss the Allison while towing, but outside of towing I drive ~250km per month and I end up parking the truck in the winter to not run it so little. I've got a beater Blazer I run in the winter. Plus the truck is making black smoke, losing coolant and I fear doing the injectors again. Front end needs work as well.

 

Pricing on the 1500 is good right now so a 2500 would be minium $5K more and I really don't think I need one.

 

Dealer is offering $10K for the diesel. I think this is fair. Truck is in good shape with 155,000 kms (~100K miles) so I could get more in a private sale but would pay more in taxes if I did not use it as a trade-in so it's a push to me.

 

Brother has the same setup truck, 1,000 lb lighter trailer and tows more in the prairies. But he likes his setup.

 

So who tows a similar trailer with a similar truck? How do you find it tows and handles mountains etc.? Both up and down?

 

 

Jon A Senior Enthusiast

Jon A

Posted
Posted

Yes, you'd be well within your limits with that setup. The 7600 GVWR of the new trucks help a lot, you should have around 2000 lbs on your payload sticker.

 

A 1/2 ton will feel a bit squishy compared with the 3/4 ton; a set of E rated tires and some airbags will help narrow that gap dramatically. And of course you'll want a good WDH if you weren't using one before.

 

Going up and down hills--if you can find a 6.2 it'll have an easier time going up the hills, but the 5.3 will get the job done as long as you're not trying to race anybody. Both go down the hills well compared with the older trucks. Not only do they have bigger brakes than your Duramax, your 2001 probably didn't have an exhaust brake so it pretty much just freewheeled down the hill. These have excellent grade braking so you'll hardly even need to use the brakes going down hills. You'll find they go down hills better than your old Duramax.

gmckenzie Enthusiast

gmckenzie

Posted
  • Author
Posted

LOL Bert!

 

I picked up a Equal-i-zer 4 point hitch with 1,000 bars and it made a huge difference. And I didn't forget the coffee.

 

Couple of things with the truck I've looked at that I don't want (Nav, leather, 20" tires) so I think I'll see if the sales guy can find something else first.

beck@becksystems.com Enthusiast

[email protected]

Posted
Posted

Look at the wheel base. As I recall the 1500 Crew Cab with long bed has a longer wheel base. The longer the wheel base the better the truck will handle while towing. In your case I'd only get the 6.2 with the 8spd. transmission. Might be hard to find one on sale at this point... Might be better to wait on a 2016... nothing worse than buying a new truck that turns out NOT to be or not to do what you want/need.

FWIW,

Carl B.

wrc7732 Enthusiast

wrc7732

Posted
Posted

I've got Sierra 1500 SLE Crew Cab, Standard Box (6'6"), without the max tow. Towed mine for the first time with it this past weekend. Similar weight as what you mentioned. Pulled fine. Got to have a WDH for sure. Had a pretty significant rear end squat before I hooked up the bars. WDH FTW. [emoji106]

 

Max Tow package would be a must IMO. Definitely need the additional cooling and stiffer springs. I'm looking to piece it together myself. Wish I had been able to find the config I wanted with the max tow package, but no dice. Beginning to think I should have just ordered one.

 

81da7c008391c8c9d46721077dc00adb.jpg

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

gmckenzie Enthusiast

gmckenzie

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Nice looking setup.

 

Carl B. I don't think I want the 6.2 as it takes premium fuel. And I don't tow enough to warrant moving up to an SLT to get it. If I was going that way, I'd step up to a 2500HD and I just don't think I need it.

gmckenzie Enthusiast

gmckenzie

Posted
  • Author
Posted

So I pulled the trigger. 2015 GMC Sierra SLE Max Trailering CC SB. Cancelled a planned camping trip so I wouldn't be towing with a new vehicle and now the campground has burned to the ground (Kettle River in BC) so I couldn't camp anyway.

 

I do have a camping trip planned for the September long weekend. About 30 minute drive. No real hills this trip. How concerned would you be about towing a short distance before the break-in is done? I'm going for a drive this weekend but may only have 500km's on it by then. Should I really try to double that in 3 weeks?

GsBowtie Enthusiast

GsBowtie

Posted
Posted

The owners manual states no trailer towing for the first 500 miles. Stick with that. Do some day trips or something. I was concerned about towing 80 miles one way when i had 1500 miles on it and i was told by members that i was ok and the trip was fine.

 

From what i understand, towing before the recommended break in period is done can cause premature rear end wear / damage. A gm tech posted in the thread i had on that subject.

 

Bottom line. Don't tow with it until the break in period is over.

 

Ps congrats on the new rig! I love my 15, cc sb z71/5.3. Has pleanty of pulling power for my taste. I'm very happy with it.

  • 5 months later...
15slvrDbl Enthusiast

15slvrDbl

Posted
Posted

We had an already paid for weekend 40 min away at a yogi bear for the kids birthday party when I ended buying the new truck. I drove everywhere I could ended up being at about 340 miles before we had tow the TT. A 40 min trip. I just took it easy. It has been fine ever since. That was last year and I still only have 2500 miles on the truck. I'm hoping to get the dealer to change the oil before camping season but the % of oil life remaining didn't go down very fast.

Wheelin New Member

Wheelin

Posted
Posted

So I pulled the trigger. 2015 GMC Sierra SLE Max Trailering CC SB. Cancelled a planned camping trip so I wouldn't be towing with a new vehicle and now the campground has burned to the ground (Kettle River in BC) so I couldn't camp anyway.

 

I do have a camping trip planned for the September long weekend. About 30 minute drive. No real hills this trip. How concerned would you be about towing a short distance before the break-in is done? I'm going for a drive this weekend but may only have 500km's on it by then. Should I really try to double that in 3 weeks?

Have you pulled your TT yet with the new truck? How is it working for you if you did? We have a 26' TT Rockwood 2608 comes in ~7500lbs with a hitch ~720lbs and got a 2015 GMC Sierra DC a couple of months also with the max trailering pkg. Have yet to pull with it yet aside a small landscape trailer so curious how yours did with the 30' Cougar.

BlackZ71Silverado Senior Enthusiast

BlackZ71Silverado

Posted
Posted

Congrats on the new truck, hope it works out for you!

 

 

I would not worry too much about this "break in" procedure people mention. Drive the truck normally and hard at some times, you should not have any issues.

The engine break in procedure that has been in the owners manual is silly to me because I see how all of our GM small block race engines have 'broke in' over the years. They are run on the dyno balls to the wall, they are not babied or putted around at all.

I understand the engines in production vehicles are not identical to the engines we use but driving around like a granny will do you no good. You want your pistons and rings to seal properly and that works better driving normally and under heavier throttle.

 

The heavy throttle/higher RPM causes higher gas pressures and that actually helps the combustion gasses seat the rings.

Putting around will not work properly because the rings won't burnish teh cylinder walls correctly and most likely end up having some oil blow by and oil consumption. That is seen with many of the GMT-900 pickups and I would be willing to bet that most of those trucks were putting around and followed the goofy break-in procedure in the manual.

Those break in procedures were ment for older engines with different tolerances than what we see in todays engines and really aren't needed........but it's your truck so do what you are comfortable doing and drive the way you wish.

gmckenzie Enthusiast

gmckenzie

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Have you pulled your TT yet with the new truck? How is it working for you if you did? We have a 26' TT Rockwood 2608 comes in ~7500lbs with a hitch ~720lbs and got a 2015 GMC Sierra DC a couple of months also with the max trailering pkg. Have yet to pull with it yet aside a small landscape trailer so curious how yours did with the 30' Cougar.

I did fine but only pulled a short distance with no real hills.. Be May long weekend before I pull again. I pretty much put may trailer away after the September long weekend (work gets in the way during September). Are you 7,500 fully loaded or dry?

Wheelin New Member

Wheelin

Posted
Posted

I did fine but only pulled a short distance with no real hills.. Be May long weekend before I pull again. I pretty much put may trailer away after the September long weekend (work gets in the way during September). Are you 7,500 fully loaded or dry?

Work gets in the way all the time. 7500 is loaded. Dry is ~5900

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