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6.0 Towing capabilities


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Sorry, I guess I should have made this post in here, instead of in the INTRODUCTION thread.... </sheepish>

 

With that out of the way, can someone offer up some personal experience of the 6.0L Vortec with the 6-speed transmission? 
My problem is that my 97 Ford PSD has never been much of a performer when it comes to towing...in fact, it's almost embarrassing at times. I'm used to falling down to 40 mph uphill when I was towing with my old F350 7.6L...but I thought that a diesel (any diesel) would cure my problems.
Boy...was I wrong. She pulls strong, if I can keep the revs up....but as soon as I start to make any progress, she will upshift and lose all momentum. No...I am not driving with the OD on. If she had a six-speed transmission or even a Tow/Haul mode, she would probably do a lot better.

 

Used Duramax's are tough to find....especially the 06 - 07 models, with "lower" mileage, so I've started looking at the Vortec's paired with the 6L90. If I'm destined to travel 40 mph uphill, I'd just as soon do it with a gasoline engine...

My tow rig is a 24 ft "Lite" travel trailer (4500# dry), and on extended getaways, I will have my DR650 in the box of the truck and a 12' boat on the roof rack....and all the other assorted junk that is required.
Some of the hills in the southern part of BC can be fairly cruel....up to 10% grade on some...the Great Bear snowshed on the Coquihalla Highway is one of the worst (over 1000' of altitude gain in just under 3 miles).

 

So does anybody here tow with the 6.0? What sort of weight do you pull and how does your rig do? Are you down to 2nd gear by the time you reach the summit, or are you still gaining?

Your anecdotal evidence will help convince me which vehicle to buy.

 

 

Edited by Qwazert
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  • 1 month later...

IMG_1190_zpsvtr7xlcs.jpg

 

I just hauled this up to the lake, its not a huge climb by any means but its some rolling hills here and there.  It was about a 120Mile trip and I set cruise at 60mph in tow/haul mode and just let her purrr.  I was actually impressed, I am coming from a cummins diesel so I was concerned I would be very disappointed.  The boat probably weighs in at about 5000 pounds and pulls like a giant wall through the air.  I also had the boat filled with all our junk plus the quad in the back of the truck.  Under the quad was more junk, fuel, propane tanks, steel dock hangers, needless to say we were well loaded.  

 

The truck averaged about 8 mpg which is right around what I expected, my chipped cummins would only get about 11 with the same load.   I should also mention this 6.0L has the 4.10 gears which I am sure affects my mileage.

Edited by Bhurt
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  • 2 weeks later...

At the speeds you were running, 4.10 really doesn't make much difference on mpg.   I have been fond of 4.10 in a lot of vehicles for decades.  Great all around ratio.  And the 6.0 with the 6L90 and the 4.10 is a real good combo.  That is why GM hasn't messed with it.  Commercial buyers, from some unscientific surveys, seem to prefer it 3 to 1 over Dmax versions.   I travel an average of 2600 miles a week across 11 states and I have made note of the number of 6.0 2500/3500 pickups compared to Dmax versions and it seem to play out to the 3 to 1 ratio.  

 

MPG can be disappointing, but when you factor in the price spreads in many areas  between gas and diesel, it sometimes can be a wash on a cost per mile basis.  I have been using E85 since late last fall and even with the diminished mpg from that, I am still at or below the cost per mile on fuel alone of using diesel.    And that is one factor I truly like.  I am not restricted to one fuel.  I can use regular to premium, no ethanol right on up to 85%.   I can get what offers me the best overall value seasonally as prices fluctuate.

 

Per the charts and GM, the L96 6.0 hits 90% of available torque at around 2000-2100, and the curve is relatively flat on up past 4500.  that is a good feature of that motor.  

 

 

Edited by Cowpie
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I think the load and conditions that you are describing could be quite nicely handled by a 2014+ 5.3 gas with a 3.42 or 3.73 rear axle.  In a few weeks, I'll be taking my travel trailer (3900 lb dry but will be fully loaded) with my CC 4X4 Std. box c/w canopy and full of gear up the Coquihalla.  I don't anticipate any problems as I've had this load from Victoria to Campbell River and over to Tofino  and I never was in a position of not being able to maintain my speed.  I have the 4.3 V6 with a 3.42 axle.  The weakest combination in the 2014+ lineup is the 5.3 with the 3.08 rear.  I am sure you wouldn't have problems with this combination either.

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With the load in the truck you are not going to want a 1/2 T and perhaps a 1T would handle the load better. I towed a 6000 lb TT for 10 yrs with the gasser, six speed, and 4.10 gears. The sweet spot for my rig was 4th gear and between 3500 and 4000 RPM which yielded a speed of around 55MPH. As long as I could maintain the REVS it pulled great.

 

Now I tow close to 8000 lbs of TT with a DMax and love not having to rev it up to keep speed - and being able to recover if I lose momentum on a grade.

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Guess if I was pulling year round frequently, I would consider a diesel.  Otherwise the wild added expense of initial purchase along with the potential for wallet busting mechanical issues doesn't make it viable for my needs.  The 6.0 in my 2500 does a good job.  But then I am not trying to pull 10,000 up Pikes Peak.  And with the smorgasbord of fuels I can use in my 6.0 2500, there is no appreciable advantage from a cost per mile standpoint for going diesel.  But that varies depending on where one primarily uses their vehicle in the country.  I live in "ethanol central" and we are swimming in the stuff at very good prices at the pump.  Even with the lower fuel economy of say, E85, my cost per mile is roughly equivalent to a Dmax equipped pickup with its better mpg.  The only edge the Dmax has is overall grunt in tough pulling situations.  All of my stuff is generally less than 8000 lb and not in the Rockies, so it is not an issue for me.   I needed the 2500 though for what I could haul.  6 - 55 gallon drums of oil in the back or a well over a ton of material gets just a little outside of what a 1500 is really made for.

 

Could be just me, but I like the sound of my 6.0 with Magnaflow muffler when it is clipping along at 3000-3500 under a pull.   It is actually a welcome alternative to listening to my 12.7L Detroit day after day turning  1400 RPM under a hard pull.  Probably a similar thing with motorcycle riders.  Some like low RPM big bore motors and some like motors that rev a little higher.   Different strokes of different folks.

Edited by Cowpie
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  • 7 months later...

Just a nice little update today. Wish the TFL truck folks had been around to video it.

 

I live rural and there is about 2 miles of hilly gravel/dirt road from my home to the nearest hard top road.  After the major freeze this last week and the snow, we got high 40's temps over the weekend.   The road turned to a soft, soupy, muddy mess.

 

I had my semi tractor at home to do some work on it, but had to head out Sunday eve to get a load of Kawasaki Mules to Chicago.  Trailer was in town, but had to get the tractor back to town to pick it up.  Well, the semi tractor did not go far before bogging down into the mud.   That 11,000 lb steer axle, the tires just dug deep trenches into the mud and everything came to a stop.  Even with the dual drive axle full lockers engaged.

 

So got the wife to fire up the 2500 and bring it out and hook up to me and pull me to the highway.  Hooked up a HD tow strap to a clevis in the the receiver hitch and to the tow bar on the semi and went to work.  The truck and especially the wife did an excellent job of pulling my 21,000 lb semi tractor thru all that goo over 7 hills to the road. Not real long hills, but pretty steep grade on each of them.   Was a bit of a strain on the wife, as she really hadn't done anything like that before, but she was a real champ and did the job as good or better than I had ever seen anyone do a similar job.

 

So it is going to be a tough sell to convince me that the 6.0 2500 with 4.10 rear can't pack the gear.  Diesel?  Nah.

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Pretty impressive. People don’t realize the difference between using a tow strap and a chain or cable. Many years ago I stuck a garbage truck in my yard. My brother in law happen to be there driving his 66 Chevy truck. He saw my predicament and said he could get me out. I started to pull out a chain laughing, yea sure. Not with that he said. He hooked up pulled out to the road. He said when you see my brake lights ease on the gas. It worked, his truck was even had a 3 on a tree. Fast forward this Sunday about 40 years later. My ex son in law dropping off my granddaughter at our annual Super Bowl party misses the driveway backing up. Tundra down big time. The same Brother-in-law for the first time is at it. Here we are just after half time my $&&$$ ex son in law gumming up the works. Out comes my brother in law and about 20 other people to see the show. He’s driving a Tahoe. He opens the back sitting there is a brown duffel bag, sure enough a neatly rolled up yellow strap comes out. Sure enough it works again. Ex son in law is saved by a yellow strap and the ability to hit the pause button on the other show.


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I towed my 9,000lb travel trailer from MN to NM, up to CO and WY and back to MN. We were 17,500 combined weight. The truck did fine, not great. With the cruise on it tried to do Raton pass(steep) at 5000 rpms and 55mph,seemed a bit high so I slowed her down to 45. This was the same as we went through CO and WY passes. Faster than semi trucks but slower than turbo pickup trucks. The worst was going through WY with 25mph+ headwind, 4,500 rpm+ for hours to do 55mph.. Noisy. Now it burns a little oil...

Trans temp never went above 180f though.

Edited by Frits
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  • 1 month later...
On 2/4/2019 at 10:49 PM, Cowpie said:

So it is going to be a tough sell to convince me that the 6.0 2500 with 4.10 rear can't pack the gear.  Diesel?  Nah.

Pretty cool that you were able to do that with your truck. Did you use 4HI or 4LO? And did you have her hold the transmission in a lower gear, or just use D and let it do it's thing? Tow/haul mode?

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7 hours ago, Big Whiskey said:

Pretty cool that you were able to do that with your truck. Did you use 4HI or 4LO? And did you have her hold the transmission in a lower gear, or just use D and let it do it's thing? Tow/haul mode?

All I told the wife to do was put it in 4lo and manual mode with the trans and shift when she needed to keep optimum power going without the motor screaming or getting below 2000 RPM.  I couldn’t see the dash as I was in the semi tractor, but she sure did one heck of a job driving the pickup.  One of the best tows I have ever seen. 

 

But at the end 2 miles away, when we got on the hard road and I walked up to the pickup, she was clenching the steering wheel and you could tell she was scared.   I still remind her of what a great job she did.

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I get amused when I read people worried about running these 60s higher RPMs. In the 70s-80s we ran Chevy- Ford gas engines pulling hay trailers, campers and hauled with goose necks. They had 3 speed autos and 390-410 gears. We even had a 6cyl 2 ton Chevy with a 2 speed rear. It tops speed was 60 flat out. We ran them for a 10 years before diesels and overdrive transmission. The gas engines today are more durable and efficient and higher RPMs no problem.


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