Towing Pics

richmz · February 2, 2021

Ready for some travelling soon. Forest RIver Salem Cruise Lite 17'. Added the GM trailer camera system too.

A few camera views here.....

Default view from side mirrors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhMS11KDJQU

Transparent Trailer Cam view

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiTgTIGAqFw

Edited February 2, 2021 by richmz

Jrodpic · February 2, 2021

2 hours ago, richmz said:

Ready for some travelling soon. Forest RIver Salem Cruise Lite 17'. Added the GM trailer camera system too.

A few camera views here.....

Default view from side mirrors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhMS11KDJQU

Transparent Trailer Cam view

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiTgTIGAqFw

Nice! What engine/tranny do you have? How does it pull? How is the squat?

richmz · February 2, 2021

17 hours ago, Jrodpic said:

Nice! What engine/tranny do you have? How does it pull? How is the squat?

It's the AT4... 6.2L gas with 10 speed. Pulls like a dream. Trailer weighs only around 4,000 lbs plus the water tank was full, so maybe 4400 or so, but when we go off fully loaded with stuff it'll likely be around 5k. No Gray or Black water in it when I test drove my setup after they delivered it.

The trailer rating for the truck is 9,200 lbs. I have a load leveling hitch setup and set it so the truck is within about 1/4" or so from the unloaded level position. No squatting. IIRC when I first connected up it only squatted about 1 1/2" at the rear bumper which surprised me. After I set the torsion bars to raise it it came right into it and leveled off nicely.

I had a '06 Silverado(5.3L, 4 Spd auto) for 15 years and towed my 23' Continental enclosed car trailer(cars were about 3,500 lbs, total about 7,000 lbs) and it always struggled and I always had to drive in D3. The '06 was rated about 7,500 so I was using all of it.

Night and day between the 2. That's why I upgraded to the 6.2L, knowing I'd be better off, but didn't want to go the HD 2500 route or get into a diesel.

Rich

PS the last 3 photos..... I had 23 bags of bark mulch loaded in the bed when I took those photos. I was amazed how it held up. When I drove back from HD all loaded up it felt great. Amazing truck.

Edited February 3, 2021 by richmz
typos

Jrodpic · February 2, 2021

1 hour ago, richmz said:

It's the AT4... 6'2L gas with 10 speed. Pulls like a dream. Trailer weighs only around 4,000 lbs plus the water tank was full, so maybe 4400 or so, but when we go off fully loaded with stuff it'll likely be around 5k. No Gray or Black water in it when I test drove my setup after they delivered it.

The trailer rating for the truck is 9,200 lbs. I have a load leveling hitch setup and set it so the truck is within about 1/4" or so from the unloaded level position. No squatting. IIRC when I first connected up it only squatted about 1 1/2" at the rear bumper which surprised me. After I set the torsion bars to raise it it came right into it and leveled off nicely.

I had a '06 Silverado(5.3L, 4 Spd auto) for 15 years and towed my 23' Continental enclosed car trailer(cars were about 3,500 lbs, total about 7,000 lbs) and it always struggled and I always had to drive in D3. The '06 was rated about 7,500 so I was using all of it.

Night and day between the 2. That's why I upgraded to the 6.2L, knowing I'd be better off, but didn't want to go the HD 2500 route or get into a diesel.

Rich

PS the last 3 photos..... I had 23 bags of bark mulch loaded in the bed when I took those photos. I was amazed how it held up. When I drove back from HD all loaded up it felt great. Amazing truck.

Thanks for the info. The older 5.3 is a good chunk less powerful than the new ones. And the 4 speed is probably what killed you. Looking at a trailer that is around the same dry weight. Didn’t know the 6.2 was that much heavier. My 5.3 weighs about 220 pounds less so the max is 9400 and 940 tongue weight. Or maybe the GMCs are heavier???

richmz · February 3, 2021

12 hours ago, Jrodpic said:

Thanks for the info. The older 5.3 is a good chunk less powerful than the new ones. And the 4 speed is probably what killed you. Looking at a trailer that is around the same dry weight. Didn’t know the 6.2 was that much heavier. My 5.3 weighs about 220 pounds less so the max is 9400 and 940 tongue weight. Or maybe the GMCs are heavier???

Yes the old iron block 5.3L Vortec was ok and a better choice over the base(4.6L iirc?) at the time. I've read about the present aluminum block Ecotec3 5.3L version being more powerful.

My '06 was 4WD so it likely dropped the tow capacity down a bit due to added weight . It had the HD Trailer Tow pkg. Not sure if that actually adds weight or not, or is a wash for the tow capacity.

I'd imagine the same with the AT4 being 4WD that they drop it down a bit from a 6.2L base rig in 2WD. The 6.2 is likely a bit heavier than the 5.3 but probably not too much. Is yours 4WD? If so then maybe as you said the GMC flavor may be a few hundred pounds heavier and they have to drop the tow rating to compensate.

Rich

RWTJR · February 3, 2021

17 hours ago, richmz said:

It's the AT4... 6.2L gas with 10 speed. Pulls like a dream. Trailer weighs only around 4,000 lbs plus the water tank was full, so maybe 4400 or so, but when we go off fully loaded with stuff it'll likely be around 5k. No Gray or Black water in it when I test drove my setup after they delivered it.

The trailer rating for the truck is 9,200 lbs. I have a load leveling hitch setup and set it so the truck is within about 1/4" or so from the unloaded level position. No squatting. IIRC when I first connected up it only squatted about 1 1/2" at the rear bumper which surprised me. After I set the torsion bars to raise it it came right into it and leveled off nicely.

I had a '06 Silverado(5.3L, 4 Spd auto) for 15 years and towed my 23' Continental enclosed car trailer(cars were about 3,500 lbs, total about 7,000 lbs) and it always struggled and I always had to drive in D3. The '06 was rated about 7,500 so I was using all of it.

Night and day between the 2. That's why I upgraded to the 6.2L, knowing I'd be better off, but didn't want to go the HD 2500 route or get into a diesel.

Rich

PS the last 3 photos..... I had 23 bags of bark mulch loaded in the bed when I took those photos. I was amazed how it held up. When I drove back from HD all loaded up it felt great. Amazing truck.

That's a good looking truck and a nice set-up.

I am somewhat surprised at the difference in the load & towing capacity when compared to my 2020 Silverado, Z71/RST, CC, 5.3L.

When comparing the capacity stickers, my 5.3L, Z71/RST, CC, is 375 lbs lighter (5179 lbs), has a max payload that is 475 lbs more (1921 lbs), a conventional towing weight/tongue weight rating that is 400/40 lbs more (9600/960 lbs), and a goose-neck trailer/tongue weight that is 1900/285 lbs more (9500/1425 lbs).

I guess I am most surprised by the difference in curb weight and max payload. The max payload difference is around 25%. That said, it's hard to argue against the power of the 6.2L in a pick-up truck.

Looks like you have a comfortably paired combo of truck and travel trailer. Enjoy the travel.

JMHO

No expertise implied or expressed.

Jrodpic · February 3, 2021

7 hours ago, richmz said:

Yes the old iron block 5.3L Vortec was ok and a better choice over the base(4.6L iirc?) at the time. I've read about the present aluminum block Ecotec3 5.3L version being more powerful.

My '06 was 4WD so it likely dropped the tow capacity down a bit due to added weight . It had the HD Trailer Tow pkg. Not sure if that actually adds weight or not, or is a wash for the tow capacity.

I'd imagine the same with the AT4 being 4WD that they drop it down a bit from a 6.2L base rig in 2WD. The 6.2 is likely a bit heavier than the 5.3 but probably not too much. Is yours 4WD? If so then maybe as you said the GMC flavor may be a few hundred pounds heavier and they have to drop the tow rating to compensate.

Rich

5.3 10 speed Trailboss

Coles5515 · February 5, 2021

On 7/6/2020 at 3:21 PM, Londart2020 said:

What size trailer is that? Motor/trans?

Dare Wade · February 5, 2021

It's not heavy, it's not big, but I own it, and I tow it.

Londart2020 · February 5, 2021

3 hours ago, Coles5515 said:

What size trailer is that? Motor/trans?

Its the Cougar 27RESWE so its about a 29' trailer in total. The truck had the 6.2l with 10 speed. I say had, because after crunching the numbers, with truck, canopy, passengers, dogs and trailer tongue weight I was about 500-600lbs over the payload of the truck as it did not have the HD package. Long story. We took it from our home in Oregon to Flathead Lake in Montana and the truck had no issue towing the setup, I am just a worry wort, and didn't want to give the insurance CO any reason to deny a claim should anything happen. Stepped up to a 2020 2500 Denali. So that setup was do able, just not for me.

Londart2020 · February 5, 2021

3 hours ago, Coles5515 said:

What size trailer is that? Motor/trans?

Oh also the 6.8-7.2 MPG sucked towing. I expect the Duramax to do much better...

175vTrailbossLT · February 8, 2021

Hey guys. Does anyone have any real world examples of a 1/2ton truck towing another 1/2 Ton truck?

I have a 2019 trail boss LT 5.3L v8. Want to see if I can tow my 2011 silverado extended cab also with 5.3.

I ran some numbers and I am coming up with a technical “yea” I could do it. But I’m planning on a 6 hour drive over the grapevine in CA (big elevation changes). I used an online calculator and had to input a couple variables like - guessed that the trailer would have GVWR of 10,000lb (pj trailer buggy hauler model) and that the trailers “cargo weight” is simply the curb weight of the 2011 truck being towed which I put in as 5500 lbs.

Here is the trailer sticker from my truck.

I’m debating renting a 3/4 ton truck from enterprise instead.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

eppieguy · February 8, 2021

Your truck can do it in my opinion, but you are close to it's limits and with inclines and declines I'd feel much better if I were in a 3/4 ton with better brakes, I'm not concerned about suspension, brakes are the big thing in my opinion.

Just my .02

Supercup · February 8, 2021

On 2/4/2021 at 10:02 PM, Londart2020 said:

Oh also the 6.8-7.2 MPG sucked towing. I expect the Duramax to do much better...

I am surprised by how poor your mileage was towing. I have seen as low as 4.5 mpg pushing hard with big load going up steep hill, but overall tow cycles are in the 8.2 to 9.6 range. Can you tell us how much your trailer weighs, how tall, type of towing terrain,- over mountains - head wind and your typical towing speed - other factors that may have impacted that.

I only ask as I had a 2019 AT4 - 6.2 10 speed - towed about 10k miles with that and now have a 2020 AT4 (6.2 10 speed with tow mirrors) and have towed about 4,500 miles with it. The 2019 on a typical trip got 8.2-8.8 mpg - the 2020 on my last two trips (450 miles +/-- round trip) got 9.2 and 9.6 mpg respectively. All towing a 24' Inteck race car trailer (30' overall length) loaded to about 8,500 lbs.

My typical tow loop is from Orange County to Sand Dunes (Gordon's Well - south end of Glamis) and back - which includes up and over a 4,200 foot grade over and back (about 50 miles of the trip is up and down in the mountains), there is aways wind in the mountains and often a head wind the last 5 miles out of the desert before you head up the mountain.

Londart2020 · February 9, 2021

6 hours ago, Supercup said:

I am surprised by how poor your mileage was towing. I have seen as low as 4.5 mpg pushing hard with big load going up steep hill, but overall tow cycles are in the 8.2 to 9.6 range. Can you tell us how much your trailer weighs, how tall, type of towing terrain,- over mountains - head wind and your typical towing speed - other factors that may have impacted that.

I only ask as I had a 2019 AT4 - 6.2 10 speed - towed about 10k miles with that and now have a 2020 AT4 (6.2 10 speed with tow mirrors) and have towed about 4,500 miles with it. The 2019 on a typical trip got 8.2-8.8 mpg - the 2020 on my last two trips (450 miles +/-- round trip) got 9.2 and 9.6 mpg respectively. All towing a 24' Inteck race car trailer (30' overall length) loaded to about 8,500 lbs.

My typical tow loop is from Orange County to Sand Dunes (Gordon's Well - south end of Glamis) and back - which includes up and over a 4,200 foot grade over and back (about 50 miles of the trip is up and down in the mountains), there is aways wind in the mountains and often a head wind the last 5 miles out of the desert before you head up the mountain.

It's a 29' TT it's about 10'6" tall that weights in at about 7700lbs + passengers+150lb of dogs. It was from Oregon to Montana so there was a bit of mountain towing. Don't recall too much wind.