Towing heavy for long distance with a 5.3

dieselfan1 · October 6, 2020

I towed my Travel trailer 800 miles from Minnesota to Wyoming .

My daughter moved to Wyoming and I took all of her stuff in my travel trailer. I have a 1300 lb. cargo rating and I weighed each box as I loaded. I thought I was around 1100 lbs in the trailer and 500 in the back of truck..

I was off . The trailer weight was 6600+.

Trailer is a 2004 Hornet 25FL.

25 ft long.

Towing with my stock 2018 dbl cab 5.3 3.42 6 spd.

Tried to keep it around 65-67 mph . Never saw 6th gear.

Mostly 5th @2200 rpm .

Hills required 4th gear 2800-3000 rpm . On the steep hills 3rd gear 60 mph 3500 rpm.

She warmed up on the long hills to around 225°. Tranny stayed around 190°. Now the bad. I averaged 9mpg .

I wouldn't even try towing anything heavier than this much weight with a 1/2 ton for long distance. The 5.3 just don't have enough ass on them long grades unless you are above 3000 rpm. It did get the job done though.

800 miles ,12 hours behind the wheel and I was not that tired. The truck rode great and handled the load just fine. Just need more ponies under the hood.

Anything heavier I'm looking for a new truck. A 3/4 ton.

The ride home should be way easier. Not as many long grades and way lighter

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Edited October 6, 2020 by dieselfan1

dieselfan1 · October 6, 2020

BTW

Wyoming is Dodge country. Big time. I've never seen such a concentration of one make of trucks.

If you're not rolling in a big Cummins with Ranchhand bumpers, you're just a tourist.

These cowboys would just laugh at my lifted truck.

Colossus · October 7, 2020

Just a bunch of wanna be cowboys up in Wyoming. Nothing much up there save for Jackson/Jackson Hole/Star Valley that is worth a damn. Otherwise it's one of the most boring states out there. Almost as bad as Kansas.

Wait.. I mean!!!

swathdiver · October 7, 2020

16 hours ago, dieselfan1 said:

I towed my Travel trailer 800 miles from Minnesota to Wyoming .

My daughter moved to Wyoming and I took all of her stuff in my travel trailer. I have a 1300 lb. cargo rating and I weighed each box as I loaded. I thought I was around 1100 lbs in the trailer and 500 in the back of truck..

I was off . The trailer weight was 6600+.

Trailer is a 2004 Hornet 25FL.

25 ft long.

Towing with my stock 2018 dbl cab 5.3 3.42 6 spd.

Tried to keep it around 65-67 mph . Never saw 6th gear.

Mostly 5th @2200 rpm .

Hills required 4th gear 2800-3000 rpm . On the steep hills 3rd gear 60 mph 3500 rpm.

She warmed up on the long hills to around 225°. Tranny stayed around 190°. Now the bad. I averaged 9mpg .

I wouldn't even try towing anything heavier than this much weight with a 1/2 ton for long distance. The 5.3 just don't have enough ass on them long grades unless you are above 3000 rpm. It did get the job done though.

800 miles ,12 hours behind the wheel and I was not that tired. The truck rode great and handled the load just fine. Just need more ponies under the hood.

Anything heavier I'm looking for a new truck. A 3/4 ton.

The ride home should be way easier. Not as many long grades and way lighter

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Weren't you over your rear axle's GRAWR? For argument's sake, a little more weight moved to the rear of the trailer would have taken a couple hundred pounds off the rear axle while still maintaining good manners. Then again, maybe not, you tell me? You're doing it, I'm thinking about in my chair! LOL

dieselfan1 · October 7, 2020

I was over by 180 lbs on the rear axle of the truck I was at least 500-600over on the trailer axles.
I adjusted the hitch where I usually put it , tested it , then I took one more link. Then I weighed it.
Then I moved some of the stuff in trailer to the rear to take some weight off the tongue.
It wasn't that bad except for the mpg. The truck drove great.

As far as the wanna be cowboys. They are as real as it gets. Tough as nails SOB's. The earn there money out on the ranches that are huge. Maybe not as big as Texas but the same deal. This area may be boring to some but compared to where I live in Minnesota the mountains alone are worth the trip . And the steak dinner I had last night was top shelf.

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Edited October 7, 2020 by dieselfan1

dieselfan1 · October 9, 2020

Update.
Drove back today into a 20-30 mph headwind.
Brutal.
60mph tops. 4th gear 2700-2800 rpm all the way. The big hills I slowed down to 55 with 3rd gear 3300-3500 rpm and let it eat. And did it eat . I averaged 6.7 mpg. I was stopping for gas every 140 miles. Sad.
So to all the guys that say they tow their loaded toyhauler 75 mph and get 13mpg . You full of
$hit. I already knew you were but this confirms that.

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swathdiver · October 12, 2020

On 10/7/2020 at 9:04 AM, dieselfan1 said:

I was over by 180 lbs on the rear axle of the truck I was at least 500-600over on the trailer axles.
I adjusted the hitch where I usually put it , tested it , then I took one more link. Then I weighed it.
Then I moved some of the stuff in trailer to the rear to take some weight off the tongue.
It wasn't that bad except for the mpg. The truck drove great.

As far as the wanna be cowboys. They are as real as it gets. Tough as nails SOB's. The earn there money out on the ranches that are huge. Maybe not as big as Texas but the same deal. This area may be boring to some but compared to where I live in Minnesota the mountains alone are worth the trip . And the steak dinner I had last night was top shelf.

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That's gorgeous, hope to see that someday. We like to play by the ratings but we also know they can pull over them when called upon! You proved that. One word of caution, keep the fluid clean in the transmission. I towed locally for about a week's worth of time in 36K miles and my fluid only had about 10K of life left in it according to Blackstone Labs. Something to keep in mind anyway.

KARNUT · October 13, 2020

Update.
Drove back today into a 20-30 mph headwind.
Brutal.
60mph tops. 4th gear 2700-2800 rpm all the way. The big hills I slowed down to 55 with 3rd gear 3300-3500 rpm and let it eat. And did it eat . I averaged 6.7 mpg. I was stopping for gas every 140 miles. Sad.
So to all the guys that say they tow their loaded toyhauler 75 mph and get 13mpg . You full of
$hit. I already knew you were but this confirms that.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

When I use to haul my tractors with 3/4-1tons. I stop in the late 90s. I got 4 miles per gal. They were heavy and had full cabs. I always had extra fuel tanks. They had pulling gears. Diesel would be close to redline at cruising speed. Gas around 3K at cruising speed. Pulling vehicles have come a long way.

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