Jump to content

Towing at the limit

nominion
 Share

Recommended Posts

newdude Senior Enthusiast

newdude

Posted
Posted (edited)
16 hours ago, nominion said:

Would the weight of the driver be included in the payload calculations or should it be excluded, up to 150 lbs?  For example, if I weighed 150 lbs, would I or would I not add that to the weight of the cargo that subtracts from available payload?  How about a full tank of fuel?

 

I went and drove a few 3/4 ton trucks today.  To get something optioned like my current truck....yikes.  Also, while nice, I don't know if I can justify trading up to tow a trailer a half dozen times per year.  It would be a daily driver and the mileage is likely going to be 12 MPG, maybe 14 MPG if I'm lucky.  

 

I may go with a lighter trailer.  Something with a dry weight of 5800 lbs and tongue weight of 600 lbs, before cargo.  I would think that would be manageable.  

 

 

GM does payload as wet weight minus cargo, accessories and occupants.  So if your payload is 2000lbs, that's full fluids with you not in the truck.  The 150lbs driver calculation is used by GM for VYU plow prep plow weight allowed specs and not for payload.

 

Quote

Maximum payload capacity includes weight of driver, passengers, optional equipment and cargo.

 

So 2000lbs minus your weight and any passenger weights.  If you are 200lbs, that leaves you with 1800lbs.  

 

In the end of the day, the goal is to not exceed the GCWR so truck, gear, people and trailer TOTAL can't exceed 15,000lbs if that's what your GCWR is.    

 

If the #s on the first page of 7198lbs truck and 7826lbs trailer are correct, as is your 15,000 GCWR, you are already overweight in the driveway.  The best thing you can do is load up everything you would put in the truck (including people) and a full tank of fuel and head to the nearest CAT scale and weigh the truck.  You will then know what payload you have remaining.    

Edited by newdude
  • Like 1
  • Replies 89
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

JimCost2014
JimCost2014

No, one thing that you can never replace is a life, yours, family, or an innocent victim if things go wrong.   At the limits, your truck will never respond like it does without a load or tra

ic3man5
ic3man5

Amsoil is my choice in everything also. I usually cheap out if I don't plan on running it for a long time or I know the engine will last forever even if you piss in the oil tank. I've actually been ru

diyer2
diyer2

I'm not trying to start an oil debate. And no need to get turn to foul language. According to the testing Rat performed in your link, Amsoil rated number 4 and 5 for wear. That's my point. 

Posted Images

UnlimitedMatt Enthusiast

UnlimitedMatt

Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, YukonXL04 said:

Is it the dual bar setup? I have the only 2 bar with chains and a separate sway bar and I don't love it, so looking for something better but have read mixed reviews on just about all the hitches.

Yea my uncle would follow me in his 5.3/6spd 2017 , I was towing and usually around 173-180, and he was running 195-200 with no load. So I figured the 8spd just runs cooler

Not sure what a dual bar setup is, but mine has a square bar on each side of the hitch.  Along with the weight distributing, they also help reduce the sway. 

UnlimitedMatt Enthusiast

UnlimitedMatt

Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, Boomer5455 said:
  On 3/22/2021 at 10:06 AM, UnlimitedMatt said:

Like everyone else said, it would be easier/better/safer with a bigger truck.  That being said, I tow my 32', 7900 pound (fully loaded) camper with my 2018 Silverado (with the same set up as yours).  The only limit I am close to when I tow is my trucks payload, which is 1662 pounds.

 

I have made a few modifications to my truck to help it tow better: deleted transmission thermostat, reprogrammed my electric fans, LT tires, rear air bags and GM factory towing mirrors.  

 

I am always towing at high elevations and I never tow over 65 mph.  My truck does fine although my towing mileage is low, 6-8 mpg on average.

Truck_Camper.jpg

Hey Matt is that a 2600RB ? Looks like my set-up.

041.jpg

They are very similar but mine is the 2800bh.  The Grand Design website says the 2800 is 2 feet longer than the 2600.  I would have gotten the 2600 but we always have others camping with us.

 

What kind of mpg do you get while towing?

Boomer5455 New Member

Boomer5455

Posted
Posted

When I tow it weights a round 6400lbs. I converted and tuned my truck to run on gas (93) and E85 so on E85 it will get a round 8.7-9.5mpg. On gas 9.9-11.5mpg depending on grades, but it pulls really great !! I didn't see it at first, I see the strip at the rear of the slide, dah ! LOL

YukonXL04 Enthusiast

YukonXL04

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, UnlimitedMatt said:

Not sure what a dual bar setup is, but mine has a square bar on each side of the hitch.  Along with the weight distributing, they also help reduce the sway. 

That's what I meant, the square bar setup. I think I'll try that on my next camper. It's a 279rb, so about the same size as yours.

Capt Bob Enthusiast

Capt Bob

Posted
Posted

The 5.3 pulls my 22MLE quite well. I did a trans thermo pill flip and changed out the water thermo to a 174 degree. Heading out west next month so I'll see what differences they make.

 

22MLE resized.jpg

  • Like 1
UnlimitedMatt Enthusiast

UnlimitedMatt

Posted
Posted
22 hours ago, Capt Bob said:

The 5.3 pulls my 22MLE quite well. I did a trans thermo pill flip and changed out the water thermo to a 174 degree. Heading out west next month so I'll see what differences they make.

 

22MLE resized.jpg

Nice set up!  What is the length and weight of your camper?  Also what mpg do you get while towing?

 

P.S.  I forgot to mention in my original post that I also changed to the 174 degree thermostat.

swathdiver Senior Enthusiast

swathdiver

Posted
Posted
On 3/19/2021 at 10:38 PM, nominion said:

Tow Vehicle Info

 

2018 GMC Sierra 1500 SLT Crew Cab Short Box


Curb Weight:    5695 lbs

Cargo Weight:    225 lbs (26 gallons of fuel, hitch, misc. stuff)

Curb weight includes a full tank of fuel.

Capt Bob Enthusiast

Capt Bob

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 3/26/2021 at 11:31 AM, UnlimitedMatt said:

Nice set up!  What is the length and weight of your camper?  Also what mpg do you get while towing?

 

P.S.  I forgot to mention in my original post that I also changed to the 174 degree thermostat.

IIRC the 22 is 26'-10" LOA

Last trip she weighed 6458#.

TV loaded with full tank of fuel was 6000#

It tows and handles very nice.

MPG hovers around 7 to 7.5

Edited by Capt Bob
nominion Enthusiast

nominion

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Problem solved. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a Sierra 2500 with the features I wanted at a price I was willing to pay. 3/4 trucks are in high demand right now. I had at least 5 trucks sell before I could get to a dealer to drive them. 

PXL_20210327_191809440.jpg

Edited by nominion
swathdiver Senior Enthusiast

swathdiver

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, pokismoki said:

whats an NHT

That is the Maximum Towing Package and in a previous generation, GMT900, came with the 6.2 motor, 3.73 gears and the increased capacity cooling system with an engine oil cooler and external transmission cooler.  It has an extra leaf in the rear spring pack bringing the rear axle rating from 3950 to 4200 pounds.  The K2s are similar though I do not know what gears they used.  Towing capacity is 10,400 to almost 11,000 pounds for the RWD models.  The K2s were rated even higher if memory serves.

nominion Enthusiast

nominion

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Towing capacity was not the concern, it's the payload capacity of the truck. In my case it was 1,505 lbs which I was going to surpass. That's going to be the limiting factor in a lot of situations. I don't know if the NHT package increases payload capacity though. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by nominion
Fixing spelling error
dieselfan1 Senior Enthusiast

dieselfan1

Posted
Posted
Why didn't anyone mention the NHTs?  They tow over 10K pounds.
Call it what you want, it's still a half ton.


Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Latest Articles

  • Posts

    • Aimatdeer
      Ac not keeping up

      By Aimatdeer · Posted

      Monday looks like a good day for the dealer to test an ac issue. Hopefully it all turns out good.
    • CamGTP
      Gas Prices

      By CamGTP · Posted

      Paid $2.72 for E85 today.
    • Atlas
      Gas Prices

      By Atlas · Posted

      Welcome back! No, it definitely doesn't pass the sniff test. Even "ceasefire" needs an alternative definition these days.    $5.29 at Kroger today
    • bluev8
      Intermittent no-code issues on 2022.5+ V8 trucks — what did the shop fail to capture?

      By bluev8 · Posted

      That makes sense, and I think you are describing the real product problem. Capturing data is the easy part. If the owner or technician has to manually dig through five minutes of millisecond-level logs, the product has already failed. The device would be at the ECM harness, not at the OBD port, so I agree that data retrieval and event marking need to be thought through carefully. The way I am thinking about the architecture is: The recorder itself should not depend on a phone, app, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or cloud connection to capture the event. It should always keep a local rolling buffer and lock the event locally. A button, phone app, or small cabin device would only act as an event marker. If the driver feels a stumble and presses the button 10–30 seconds later, the pre-buffer has to already contain the useful data. For data retrieval, the practical options would be a sealed service USB lead, Wi-Fi download, or a phone/cabin companion device. I would not expect the owner to remove the ECM-side module or work with raw files directly. The cloud or AI side would be for interpretation, not for capturing the event. The truck may have no connection when the issue happens, so the evidence has to be saved locally first. After that, cloud processing could help decode the data, compare it against baselines, and generate a readable report. For the first version, I would keep the automatic triggers conservative and objective: driver event marker bus-off error passive voltage drop / brownout device reset FIFO or queue overflow a normally periodic message disappearing side-to-side communication mismatch, if the topology supports that For “learning normal,” I agree with your point, but I would not want to overclaim it as automatic root-cause diagnosis at first. A realistic first step would be learned baseline comparison for that specific vehicle and operating condition. For example, a value would only be compared against similar conditions: RPM range load / MAP throttle position gear / vehicle speed coolant and oil temperature battery voltage AFM/DFM state, if decoded and validated Then the report could flag things like: this periodic message disappeared compared with its normal timing this value deviated from this vehicle’s normal range under similar conditions the same abnormal pattern repeated after the same type of event the anomaly occurred together with voltage, oil-pressure, misfire, or communication changes But I would still call that “abnormal pattern detected,” not “replace this part,” unless there is enough validated repair data behind it. So the intended product would not be “here is a huge log.” It would need to be an event package: what triggered the capture how much pre/post data was preserved what changed before and after the event whether the device itself reset, overflowed, or saw a bus error selected graphs around the event raw data only as supporting evidence From your perspective, what would make this kind of report useful instead of just another datalog? For example: What are the top 5 parameters or events you would want highlighted first? Would you trust a learned baseline for that specific vehicle, or would you prefer fixed thresholds? How much false-positive flagging would be acceptable before you stopped looking at the reports? What would a one-page report need to show for an independent shop to take it seriously? For misfire, AFM/DFM, oil pressure, or U-code complaints, what would you want the tool to flag automatically?
    • scotthvac.net
      2022-24 halogen - led grille swap

      By scotthvac.net · Posted

      2024 Silverado 2500 HD LTZ grille no camera Parts list   84603331 84913656 84913657 84913654 84913655 84911567 84911568 85646092 85646093 85797921 85797922   11570637  x10-15   grille/bumper bolts 11546500  x10      grille clips 11571006  x10      push/retainer clips 11546454  x6       nut retainers 11611609  x6       M5 bolts 11610700  x6       molding/trim retainers

  • GM-Trucks.com Clubs

  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...