Towing

So, I have a 2004 Tahoe Z71 5.3L with 156k. I am looking to possibly get one of two travel trailers that has a gross weight of 4500-5300 pounds. I would like to keep the Tahoe, but I'm afraid of not being able to pull that much weight up any incline or mountain. Is there anything I can do to help out the towing or do I need to upgrade to a diesel?

3.73 to a 4.11 should help alot.Gas mileage will plumet.

Yes, get something newer, with less miles and a towing package..

I have 3.73 gears now in the Tahoe and the towing package. Been looking a maybe a 2006 2500HD with decent Mileage. New or anywhere couple years older is still way to expensive. Thanks for the ideas

Bigbertha78 said:

So, I have a 2004 Tahoe Z71 5.3L with 156k. I am looking to possibly get one of two travel trailers that has a gross weight of 4500-5300 pounds. I would like to keep the Tahoe, but I'm afraid of not being able to pull that much weight up any incline or mountain. Is there anything I can do to help out the towing or do I need to upgrade to a diesel?

Click to expand...

Do you have a 3.42 gear or 3.73s? Ok, I see an update. Ok, your maximum trailer weight is 7,700 pounds and GCWR is 14,000 pounds. You can do it but will have more maintenance with an older truck, probably need a trans overhaul more sooner than later.

I don't tow a travel trailer, but tow a boat on long road trips frequently. Unfortunately I have 3.42 gears. It does ok, not great. Since you have tow package you probably have factory trans cooler which is a must. I'm a little under powered on the steepest grades, but get by otherwise. If I had the money I would regear or own a diesel.

If you aren't running a performance tune from BB or similar that should help a bit too if you decide to continue with the hoe.

I wouldn't worry about a 5300lb travel trailer. The Tahoe will do it fine. Just keep up with the trans fluid changes, don't let it slip in 4th, and you'll be fine. If you think it's needed, get a WDH for more stability.

I don't tow that often, but I'll hook up a 5500lb car trailer to mine 5-6 times in the summer months. No WDH set up but I also don't have access to that trailer anymore.

If you`re asking about towing up an incline or a mountain i`ll assume you either live in or plan to travel to hilly mountainous areas. If that`s the case i would look for a better tow vehicle. I tow my 6x12 trailer with a 1200 pound utv on it for a total of about 2100 pounds with two passengers three large dogs and about 3-400 pounds of crap in the back to our place in central NY and the entire trip is like a roller coaster, Up and down hills the whole way and it is constantly kicking down on the hills and the trans heats up quickly and to be honest there is no way i would tow that much weight unless it was on mostly flat roads. I like my truck too much for that. It might be rated to tow that much but it sure wont be happy about it.

My yukon has 3:42 gears 275/55/20 tires, Exhaust intake and a blackbear tune which helped a little. What really hurt it was going to 20 inch wheels but it looks too good to switch back to 16`s.

Pulled this thing every winter weekend for many years. In many cases when no one else wanted to be out.
No problems, it just loved the gas because of the wind resistance.

(I'm have a new trailer being built this week that will be 6 feet longer)

That 2002 Tahoe had the 3.73 gears that came with the tow package.

My 2014 Tahoe also has the tow package, but has 3.42 gears.

Everyone seems to forget that the transmission ratio is different when they went to the 6 speed,
and keep looking at the rear end ratio instead of the trans.

You have 4 under-drive gears now instead of two.

1 3.059
2 1.625
3 1.000
4 0.696

1 4.027
2 2.364
3 1.532
4 1.152
5 0.852
6 0.667

Right, the 6-speeds have a 2.91 final drive in 5th gear and 2.28 in 6th while the 4-speeds have 2.60 with a 3.73 gear or 2.38 with the 3.42.