4.3L K1500 Towing Capacity?

"Making it" to the ramp shouldn't be your primary consideration. You can make it, but the problem would be the trucks ability to stop and wear and tear on the engine/tranny. If you ask too much, it will let you down. I towed with a 4 cyl Toyota for about 4 years. It would make the boat go but forget making a panic stop. It was more like a panic slide by. The boat could push the truck wherever it wanted to, especially if the truck was also trying to turn. You at least have the weight of a real truck but at 6500 lbs you will destroy the engine and tranny in short time.

That 4.10 rear will pretty much save your engine and transmission. Does the trailer have brakes? Will you be using an equilizer hitch? If you answered yes to the above questions, I would try it. Lynn

The 4.10 won't save anything at all. Did you notice the 33/12.50 tires he is running? Except for rolling resistance, he about broke even there, but not quite.

what year is it?? if it's a 99 or newer, (not sure what the "K" means, sorry) you can check it at Trailer Life Mag. towing guide... They list max by engine, tranny & gearing, but you're still going to have to figure out the effect of the oversized tires..

I looked into changing the gearing on my 01 dakota to raise the towing weight... 3:55 is max 5,150 but 3.:9 is 6,450# The problem as it was explained to me by the folks on the RV forum was that the truck could PULL more dead weight, but the gearing didn't change the size, weight, suspension or wheelbase of the truck, so we went with a bigger truck instead of changing gearing in the mid-sized..

Mac

Yeah, If I remember right, a 3.73 or so would have put me about back at about stock ratio's to compensate for the tire size, but I decided to overshoot with the 4.10's to give me some extra for the rolling resistance. Isn't the transmission (4L60E) the same one they'd put behind a 350 in the same truck? I wasn't so much worried about the transmission as I was the engine overheating. Someone asked... the truck is a 1994 model, but it's got all new U-Joints, rearend gears, bearings, springs, and shocks.

The trailer would of course have breaks and tandem axles (not sure about tongue load though). I don't have a hitch on the truck, but I would indeed be looking into a weight distributing hitch.

-NW

That 8000 is GCW (Gross combined Weight). GVW is Gross Vehicle Weight, the actual weight of the vehicle.

Depending on your engine your 89 could have trailer tow ratings from

6500 to 11000 pounds. It would most likely not have trouble with the boat. My 9200 GCW with the Diesel is rated up to 12000 pound trailer or 15500 fifth wheel (22000 GCWR).

However, with that 4.3L the rating is at most 5500 pounds. Probably break down on the first trip.

yes and no, the 4l60E behind a V6 will get less clutches/steels than one behind a V8. there also may be different programming in the ECM for the trans.

-Bret

Ummm, no... the Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating is the max allowable weight of a vehicle AND trailer.. it is usually lower than the GVWR plus the tow rating. the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating is the maximum allowed weight of the vehicle, including cargo. actual weight is quite a bit less. take my 88 K2500... weighs 5000lbs, has a GVWR of

7200lbs and a max tow rating of 9,000lbs. I don't know what the GCVWR rating is, but I'm assuming it's about 14,300lbs (GVWR [7200] + (MAX trailering[9000] - cargo rating [1900lbs])

-Bret

The 4L60 is not a great tranny but it is as good as larger engined

1500's. It is what I have. The problem is that it is going to be working much harder to keep the lesser engine's power going to the wheels. Much more shifting involved with the smaller engine and shifting makes heat and wear and even more so at higher rpm's.

I'm new to towing (got trailer in Nov.) and had NO idea what a WD hitch was or how it worked... The 1st time they put the trailer on the truck and the truck sagged almost a foot, we thought we needed air bags or overloads... Then, they showed us how the WD bars went on, and the truck leveled right out... mind blowing if you were as newbie as we were... Even an entry level wd hitch like our Husky makes towing so easy... no sway at all..

Mac

Yeah, I got something messed up there (as usual). However, I don't think there is a GCVWR rating.

The GCW (Gross Combined Weight) covers that: The total weight of everthing, tow vehicle and trailer. Then they have the GCWR, the maximum allowed GCW.

GVW being the actual weight of a vehicle and GVWR being the maximum allowed GVW for a vehicle.

Hope I got that right.

Just checked a couple places:

Where did you get this wd hitch for your vehicle?

We got it from the RV dealer here in Central Calif. where we bought our RV, but Husky and many other brands have web sites... Uhaul also installs them at some locations..

here's one, and a pretty good example of how they look and work..

Mac

so the part of the hitch that attaches to the truck is normal- just a drawbar. It's the part that is on the trailer that matters?

It's normal as far as it's a standard receiver hitch... the receiver that slides in is way different than the usual straight or drop bar, though.. It has height adjustment on it, and the sockets for the WD bars..

Mac

Gotcha. I will look into it.

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