how much can my truck pull

IMHO I think that you'd be ok as long as you keep it out of OD and you might think of gettting a brake controller. but you should be ok as far as im concerned. take your trucks capabilties conseritave and you'll be ok.

mudmonkey found these unused words:

At that weight, he'll have to have a brake controller, period!

Right!

My only real worries would be the extra forces and starting torque due to the 35's.

I was amazed at the differences when I took my 4.0 powered Jeep from

30's to 32's.

Some sort of overload springs are called for, or a complete replacement of the rears with something beefier. The Taco is "loaded" with 500# on the bed, which translates to even less on the hitch. Unless you want to see the tail wag the dog, look at some springs.

And that link says 3,500 without, 5,000 with towing package. The critical part of a towing package is an added automatic transmission cooler - you HAVE to have the transmission cooler, period. And you will need an electric brake control for the trailer brakes.

Most towing packages come with many of these features, whatever the auto maker thinks needs to be upgraded: a more aggressive cooling fan clutch, an oversized radiator, larger alternator (20 amps more output to cover the trailer light and brake loads), larger battery, and the factory wiring built in for the trailer lights and the trailer brake controller.

All these other things can be done aftermarket on an "As Needed" basis - but if you drive conservatively and watch your gauges you probably won't need them. If you have a problem like overheating, first thing is you spot the temperature starting to go high on a long uphill grade pull and back off further *Before* "Old Faithful" goes off... Creep up the hill loafing along in first gear over with the Semi's if you have to. Then you upgrade the system at the first opportunity.

For the alternator you may have to practice power management if the stock unit can't /quite/ keep up. When driving at night when the headlights are on you need to take it easy running all the electronic gee-gaws like the Ham Radio, CB and the killer stereo system.

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First, the brake controler is even more important than some realize here. THis is because bigger tires reduce vehcles brake effectiveness because of the increased leverage that larger diameter tires have over brakes so they have to work a lot harder and fade sooner. Next, even

4.88 are not much gear with 35 and a small V6 and towing. First the engine has to work harder moving vehicle because of extra drag from lift and tires and then it has less pulling power at ground level because of tire size. Last there is another issue that many ignore and that is the hitch assembly. WIth a lift you have to use a offset hitch in reciever and that actually reduces hitch capacty because of additional offest forces placed on hitch because of its extension and drop from receiver center line which places more strain on hicth and vehicle frame. If you really want to tow a 4K trailer with your truck, you need to either install small tires, install deeper gears and install a Class 4 reciever to be able to better deal with of axis hitch loads. Then there is going to be potentail stabilty issues because on your trucks higher CG and trailer weighing the same or more than your truck. Sure you might get by but there is getting by and doing it right and as it stands you cannot do it right. You really need a bigger truck or smaller tires on current truck to do this safer. Oh, I forgot to mention the extra strain on heat on ring and pinion from big tires and towing. If you really want to tow with it. get a popup type and limit it to 2000 to 2500 lbs max if you want to try to be "safe" in current configuration.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

Good points but with a lift and big tires factory tow package "ratings" go right out the window.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

"Bonehenge (B A R R Y)" found these unused words:

Won't do any 'wheelies', eh?

You got that right!

I wouldn't say 'out the window', but they would have to be factored in. The taller rear end gears swapped in will make up for the acceleration part of the ratings.

Where the bigger tires will have the biggest effect is on the braking - the OP might have to go to a more aggressive brake pad compound, or switch over to 4-piston calipers and vented rotors from a newer truck if something fits.

(Don't worry about the rear brakes, they're mostly for decoration and the parking brake. The front brakes do all the heavy work.)

And the trailer brakes are double important, and easier to upgrade to take more of the load themselves - many small two-axle trailers only come with brakes on one axle, add them to the other axle.

Cornering loads are easily handled by Slowing The Hell Down, and by not disconnecting the sway bars.

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thinking about going down to 33's with 4.88 gears just for towing my camper to the beach 3 hours away. I 'm not towing day in and day out. Maybe on a good year maybe 8 trips a year. less than 3 hours away. If i was towing alot I would have went to a v8. I mean is that alot of towing. Im not towing across america.

285/75r16 tires on my factory rims just only when i tow my 3800 pound camper to the beach. That would help out on my braking

They do go out the window. Deeper gear will restore some pulling power but lifts change CG, pulling height and strain on chassis, axles and bearing.

Bigger pads are not going to fix this because breal work by friction which makes heat and heat must be removed from brakes. This is done two ways, first the mass of the rotor or drum and then the slipstream air flow. (brakes depend on thermal mass for fast hard stops) Increase pad friction and clamping reduces the time required to over heat the mass in brakes and canmake then fade sooner and increase the likelyhood of warpage too (brakes convert motion into heat via friction) To fix this you need to increase diameter and area of braking surface and the mass of the rotor or drum. Toyota recongnized this with new 07 tundra and increased the diameter and mass of the brake on it.

You are kinda clueless here huh. Rear brakes are VERY important when you tow and why do you think 3/4 and 1 ton P/U's have massive rear brakes if the front does all the work? I have a GM K3500 and the rear brakes on it are massive with 13 inch drums nearly 4 inches wide.

Sometimes it is desirable to have only one axle in a tandum setup with brakes on it (two in a tri axle setup) "if" tow vehicle has proper brakes on it too in that if you lock one axle up (or two in a tri axle) in a panic manuver you do not loose direction control of trailer because one axle is still rolling. Most heavier trailer suffer from too light a axle because 2500 and 3500 lb axles have generally pretty weak brakes anyway. When you get up to 5200 lb alxe and above they have some pretty serious brakes themselves.

Not easily at all because the higher CG and the required hitch offset for lift reduces the amount of deflection torque on tow ball that can be safely disapated in tow vehicle.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

This would be a step in right direction and give you more of a safety margin too. Do run rear tires at or near max pressure when towing. Also load trailer so that at least 10% of total weight is on hitch ball (15% max) for better stabilty and control and add a leaf to rear if need be to handle hitch weight load properly. You might even consider a equalizing hitch on your LD truck.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com