truck for towing curious ?'s

[brans87]

Not in market yet but wanna ask a few Full size truck ?'s for you guy's that tow your rigs and anything else of weight. I wanna find something when time is right that can pull my 87 K5 with 14 bolt etc. Biggest thing might ever carry would be bobcat if we move to MN and need it cause my wife's dad has one on the farm. For most part the K5 would get towed say 3 times year and also have Chevelle in garage and 67 C10. So will a 06 chevy 1500 body style be able to pull this safely and do ok in all type terrain?

 

[vandelay industries]

Um, minimum truck to tow that kind of weight is 3/4 ton or 2500 series.

Personally, i would forget about the notion of a 1/2 ton truck towing anything like that. But that's just my opinion.

 

[rjfguitar]

Average Blazer with big axles weighs around 5200lbs, a small tandem axle trailer, another 2K. Most of today's 1/2 ton pickups can safely tow 7K, assuming it's not a reg cab short bed.

 

[K85 Octane]

Ext cab short bed or something with a long bed. If it's occasional towing, 1/2 is fine, but if it's more than occasional I'd step up to a 3/4 ton. If it's once a week kinda thing...diesel.

 

[wetoolowdingbangow]

Ext cab short bed or something with a long bed. If it's occasional towing, 1/2 is fine, but if it's more than occasional I'd step up to a 3/4 ton. If it's once a week kinda thing...diesel.

Exactly. I tow my one ton k5 with my tundra and its not bad at all. It would be better with a diesel sure but for as much as I tow it works for now.

I cant tell you how many times ive seen a regular tahoe towing a 24 foot or better trailer saggin booty on the freeway. probably not a fun ride but half tons can do great towing. If your making hauls in the mountains id go bigger.

 

[76zimmer]

1500HD sure, same as the pre HD 2500's...6.0/4L80E/3.73's decent combination.
Or the Vortec max package would do good.
One issue is getting a trailer heavy duty enough to haul the load...a 7K trailer is borderline with a fullsize on it, so if going any distance or frequency, you step up to a 10K trailer..now your trailer weight has increased by another 1000-1500lbs over the 7K trailer and your now pulling 8500-10000lbs instead of 6500-7500lbs.

 

[76k5blazerr]

This is how I think about it... A half ton truck will tow the loads you talked about, most of them have towing capacities of 10,000 pounds or a little less if you get a 4x4, so it will pull what you want to pull but you'll have it "maxed out". A 3/4 though will pull a load like that all day long and will also live longer because it hasn't been pulling loads that meet its max capacitys for its whole life.

 

[6.2Blazer]

My '90 K5 with 3/4 ton axles, 35's on steel wheels, and some tools and spare parts hit the scales at 6k lbs. My 18' car hauler trailer is rated at 10k and weighs almost 2,500 lbs. empty, and my buddy also has an 18' 10k trailer that weighs that much empty. People use a 7k trailer all the time to haul that type of weight but they are overloaded and I do not recommend it.

My tow rig is an '03 2500HD CCSB 6.0L auto truck that I bought new and have hauled my K5 around all over the place. Handling is rock steady and I feel comfortable driving the same way whether empty or loaded...I'm not a hotrod driver but the point is I don't feel the need to drive at slower speeds or take curves slower because the load affects the handling any. I did recently borrow my dad's '07 Chevy 1500 (ECSB 4x4, 5.3L, towing package, Z71, etc.....basically as high of tow rating as you can get) when my truck was down for repairs. I pulled a 6,000 lb. vehicle on my trailer and it was not a comfortable experience at all. The power and brakes were okay (dual trailer brakes) but it had a lot of sway and just felt unstable the whole time. Really didn't feel comfortable going over about 60 mph on the freeway, where as I've hit 80 before with my 2500HD (don't worry, there were no bus full of nuns in sight!).

 

[dremu]

I'll add another data point, from which you can draw your own conclusion.

My tow rig (aka second DD and general purpose vehicle) is a 2014 F-150. It's a 2WD ext-cab shortbed with their heaviest 6-lug tow package, such as that is, which gives it a GVWR of 7500#, GCWR of 16,900# and a "max loaded trailer weight" of 11,300#. The 3.5L Ecoboost is rated at like 375hp and 420tq.

I've pulled my Blazer on a two-wheel dolly with brakes, quite happily and safely. It will go up hills, albeit not speedily, and brakes like the Blazer isn't there. It will, not, however, go much above 60MPH, between wanting more power and the Blazer bouncing about. That works fine for me, as the limit is 55MPH for towing most everywhere anyway, and I don't tow the Blazer often. When I do, I drive in the slow lane and get there when I get there. No rush.

For towing I wouldn't mind a SuperDuty with more motor, but I can't justify it for how rarely I'd need it. The rest of the time I'm good with this, could even have gotten a two-door shortbed (easier to park.) My last truck was a full crewcab, longbed, dually, and while it towed well, it was a pain the rest of the time. Believe it or not, you CAN have too much truck

Point being that you've got a ton of variables to juggle, so it's hard to say yay or nay right off. Figure the tow rig ratings (GVWR/GCWR) against your trailer+rig combo, your terrain and frequency of towing, and your driving style.

-- A