Post up pics, weights, trailer info (make, model, etc), and your hitch/WDH setup if at all possible!
What are you towing with your 3rd gen?
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DieselDrax
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Congrats on the new trailer. Very interested to see how it does over the long haul. Please keep us informed. Thx!
Will do! Txs!
I think this is the worst case I've towed so far:
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A ~2000 lb Suretrac trailer with (based on a standard unit weight) approx. 4400 lbs of concrete sleepers. Tongue weight of a small planet, connected with a BW tow n stow hitch. Fortunately I wasn't going far, the weight was to far forward and the truck was nearly on the bumpstops in the rear. The suspension handled it admirably, and it steered and stopped just fine.
My truck is a 2WD, I mistakenly bought one without the G80 so it has a 6K tow rating instead of 7700.
A ~2000 lb Suretrac trailer with (based on a standard unit weight) approx. 4400 lbs of concrete sleepers. Tongue weight of a small planet, connected with a BW tow n stow hitch. Fortunately I wasn't going far, the weight was to far forward and the truck was nearly on the bumpstops in the rear. The suspension handled it admirably, and it steered and stopped just fine.
My truck is a 2WD, I mistakenly bought one without the G80 so it has a 6K tow rating instead of 7700.
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I putt a Ras suspension on mine helped with squatting alot.
those blocks in the back of the trailer are "4,400ibs of concrete sleepers"? They look like 12"x12"x4' wood blocks? The bottom/tops look like wood grain but I guess that is from the mold the concrete was poured into to form the concrete sleepers/posts/pilings?
Correct, they have a decorative wood grain design cast into the top and sides, but they're all 170-175 lbs each of gut busting concrete. They were in the cosmetic defect pile for a penny a pound, my wife and I got them for a raised garden bed.
No I didn’t.
2024 zr2 pulling my new to me boat. 21ft proline walkaround 2200lbs not including the trailer, from kona to hilo hawaii. Averaging 9-14mpgs depending on terrain.
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that would be considered a "bay boat"? Not sure what the next size category is.
Here in hawaii we fish off shore mostly and alot of times in much small boats like 17ft. This is more then enugh to get out and catch some tuna, Marlin, or wahoo
It has been over 30 years ago, drove completely around the Big Island in a Ford Festiva. What a hoot driving the car, it had a zero to 40 MPH of about 2 1/2 minutes.
As I remember, you couldn't take a direct route across the island, they wouldn't let you take a rental car, had to go around the north side of island from Kona to Hilo with a side trip on a helicopter, then we drove from Hilo around the south side of the island after dark. Road had so many twists and turns, the natives could speed along, I had to slow down for the curves, then wind her back up just in time to hit the next curve. The locals hated me.
Would have been great to have a real vehicle rather than a go-cart for the drive.
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2,229 Posts
We just got back from a 575 mile trip with our 6x10 enclosed utility trailer. Averaged 18 mpg empty with the wind at our backside and about 15 mpg on the return trip with a L shaped sectional, and a gas grill with propane tank, spare tire and a 100 lb floor jack. I used L mode and limited the transmission to 7th gear and averaged about 70 on the highway and stayed at 55 mph and 6th gear on the secondary roads. I still think that an inline 6 with a turbo would have been a better choice and probably get better mpg than the L3B, especially when towing. A few times when passing on the secondary roads I mashed it to the carpet and wished it had more. The trailer was definitely not loaded up that heavy. I am nit-picking but yup, definitely wish it had more.
Getting ready for another trip on Sunday/Monday of around 750 miles. Hauling that stuff to Ohio from WNY State. Maybe stopping by WhiteFeather Meats on the way back home Monday. By far the most tender and flavorful filet mignon we have ever had. Not cheap but cheap meat isn't in the same ballpark.
Truck is very comfortable with the purple seat cushion. The turbo just doesn't care, it wants to run. Easy to do 80+ and not even realize it. Temps were all normal, oil pressure stayed around 28/29 psi.
Just a fyi, I recently watched an in depth YouTube video on the 7.3L Godzilla Ford engine. Great engine but there seems to be a flaw in it. They are starting to fail in numbers. Apparently, the engineers thought that 8 psi of oil pressure was adequate while idling. Camshafts are getting extremely high wear in vehicles that idle all day, like bucket trucks and construction trucks.
Ours is about 22/23 psi when idling and warmed up. Glad it's not 8 psi.
Getting ready for another trip on Sunday/Monday of around 750 miles. Hauling that stuff to Ohio from WNY State. Maybe stopping by WhiteFeather Meats on the way back home Monday. By far the most tender and flavorful filet mignon we have ever had. Not cheap but cheap meat isn't in the same ballpark.
Truck is very comfortable with the purple seat cushion. The turbo just doesn't care, it wants to run. Easy to do 80+ and not even realize it. Temps were all normal, oil pressure stayed around 28/29 psi.
Just a fyi, I recently watched an in depth YouTube video on the 7.3L Godzilla Ford engine. Great engine but there seems to be a flaw in it. They are starting to fail in numbers. Apparently, the engineers thought that 8 psi of oil pressure was adequate while idling. Camshafts are getting extremely high wear in vehicles that idle all day, like bucket trucks and construction trucks.
Ours is about 22/23 psi when idling and warmed up. Glad it's not 8 psi.
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2,229 Posts
Just got back from a Buffalo area to Columbus and back trip. Averaged 13 mpg with the 6x10 enclosed utility trailer. Truck ran great. Never in my life have I seen so much torrential rain. Had the wipers on high and the 4 way flashers on most of the way there and back. Grabbed dinner at Pimanti Brothers in Erie and had a tornado alert. Sky got black and TV's went out. Went back to truck and it was literally sitting in water 6-8" deep. Feet got soaked. But made it home safely.
Wait...you actually did TRUCK THINGS with it???🤣 Glad to hear it went well, and 13mpg is pretty damn good! I lived in Cleveland from '91-'03, and know that route well as we used to go over the Peace Bridge all the time to visit friends in Canada (Eh?). I've seen some CRAZY weather there....but then again, I've seen crazy weather almost everywhere I've lived. Been thru 3 major floods (Thompson Canyon in CO in the '70's, Ridgecrest/China Lake flood in the '80's, and the Front Range flood of 2013. Then there was the tornado that hit the ground within a couple block of me in Denver the day I was riding my new sportbike home (THAT sucked!), or the funnel cloud that formed right over our heads in the outskirts of Cleveland...and then disappeared... That sh!te can get scary real quick, especially if you're out on the road. If I'm ever driving thru Erie again, I'll have to look it up. I miss the good Italian food of the East Coast.
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2,229 Posts
Yeah, we actually came across a rather large group of bikers, 20+, I felt bad for them. I could hardly see with wipers on high and didn't even see them until I was right along side of them.
But yes, I thought 13.5 mpg was good for doing 70+ towing. Only thing that tweaked me pretty good was this : I had all the collision avoidance crap turned off. All of it and I kept checking it every time I restarted the vehicle but yet everytime I had the cruise set, even at the minimum distance, when someone would pass us and pull in front, it would alert and slam on the brakes. THAT IS NOT COOL AND VERY DANGEROUS. People behind would whip out to avoid rear ending us, lay on the horn and flip us the bird when going by us.
I have no idea WTF GM was thinking as far as that's concerned. I ended up just turning off the cruise because it was obnoxious. The malfunction rate is off the charts. Can't say it enough, I am going to try to make this truck last as long as possible but I will never, ever buy another GM product.
But yes, I thought 13.5 mpg was good for doing 70+ towing. Only thing that tweaked me pretty good was this : I had all the collision avoidance crap turned off. All of it and I kept checking it every time I restarted the vehicle but yet everytime I had the cruise set, even at the minimum distance, when someone would pass us and pull in front, it would alert and slam on the brakes. THAT IS NOT COOL AND VERY DANGEROUS. People behind would whip out to avoid rear ending us, lay on the horn and flip us the bird when going by us.
I have no idea WTF GM was thinking as far as that's concerned. I ended up just turning off the cruise because it was obnoxious. The malfunction rate is off the charts. Can't say it enough, I am going to try to make this truck last as long as possible but I will never, ever buy another GM product.
I had the 2nd Gen with the Collision Avoidance system. It wasn't as sophisticated as the collision avoidance and adaptive cruise as you have, but I was coming up on an 18 wheeler at 70 MPH on the Interstate. I played it close to draft a little, just as I changed lanes, it alerted and dropped me out of cruise control. As my speed nosedived, I looked in the rear view mirror at a car coming up on me in the left lane. I had been traveling faster than it before the cruise was cut off.
I recovered before it became critical, but it was quite an eye opener. I worry about some of these automated systems.
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2,229 Posts
Yes, they now definitely have the ability to cause catastrophic accidents, not just try to avoid them. Sad and ironic at the same time. By trying to save us from ourselves, they could end up taking us out and others. I think if Mary Barra was forced to experience what we had to go through on just 1 trip, she would either work out the bugs before forcing it on us or eliminate it altogether until it was perfected.
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106 Posts
I tow a 22' sailboat on a custom Triad-trailer. It's got surge breaks and twin-axles. I've got a Curt adjustable ball-mount, but otherwise stock receiver. The boat and trailer weigh between 5000-5300lbs. with a tongue-weight of 200lbs. It does fine on the interstate at 70, but the gas mileage drops to 12mpg. On the 55mph Great Lakes Seaway Trail, I was getting just north of 14mpg and it wasn't switching between 7th and 8th as much.
Overall a much more pleasant experience than with my '09 RAM with the Hemi and a 5-speed auto.
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Overall a much more pleasant experience than with my '09 RAM with the Hemi and a 5-speed auto.
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106 Posts
If you're asking me, yeah. I use Tow/Haul for towing the sailboat and any time I'm hauling more than 200lbs in the bed. The shifting is a little more aggressive and it keeps it in the powerband. I wouldn't (and don't) use it with no load around town or even when I'm doing the really hilly stuff outside of the city. There, I drive the speed limit (55mph) and average 22-24mpg.
It would bog down when I tried to tow in Normal and the gas mileage really suffered as I had to dump gas to get it into the powerband.
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