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10-31-2011, 06:33 PM
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#1
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Senior Member
Forest River Owners Club
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Southern Ohio
Posts: 110
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GM Pickup Truck ?
Does anyone tow with a GM pickup truck, with a 4.3 engine and 3:23 gears? If so how does it do?
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11-01-2011, 08:01 AM
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#2
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Senior Member
Ford Super Duty Owner
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Kitts Hill, OH
Posts: 2,252
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I have a friend who has towed with his 4.3 GM truck. I don't know what gear it has. it did better than he thought it would. he was towing a jeep on a trailer (about 5500 Lbs I think)
I kept telling him it would be fine and he did try it when his much older early 80 350 pickup blew a gasket. so for now this is his truck.
over on the Ford side of things the 300 six is a real good engine to tow with.
A 4.3 or 300 won't win a race, but they both will outlast many of the other higher hp engines.
__________________
(RVM#26) THE U-RV 94 F-700/24 foot U-haul box home built RV
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11-01-2011, 08:09 AM
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#3
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Senior Member
Texas Boomers Club
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Cypress, Texas USA
Posts: 8,854
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What are you wanting to tow, and what will it weigh? Obviously, the 1/2 ton truck (I'm assuming) with small engine and tall gearing is not the ideal towing platform, but it could probably handle a very limited towing application (IOW, don't be looking at big 5th wheels with this rig. )
Rusty
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11-01-2011, 06:30 PM
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#4
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Senior Member
Forest River Owners Club
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Southern Ohio
Posts: 110
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RustyJC
What are you wanting to tow, and what will it weigh? Obviously, the 1/2 ton truck (I'm assuming) with small engine and tall gearing is not the ideal towing platform, but it could probably handle a very limited towing application (IOW, don't be looking at big 5th wheels with this rig. )
Rusty
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My 2012 Swift SLX 154BH That has a GVWR of 3200 lbs.
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11-01-2011, 06:37 PM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 1,740
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Not a problem. I pulled a 3500+ lbs. Camper with my 3.9L freestar minivan. My buddy pulled the same camper home for me when I bought it with his 3.7L dodge ram.
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11-01-2011, 06:57 PM
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#6
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Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitchpin
Does anyone tow with a GM pickup truck, with a 4.3 engine and 3:23 gears? If so how does it do?
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Do you live in an area that will require you to pull a lot of steep grades?
If not it'll work but don't get crazy trying to pull anything too crazy.
I know that out west here that your truck wouldn't last too long as we have long steep grades to pull know matter where we head. It's not just the motor to worry about but the tranny as well. My dad used to tow a 19' TT behind a Chevy Astro van & he ended up burning up the tranny pulling a long 6% grade. JMO
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11-02-2011, 08:38 PM
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#7
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Senior Member
Forest River Owners Club
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Southern Ohio
Posts: 110
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The House
Do you live in an area that will require you to pull a lot of steep grades?
If not it'll work but don't get crazy trying to pull anything too crazy.
I know that out west here that your truck wouldn't last too long as we have long steep grades to pull know matter where we head. It's not just the motor to worry about but the tranny as well. My dad used to tow a 19' TT behind a Chevy Astro van & he ended up burning up the tranny pulling a long 6% grade. JMO
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I have some steep grades, but they are not very long.
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11-05-2011, 05:29 PM
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#8
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Senior Member
Forest River Owners Club
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Southern Ohio
Posts: 110
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Ok, I think I fixed my potential towing problem. I took out the factory open differential and the 3:23 gears, and installed a new Eaton Posi, and a new set of 3:73 gears.
I also changed the speedometer and odometer setting so they would read right.
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11-06-2011, 10:16 AM
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#9
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 115
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I towed with a Chevy S-10 that had the 4.3 engine and a tow rating of 5600 pounds, but I don't know the axle. I wasn't happy with it pulling our 2500 pound EggCamper, but that could have largely been due to it only having a four speed transmission. On even small hills it would downshift to third and I had to slow down too much to keep the revs down. On steep hills I just couldn't keep up with the flow of the traffic. If I had been happy going 45 in a 65 zone I guess it would have worked. If it had had a five or six speed it probably would have been fine.
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11-06-2011, 12:47 PM
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#10
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Senior Member
Ford Super Duty Owner
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Kitts Hill, OH
Posts: 2,252
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When the emission controls were at thier worst the 350 chev was so low on HP it was within 10% of what the moderen a 4.3L V6 does now.
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(RVM#26) THE U-RV 94 F-700/24 foot U-haul box home built RV
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