GM Pickup Truck ?

[Hitchpin]

Does anyone tow with a GM pickup truck, with a 4.3 engine and 3:23 gears? If so how does it do?

[Mekanic]

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.

[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

[Hitchpin]

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

My 2012 Swift SLX 154BH That has a GVWR of 3200 lbs.

[stepside454]

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.

[The House]

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?

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

[Hitchpin]

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

I have some steep grades, but they are not very long.

[Hitchpin]

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.

[Yarcola]

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.

[Mekanic]

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.