Towing with my 99 1500

Hello,

I have a question about towing with my 99 1500 Silverado single cab swb equiped with a 4.3 liter V6.

I have towed my travel trailer with this truck which weighs 4000lbs using load equalizer bars and it handled it fine... though I definatly knew it was back there. 60mph seemed to be a good speed on level turrain, which is all that we have around where I live. No hills unless you consider an overpass a hill!

I have a sawmill on order... still 3 months out before its made. Its a portable sawmill and occasionally I will be bringing it to peoples lots & cutting their logs there instead of them transporting the logs to my location. This mill weighs 6300lbs but is basically just steel. There is no where near the wind drag as the travel trailer has... so I'm questioning weather the truck can handle such a load... using the load equalizer bars of course. I dont plan on being able to set the cruize at 70mph of course... but 55mph to 60mph with my foot controlling the gas is what I hope. More than likely the longest distance would be 60 miles or so... but usually less. Probably 40 miles or so. I've been considering buying a 2500 4x4 diesel but dont want to really jump into it off the bat because I dont know how often I will be doing off site cutting.

Is the 6300lb weight unrealistic for this truck? Like I said, the terrain is level and 55mph would be okay with me... so what do you think? A buddy of mine has towen 40,000lbs with his 2500 4x2 diesel plus the weight of the trailer... so I hope there shouldnt be THAT much of a margin of towing capacity between the two.

Keith

The problem isn't towing it it's stopping in a safe distance.
"Is the 6300lb weight unrealistic for this truck? Like I said, the terrain is level and 55mph would be okay with me... so what do you think?"
Well...you have to go by what the manual says...period...you can add whatever you want to the truck...load equalizer bars, magic spring helpers and it might help to pull something but it doesn't change what the factory says is safe to haul. You have a really basic truck as it is and I think 6300 is out of your reach. I have a 2000 ext cab 4WD 5.3 engine and my limit is around 6500...it's been awhile since I've checked it but I'm close. I you have an accident and you are over your tow limit guess what...you just kissed your insurance good-bye because they won't cover an improperly loaded vehicle.

Agreed. You likely have the weight to stop it, but I'm not sure about the brakes. Even if the weight/brakes are fine, the rating is not so like Sonny said, your screwed if you get in a wreck. I think the 4.3 silvy is rated at ~4500 lbs. I could look in my book, but I'm lazy. Anybody know right off?

One other item I wanted to say...if a cop thinks you are overloaded he'll stop you and you'll get a ticket. But, the cop won't let you drive off...you'll have to lighten the load or come back with a different truck. I wish I had some good news to tell you but when safety is an issue you have to go by the book...or in this case manual.

you need a 3/4 ton truck or maybe a 1 ton. how you going to stop?

You didn't say if the trailer has brakes. It would make a big difference in the
stopping ability. I'm assuming the trailer does have brakes. Here in my state all trailers over 3000lb have to have brakes . I also think you are exceeding the capacity of your truck, however. I tow a 5000 lb horse trailer w/ electric brakes with a 1500 5.3. It tows it fine, but I still feel it is a bit under powered for the task.

I tow (actually my wife tows it more then I do) a gooseneck horse trailer with electric brakes and use a Prodigy brake controller. The trailer weighs 3500lb and the two horses add another 2000lb and it's still under the max limit for my 1500 5.3 ext cab. The truck has no trouble getting up to speed or stopping but then we always start stopping way ahead of time as to not upset the horses.

During the summer growing up, we used dads 1500 w/ 5.3 to tow tobacco trailers. Essentially, a flat trailer maybe 5-600 lbs with a steel box weighing another few hundred, full of green tobacco. Total weight~5000 lbs. We hitched two together (~10,000 lbs) and drove. No trailer brakes, no nothing. Pulled fine and stopped fine, course we also never got over 45, and 35 was the norm and you darn well anticipated your stops and slowed down first.

You see this all the time in tobacco country, it's not unusual by any means. Legal? Doubt it, but it happens. Heck, I was 16 and had my DL for only a few months when I hooked up and drove off with them. Then again, when I was 15 and had a permit, dad needed somebody to drive the tractor trailer loaded with corn back from a field (~25 miles). Only person availible was me, and I had never driven one when it wasn't on a private road. What did he do? Told mom to ride with me so it was somewhat closer to legal. One things for sure, you learn to drive that way.

The scary part was if the second trailor started to sway. If you let it get to rocking too much, it slung you off the road (only saw that happen once). If you caught it early enough, you just put the petal down and snatched it real hard and then let it slow down. The sway stopped quick. Needless to say, one eye was always on the mirrors.

Still, I recommend going by the book. Just because you can doesn't mean it's a good idea.