Looking for reassurance

ivanbeausky · November 22, 2014

I have a 2011 Silverado 1500 crew cab 4x4. Has the 5.3, 3.73, brake assist, oil/transmission coolers. I know the hauling weight is 7K, and if I am reading it right, I can tow up to either 9.5K or 10.5K. Both those numbers seem a bit huge.

We are looking at a travel trailer, and the ones we are considering all fall in the 6K-7K dry weight range. I think I might need more truck, but if I am good, I won't change (I love my truck!).

I already have a weight distribution hitch, and I know after the dear wife gets done loading the TT up with crap, it will be about 1K pounds more. So, I am looking at 7-8K total weight.

If I read the manual right, I think I am solidly inside the safe area of towing capacity. But I have been wrong before.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

SouthernSilveradoGuy85 · November 22, 2014

9,500-10,500 seems about right for a '11. If my '14 5.3 had 3.73 gears it would be able to tow just over 11,000.

chupe442 · November 26, 2014

With the 3.73's you may be alright.. I have 3.42's. Our trailer is 28' bunkhouse coming in at 7500 dry. Pulling to local camp grounds are no issue. But 1-2 hours down the highway, it has a bit of a hard time with. I do have 275's for tires too but this was before them.

Blue2500CC · November 27, 2014

IF you have the 5.3, you should have the 6spd tranny, then you only have 3:42's. Only the 6.2 with the max tow pkg had 3.73's.

With that, depending on your location towing 8k isn't unheard of with a 5.3/6spd/3.42 combo. The problem you may run into running out of PAYLOAD of your 1500. This all depends on the weight of the passengers in the truck, what cargo you have in the bed, and accessories added to the truck after it was built (dealer installed also), and your LOADED tt (travel trailer) tongue weight (tw).

TW can range from 10-15% of the loaded trailer. Generally most will use 13% to try to estimate if a trailer is a good match for the truck. What is the Yellow Payload sticker state the payload is for your truck? Should state, "Passengers and Cargo not to exceed "XXXXlbs". Subtract the passengers weight from this amount, and what you may carry in the bed, and what's left is the max allowable tw. With about 450lbs passenger weight, about 150lbs in the bed, and 900lbs tw, we were a little over our '10-1500's gvwr. Reason we now have a 2500HD. Now we did have a cab high topper, spray in bed liner, step bars, mud flaps, & WeatherTech floor mats in/on the truck also which subtracted from the max payload. Removing the topper would have brought us back under, but not by much. Plus the better half wanted the firewood totes out of the trailer, and in the truck bed.

Keep an eye on the factory round tube hitch also. While I haven't heard of any failures with the GMT-900 '07-'13 trucks, the hitch is still prone to "winding up" (twisting) when used with a weight distribution (wd) hitch. I actually watched mine do that, so I replaced it with a Curt square tube class 5 hitch that was rated for way more than the truck. Ordered (&shipped) online it was barely $20 more than the class 4 hitch.

Power wise, I never felt underpowered towing about 7200lbs here in Mi with our '10-1500 5.3/6spd/3.42 crew cab 4x4, but we don't have huge mountains either. Yes, the tranny may drop into 4th or even 3rd at times, just let the motor rev and do it's thing.