Towing capacity

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

OP
OP
JDopirak

JDopirak

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2019
Posts
94
Reaction score
77
Look at your tire pressure prior to towing. If it shows 44 PSI MAX, I would set it at 44 to give the tires less flex and maintain the coolest temp you could have on those tires. If you went to a 8 or 10 ply rating on the tires, I would go to 65 psi at a minimum to prevent heating. Your trailer should have electric or surge brakes. Try a few stops to figure out where to set your brake controller for best balance. Be sure and grease wheel bearing on the trailer and keep tire pressures up for best life and cooling of the trailer tires. Best of Luck. LittleFish...
They are 10 ply tires, And i did some testing with trailer unloaded and loaded and i had to double the brake voltage and turn inital brake burst from 1 to 2. I will need to increase the truck tire pressure tho , They looked "low" when mustang was loaded.
 
OP
OP
JDopirak

JDopirak

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2019
Posts
94
Reaction score
77
So after towing a ranger, my mustang and a buddys k5 blazer with in the first week of having my trailer it has become painfully obvious i may need to change the gears in this truck if im going to continue to tow frequently. I think i may go to 3.73s that seems to be a common towing gear with out screaming on the highway.

Anyone who has done a front and rear gear swap have any suggestions on which gear company to use? I know yukon and richmond are good name brands, But i cant seem to find a all in one kit from them including over haul kits and front and rear sets.

I will be doing this at my Saturday shop job with one of the old head techs so i know it will be done right and i dont have issues like i currently have with my motor.
 

swathdiver

Full Access Member
Joined
May 18, 2017
Posts
19,747
Reaction score
26,633
Location
Treasure Coast, Florida
So after towing a ranger, my mustang and a buddys k5 blazer with in the first week of having my trailer it has become painfully obvious i may need to change the gears in this truck if im going to continue to tow frequently. I think i may go to 3.73s that seems to be a common towing gear with out screaming on the highway.

Anyone who has done a front and rear gear swap have any suggestions on which gear company to use? I know yukon and richmond are good name brands, But i cant seem to find a all in one kit from them including over haul kits and front and rear sets.

I will be doing this at my Saturday shop job with one of the old head techs so i know it will be done right and i dont have issues like i currently have with my motor.

Stock size tires, you can run 3.73s. If they are taller, like 34" then go with 4.10.

I would stick with AAM or GM OE (which was originally AAM). They'll be quieter.

Has your engine and transmission been tuned? You might want to do that first. What don't you like about her towing performance?
 
OP
OP
JDopirak

JDopirak

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2019
Posts
94
Reaction score
77
Stock size tires, you can run 3.73s. If they are taller, like 34" then go with 4.10.

I would stick with AAM or GM OE (which was originally AAM). They'll be quieter.

Has your engine and transmission been tuned? You might want to do that first. What don't you like about her towing performance?

Stock 20" wheels and tire size, My truck has been tuned twice now once last year and again a few weeks ago with heads and cam. Texas speed claimed i wouldn't loose down low tq with my cam but according to the dyno sheet i lost some. 330whp 326tq

I have 3.42 gears

Its just seems to struggle with hills and starting off. It was in 2nd gear and 3rd on hills, I thought heads and cam would help but it didnt seem to help at all as my hp and tq shifted up in rpm range. Its frustrating as i have driven pick ups that where stock with same driveline and they seem to have more pep with towing then my yukon and i have more power. Hell i drove a 4.6 tundra today at work and that seemed to have more off the line tq.
 
Last edited:

swathdiver

Full Access Member
Joined
May 18, 2017
Posts
19,747
Reaction score
26,633
Location
Treasure Coast, Florida
Stock 20" wheels and tire size, My truck has been tuned twice now once last year and again a few weeks ago with heads and cam. Texas speed claimed i wouldn't loose down low tq with my cam but according to the dyno sheet i lost some. 330whp 326tq

I have 3.42 gears

Its just seems to struggle with hills and starting off. It was in 2nd gear and 3rd on hills, I thought heads and cam would help but it didnt seem to help at all as my hp and tq shifted up in rpm range. Its frustrating as i have driven pick ups that where stock with same driveline and they seem to have more pep with towing then my yukon and i have more power. Hell i drove a 4.6 tundra today at work and that seemed to have more off the line tq.

I've never seen a TSP camshaft that would not lose a ton of torque, even their small cams have too much lift and duration IMO. Consider now in doing the gear swap, you are compounding... no, there's a better word, compensating for poor cam selection with the gears. When they say they are for trucks, think regular cab, short bed; about 4,500 pounds. Ours are easily 1500 pounds heavier.

The one thing our 6-speed trucks should never have a problem with is starting off in first, that's why they even let us start out in 2nd when its slippery out. With 3.42 gears, our 1st gear ratio is 13.77:1. This is even better than a Duramax with their 6-Speed Allison and 3.73 gears!

My advice, don't touch the gearing yet, dump that camshaft for an L33 grind or something slightly bigger from Cam Motion, Crane/Vinci or BTRs Truck Torque Cam.

Tell me about the heads. Stock heads or aftermarket? Chamber size and compression? Any work done to them? Porting can also rob you of torque or at least move it up higher into the RPM band.

Did you do before and after dyno runs? Any passes at the drag strip, before and after?

For comparison, mine puts down 307.52 RWHP and, if I calculated the torque right using RPMs at Trap Speed, she makes 337.1 RWTQ. Burning E85 @ 73% on stock ethanol tables, engine and trans tuned by BlackBear, Magnaflow cats and Y-pipe, no other mods.
 
OP
OP
JDopirak

JDopirak

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2019
Posts
94
Reaction score
77
IMG_20200428_184900_311.jpg IMG_20200428_184900_311.jpg
I've never seen a TSP camshaft that would not lose a ton of torque, even their small cams have too much lift and duration IMO. Consider now in doing the gear swap, you are compounding... no, there's a better word, compensating for poor cam selection with the gears. When they say they are for trucks, think regular cab, short bed; about 4,500 pounds. Ours are easily 1500 pounds heavier.

The one thing our 6-speed trucks should never have a problem with is starting off in first, that's why they even let us start out in 2nd when its slippery out. With 3.42 gears, our 1st gear ratio is 13.77:1. This is even better than a Duramax with their 6-Speed Allison and 3.73 gears!

My advice, don't touch the gearing yet, dump that camshaft for an L33 grind or something slightly bigger from Cam Motion, Crane/Vinci or BTRs Truck Torque Cam.

Tell me about the heads. Stock heads or aftermarket? Chamber size and compression? Any work done to them? Porting can also rob you of torque or at least move it up higher into the RPM band.

Did you do before and after dyno runs? Any passes at the drag strip, before and after?

For comparison, mine puts down 307.52 RWHP and, if I calculated the torque right using RPMs at Trap Speed, she makes 337.1 RWTQ. Burning E85 @ 73% on stock ethanol tables, engine and trans tuned by BlackBear, Magnaflow cats and Y-pipe, no other mods.

I am the one in the performance fourms that has metal in my engine after heads , cam and cam bearings because i trusted a friend and things where not done properly as im finding out, So i wont be putting anymore money into this motor. Im just running it till it starts to make noise then ill stop ill pull it. I am planning to have a 6.0 rebuilt and reusing my heads off my 5.3 and anything else the engine builder says is safe to reuse.

But no drag strip runs yet since heads cam i may go this week but prior it ran a 16.4 at 87mph. With a 2.3 or 2.5 60ft. It cant even do a burnout.

Heads where cnc ported by tsp. This is from there website. I sent them my 243 heads and they only milled them. 005.

  • 58-63cc Chambers
Lift Intake Flow Exhaust Flow
.200" 147 cfm 114 cfm
.300" 209 cfm 152 cfm
.400" 258 cfm 191 cfm
.500" 294 cfm 207 cfm
.600" 316 cfm 226 cfm
 
Last edited:

swathdiver

Full Access Member
Joined
May 18, 2017
Posts
19,747
Reaction score
26,633
Location
Treasure Coast, Florida
View attachment 248327 View attachment 248327

I am the one in the performance fourms that has metal in my engine after heads , cam and cam bearings because i trusted a friend and things where not done properly as im finding out, So i wont be putting anymore money into this motor. Im just running it till it starts to make noise then ill stop ill pull it. I am planning to have a 6.0 rebuilt and reusing my heads off my 5.3 and anything else the engine builder says is safe to reuse.

But no drag strip runs yet since heads cam i may go this week but prior it ran a 16.4 at 87mph. With a 2.3 or 2.5 60ft. It cant even do a burnout.

Heads where cnc ported by tsp. This is from there website. I sent them my 243 heads and they only milled them. 005.

  • 58-63cc Chambers
Lift Intake Flow Exhaust Flow
.200" 147 cfm 114 cfm
.300" 209 cfm 152 cfm
.400" 258 cfm 191 cfm
.500" 294 cfm 207 cfm
.600" 316 cfm 226 cfm

I kinda remember now. Great flow numbers so I can see using higher lift to make use of the airflow. What was your race weight when you made that 1/4 mile pass?

Check this out, at just before 6 minutes, this fella explains your situation well I think:

 
Last edited:
OP
OP
JDopirak

JDopirak

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2019
Posts
94
Reaction score
77
I kinda remember now. Great flow numbers so I can see using higher lift to make use of the airflow. What was your race weight when you made that 1/4 mile pass?

Check this out, at just before 6 minutes, this fella explains your situation well I think:

Race weight was f
I kinda remember now. Great flow numbers so I can see using higher lift to make use of the airflow. What was your race weight when you made that 1/4 mile pass?

Check this out, at just before 6 minutes, this fella explains your situation well I think:



Ive watched that video before months ago thats why i thought the cam shaft tsp reccomend would be fine. The guy in the video reccomend 22x/22x at 600 lift. Mine is much smaller at 212/218 550 lift so with that i thought it made sense that i wouldn't loose any down low tq.

I have no clue what my weight is. I had the third row out. So whatever stock weight minus 100-150lbs for those seats. Its an 09 slt so its heavy from all the random bells and whistles.
 

swathdiver

Full Access Member
Joined
May 18, 2017
Posts
19,747
Reaction score
26,633
Location
Treasure Coast, Florida
Ive watched that video before months ago thats why i thought the cam shaft tsp reccomend would be fine. The guy in the video reccomend 22x/22x at 600 lift. Mine is much smaller at 212/218 550 lift so with that i thought it made sense that i wouldn't loose any down low tq.

Those numbers are for Corvettes and cars and maybe regular cab short bed pickups. Anyhow, subtract your Cargo Capacity from your GVWR and that's your curb weight, then add yourself and minus the seats. With that number, we can mathematically computer your actual rear wheel horsepower based on your drag strip run(s).
 

Forum statistics

Threads
132,714
Posts
1,873,073
Members
97,537
Latest member
CHENTE

Latest posts

Top