I have a 98 chevy 1/2 ton 5.7L silverado with tranny and oil cooler coil over rear shocks and 4.11 rearend. I pull a 26ft 5th wheel that weighs 5700 lbs dry and the setup seems to work well but the longest distance I've pulled it is only about 400 mi round trip. I'm thinking about pulling it form eastern Iowa to South Dakota in august. The total round trip will be a hilly 1500 mi and I was wondering if anyone had any input as to weather or not the truck will survive. The truck has a strong motor with only 80000 mi on it and it handles pretty well. I'm just wondering if the drivetrain will handle the hills and the wind over that many miles.
My opinion is your rig will prolly survive but you are overloaded so just cruz...try to anticipate the hills and getter movin before the hill to help with the climb...on flat roads you should be fine... Howmany trips have you made with your current setup?
Power should not be a problem at all. My dad has pulled our 27' enclosed sled trailer that weighs about 6,500lbs with a '98 Suburban identical to your pickup. Power is not the problem, it's the super soft cushy GM suspension. He had to add an aftermarket coil spring that sits on top of the rear leafs to stiffen it up enough for the vehicle to handle our sled trailer's shear mass. Since yours is a 5th wheel than it should be substantially more stable than our reciever ball trailer and only weighs 5,700lbs to boot. You should be fine. With your gearing and the strong Vortec 350 power will be no problem, just be cautious if you get into some higher winds.
Your 4L60E trans is not known for its liking of towing. I would install a tranny temp guage just to be safe. Keep it out of OD on anything more than flat ground or you will burn the OD clutches (did it with a borrowed Chev Astro towing a 5000lb boat full of camping gear and 8 people in the van and 2 bikes on top:doah: ) So like I said the 4L60E doesn't like big loads. Keep an eye on trans temps and take your time and it will be fine. You wont make it to the top of the passes first but you will make it!! Oh and Have Fun!!
Great input Thanks to everyone for the great input. I have probably made between 20 and 30 trips in the last couple of years with this setup but besides going up into Wisconsin last year most hauls have just been to local campgrounds (60 miles at most). I know its not the ideal truck for hauling but its paid for and I'm hoping it can get me through another couple of years so I can get the rest of my toys paid off. The tranny temp guage sounds like a really good idea even if I wasn't going to take this trip. Can anyone tell me what my temp range should be when pulling. Also any other ideas that will help get me there and back with the same truck would be great. Oh yeah.....I thought about putting coil springs or airbags on last year but i decided to try the coil over shocks from monroe and they worked out great. They stiffened up the rear just enough for pulling but they are still pretty forgiving when your not.
Mine is a '96 with 3.73's and a 4L60E with the factory trans cooler. I made a 1,850 mile round trip to Va Beach to pick up a car and haul it back. The trailer/car/tools/people weighed about 6,700 to 6,900 pounds. I drove with the cruise set on 70 and left it in OD the whole time, and the slowest it went was 60 up the steep mountains.
