# GM Pickup Truck ?



## Hitch Pin (Sep 23, 2011)

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


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## artmart (Sep 21, 2010)

I'll take a guess when I towed with smaller and larger but using gas engines. Assuming you stay within the weight ratings all vehicles carrying or towing loads at their maximums will work harder and therefore produce louder sounds as it's working harder. If you look at the power scales for an engine, you'll find that the higher HP and torque numbers occur at the higher end of the RPM scale.

This means the engine works at its best when it is really worked hard. Accelerating from a stop, going up hills and stuff like that will make that engine sounds louder than under more normal or unloaded conditions.

Do not expect to race around when loaded. Going up OR down a hill might mean that you need to downshift the transmission to allow the higher RPMs to create more power to make it up a hill, or keep control on the downhill. Whatever you can do to prevent "lugging" the engine on the uphill, or using too much brakes when going downhill.

It does take a different mindset with towing or loaded and you are driving. There are some who try and treat this as normal and try and drive too fast, or with too many RPMs, or ride the brakes down a hill, but none of these are safe in the long run.

Whatever you tow or carry, will depend on how much everything weighs or even how big it is. For example, the trailer might be very light but if you are driving into a head wind or side wind, you're gonna feel it. It never seems like the direction you drive is with a tailwind.

For example, you truck towing a lightweight low profile popup trailer will do worse if you tow a fifth wheel that sits high on your truck bed, but different from a travel trailer.

I hope this helps describe what to expect, but unless someone else is using the same vehicle as you are and are towing the exact thing, it will be guess work. Even then one person's tolerance will be different and they'll trade up because of it, while another will think, it's acceptable.

It will be your task to accept what works for you. Whatever you do, feel free to ask about what you find out and we can certainly make some comparisons.


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## Hitch Pin (Sep 23, 2011)

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.


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## artmart (Sep 21, 2010)

That should help the differential gain some strength with the higher ratio gears. The other comments about engine, transmission and brakes still apply because as you make one thing strong this will shift the load to something else. You must still maintain the weight of the trailer to stay within the weight ratings.


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