Chevy 5.3 towing

It will down shift on a hill and stay there till the top. Then go back to overdrive.

Never heard of shift search. With a rzr on my old 05 z71 i set the cruise at 73-75 and just go on.

Only time i ever used the tow/hual mode was towing a car. A sxs isnt heavy enuff to even worry about.

Shift search is when your going down the road and it makes it to overdrive then comes back out of over drive because its not turning enough rpm's. It just keeps going from one to another. That's shift search. I haven't had a truck to do it in a long time but I do see people posting about it a lot on the net.

My lil ranger dont even do that.

Its very underpowered. When i come to a hill it does exactly like its suposed to.

First unlocks the converter, then down shifts out of over drive. And depending on how big of a hill and how slow i get down to it might shift down to 2nd. Lol.

The v8 chevy would usally just unlock the converter, then down shift one gear. Stay there till the top of the hill.

My trailblazer SS never downshifted. It would just unlock the converter. But it was also alot higher HP and also had factory 4.11 gears

TBONE you worry to much or is it that time of the month


If it was not made for towing it would not have a tow package

Bobby D wrote:

TBONE you worry to much or is it that time of the month


If it was not made for towing it would not have a tow package

COme on now Bobby D. Don't hate....appreciate!

TBONE21 wrote:

Bobby D wrote:

TBONE you worry to much or is it that time of the month


If it was not made for towing it would not have a tow package

COme on now Bobby D. Don't hate....appreciate!

Hey it's a new week TBONE we got to get something stirred up

heck no! Not me! Although I will plead guilty to starting it over in the gays in scouts thread. I said you could join up now so yes I did start it over there.

As someone said, heat kills mechanical parts. A 5.3 will pull any load we have without strain. I had the 4.0 ranger and it did ok. My tundra is overkill for what I need on a regular basis. I have pulled 5,000 lbs with it a few times and it's rated for twice that.
A fella on rzr forums pulls his 900 4 seater with a VW tdi.

Gosh I would hate to see the fuel mileage numbers towing up to WV with my suburban.

I will say guys I am a Ford man all the way but the chevy 5.3 is one of the best v-8 motors ever built. They will not die and get decent mileage on a daily basis. The lady that cuts my hair has 375,000 miles on hers and still running strong.

Chevy and GMC has a better SUV with the tahoe and suburban over fords SUV's. No sweat admitting that.

Well after towing with my wife's Jeep JK while my "reliable" Tacoma was in the shop for two weeks, I figured out that even it does good. It done way better than I thought it would with the v6 and 4 speed auto. I'm running 32s on it with factory 3.73 gears. It shifts back out of OD alot just normal driving, so I just pushed the od off button and had no trouble towing the rhino on the 12' trailer. At 55 mph I was at 2500 rpm in 3rd with very light throttle. It done so good that I may trade my junk Toyota for a Subaru to drive to work, then get another truck after the jeep is payed off.

I saw on another topic that you are having trouble with the tacoma. Everyone I know who has one runs the crap outa them, maybe you just got a bad one? I know others who tow with the jeep and it does very well. You mentioned axle ratio, that's a huge factor. Manufacturers gear them up for mpg but it kills the towing capacity. My tundra is 4:30 axle but the top two gears on the 6 speed are overdrive so at 65 mph it's only taching 1,700 rpm.
I didn't know jeep was using a v6 now. Their old 258 ci inline six was a torque monster when geared low.

Hump wrote:

Well after towing with my wife's Jeep JK while my "reliable" Tacoma was in the shop for two weeks, I figured out that even it does good. It done way better than I thought it would with the v6 and 4 speed auto. I'm running 32s on it with factory 3.73 gears. It shifts back out of OD alot just normal driving, so I just pushed the od off button and had no trouble towing the rhino on the 12' trailer. At 55 mph I was at 2500 rpm in 3rd with very light throttle. It done so good that I may trade my junk Toyota for a Subaru to drive to work, then get another truck after the jeep is payed off.

Timmi, the JKs had the 3.8 v6 minivan engine that is 202 hp. As far as low rpm power goes, it is a real turd compared to the inline 6 it replaced. Fuel milege is great with it at a best ever 23mpg on a trip at 60mph, to a low of 17 short trips. I didn't figure mpgs while towing as I knew it would suck. My Jeep is a 11', the 12's and up have the new 3.6 pentastar engine with I think 280hp and they are a monster compared to the 3.8.

I have 169k on my Tacoma, and it was a great truck til 130k, then the problem started. I have had codes P0171 and P0174 (lean bank 1 and 2), in it since then with the running of it getting worse by the week. I have had it to 2 dealerships, and spent over $2000 in Toyota certified guesswork and it still runs like crap. Sometimes it won't even start. I'm pretty disapointed because I feel this truck should be only half way through its life at this mileage. It's a very common problem on trucks like mine with no solid answers. I've searched the net for the last two years. Even the techs searched it after they couldn't figure it out.

My VW TDI is only rated at 100hp and 140tq. I would be afraid to tow with it! But it does get from 48 to 53mpg, as compared to my big old 4wd dodge dually which only gets 18mpg when not towing. I once hauled a 54,000 lb. load from Indianapolis to northern cal. I got between 8 and 10mpg that trip, but I still made some good coin on that trip. The VW has 216,000 miles and the dodge has 364,000 hard, heavy loaded miles, and both still run great. I used to haul 4 cars with the dodge, and it was like a old timex watch, in that it would take a lickin and keep on tickin!!  I love the diesels.

oh I love the diesels too. I love Toyotas as well and I am shocked that Hump is having issues with his toyota

mine is a 2005 ....empty I have gotten as high as 21....with the 850 in the bed and the 900 on the trailer around here I still can get 15...as far as the hills go ......hit em hard at the bottom and keep it from shifting into 3rd  and if it tops some hills at 60 or 65 oh well.