I finally got a chance to tow with the new truck, (well atleast to me) since I have the 6" lift, 35's, hypertech level 30, and pyro gauge. I kept the stock 3.73's. I was towing a loaded 21' toybox weight 7300-7500.


Drove from Corona, CA to Glamis Dunes. It is almost exactly 200 miles. On the drive out I tried to keep it in overdrive most of the way there and the truck seemed to have no problem. I'm used to a gas truck so it was nice to not have to shift out of overdrive all the time. On the way home I tried different gears to see what rpms and such and see if there was a difference in gas consumption. The only issue I found is that the truck didn't want to change gears when I would put it in the tow/haul mode. It would stay in overdrive till the cruise drop 5-10 mph and then would finally shift in a sudden burst and 20-25 pounds of boost. This was not normall, I have friends that have the same truck (no hypertech though) and when they hit the button the trucks shifts on command. I am assuming this is caused by whatever programming is done by the hypertech. It is annoying but not too big of an issue. Below I will put some of the numbers I had.


MPG - 60mph in overdrive 95% of time - 12.5


MPG - 60mph in tow/haul mode 95% of time - 9.5


The egt's while in overdrive are about 200 degrees more but still in the exceptable ranges. And the increase is only for short bursts of a mile or so. I never had a reading about 1200.


On a side note, with the 35's the truck is much quicker then stock. The larger tires really seem to get the turbo spooling. From a stop on dry pavement I could smoke the tires if I really got into it. I was next to a 2500HD 8.1L with a comparable size trailer. There was no comparison, I started to smoke the tires off the start, let out a little got back in it and I was gone. I kind of felt bad for the guy. Such much fast and probably twice the mpg.

Why on earth woud you smoke your tires intentionally while pulling a trailer and then to expect someone else pulling a trailer to do it also?


I hope you show a little more common sense while towing in the future.


Dave

yea, what he said. We don't want to hear about the transmission issue when it goes out either. Sometum' got to give.

Thanks for the "great" reply's. All the info and that is all you could take out of it.


I know some people have asked for experience with different programmers, towing, gears, tire setups, egt temps, etc...I wasn't trying to advocate or display aggressive tire smoking and tranmission burning driving. I was just making a comment on the power. At the time I didn't know the truck had enough power to do it. I was trying to see how high the egts would go on a full throttle run from a stop, it just happened that another truck was there.

radvans,

do you have an lb7 or lly?

With regard to the cruise/shift issue. Early on (2001 & early 2002 model year), there were many complaints to GM about "shift busyness" during normal operation and when in cruise. While in cruise control, you would be pulling a trailer, hit a small rise in the road, slow down and before the engine had a chance to react to maintain the programmed speed, the transmission downshifted. Very annoying.

As a result, in the March, 2002 timeframe, GM altered the shift profiles slightly. When the vehicle is in cruise and in 5th, the programming will now allow the Applied Throttle to be large without downshifting. The MPH window that the cruise will hold before shifting was also made wider.