I was confused before but after reading these posts I am lost if my Sierra will tow

[Mark and Linda]

I bought a 2007 Chevrolet Silverado LT back in September from Carmax. When I pulled off the lot the truck only had.....4,397 miles on it. It now has a little over 7,000 on it. I bought the pu because I needed another truck....not knowing that I would be using it to tow a TT. We just bought our 25RS on the 5th of Jan. My PU has the 5.3 L V8 with the tow package. My MPG is around 21 on the interstate...I have only towed the TT home from the dealer's but noticed a sharp drop in MPG. This was in town doing about 45 MPH, can't wait to see what it does on the highway with some higher speeds. I also read in some other posts that it was better to tow in 3rd Gear....going to experiment with that one. All the TT dealer's have told me that I would be fine towing with mine.....

[lbrjet]

I guess I was confused too. I didn't know the 4.8 only comes with the 4 speed tranny.

[camper_Lucy]

Originally Posted by lbrjet

I guess I was confused too. I didn't know the 4.8 only comes with the 4 speed tranny.

Yep, you need to get the 5.3 or above engine to have the bigger Transmission and the 3.73 gearing that is the first place GM offers them at in the 1500 line.

[ng2951]

I would not like running that close to capacity of the TV. When I had a TM even after we had everything loaded I was still 1,500# under max. That equated to a little better than 1/4 of max towing capacity.

Since the TM is low profile, you do not notice the handling difficulties a typical trailer might give you. Add to that going up mountains with the OD off gave me a top speed of 50 MPH as I approached 6,000 ft.

You are going to be much closer to that max.

A second issue is whether you decide in a few years to go with a different TT. In that case you might need to replace the TV again. Ask me how I learned that (3 times...but I was in good company!)

The other thing is you do need to know whether you have a good tranny cooler, etc. Nothing kills a tranny faster than heat.