Chevrolet Express/ GMC Savanna

I have a 2001 Chevy Express 1500 with the 5.0L V8 and 135 inch wheelbase.

The 5.0 makes 220-hp @ 4,800 rpm & 280 lbs.-ft. @ 2,800 rpm
It has a 3.42 axle and the stated towing capacity is 5100lb
the trans ratios are:

1st-3.06
2nd-1.63
3rd-1.00
4th-0.70 (OD lockout is recomended for towing)

Chevrolet reccomends brakes over 1000lb and distributing hitch with sway control over 4000lb.
I have pulled our 12x6 enclosed cargo trailer(3000lb) with no brakes without any problem.

I'm looking at either the 3124ks or the 3326 king. Would these be within the capacity of the van? Also I may replace the van with a 2004 with the 5.3 V8 @295hp/335lbft which puts the towing capacity upto 6200lb.

FYI, I am happy with my 2002 Envoy pulling the 3326. It has a 6 cyl rated at 250 hp, probably at a very high RPM. It has a flat torque curve over RPM. I can pull 6 or 7% grades at 50 MPH, about 2900 RPM in second gear. My rear ratio is 3.7 and that is my biggest concern about your rig. You are geared for highway milage and your performance won't be so good in the mountains. My towing capacity is rated 5600# and I think you will be maxed out with the bigger TMs. Your towing capacity rating includes all options on the TM, water, propane, clothing, food, people and all the contents of your TV/TM.

I recommend the 4WD option on a new vehicle for its granny gear that lets me idle into off-road boondock camping sites around trees or other obstructions and wouldn't want to be without that. It is also manditory for sand or cinders or other not-so-good surfaces.

I am sure you will get some excellent answers off this forum, so I'll keep mine short.

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by Gateway

I have a 2001 Chevy Express 1500 with the 5.0L V8 and 135 inch wheelbase.

The 5.0 makes 220-hp @ 4,800 rpm & 280 lbs.-ft. @ 2,800 rpm
It has a 3.42 axle and the stated towing capacity is 5100lb
the trans ratios are:

1st-3.06
2nd-1.63
3rd-1.00
4th-0.70 (OD lockout is recomended for towing)

Chevrolet reccomends brakes over 1000lb and distributing hitch with sway control over 4000lb.
I have pulled our 12x6 enclosed cargo trailer(3000lb) with no brakes without any problem.

I'm looking at either the 3124ks or the 3326 king. Would these be within the capacity of the van? Also I may replace the van with a 2004 with the 5.3 V8 @295hp/335lbft which puts the towing capacity upto 6200lb.

You're borderline on torque to pull a loaded 3124KS and especially a loaded 3326KS. Both trailers will weigh between 4500 and 5000 lbs when fully loaded. Your 5100 lb "tow capacity" is measured with the van totally devoid of cargo or passengers...just driver and 3 gallons of gas in the tank. The weight of all cargo and passengers in the van have to be subtracted from the "tow capacity". If you, for instance, fill the fuel tank (~120 lbs) and carry 700 lbs of passengers and cargo in the van (a reasonable number), your real "tow capacity" will be more like 4300 lbs. Exceeding your vehicle's limits is a very poor/dangerous thing to do. I concur with the Bob that your biggest limitation is the 3.42 axle ratio.

Bottom line is the van will manage (though with poor acceleration) to pull either trailer on flat, low altitude roads such as in the midwest. It will struggle if you try to tow in mountainous regions and struggle very badly in high altitude mountainous regions such as the central Rocky Mountains. Expect to spend many miles climbing grades at only 20 to 25 mph if you try to tow across Colorado.

Replacing your van with the newer, more powerful model would be exceedingly prudent.

Finally, you absolutely will need a trailer brake controller for the trailer's electric brakes and you will also need a WDH (just like your owner's manual states). Sway control on the WDH will not, however, be needed.

If I do get a new one, what should I get? The 3500 with the 6L or Diesel can pull upto 10,000lb with the 4.10 axle(and pretty poor mpg). The 06 1500 with 5.3L will get 20mpg, the 3500 probably is around 10mpg. Also would it be of any beneit to get the 155 in wheelbase?

The 1500 is available with full time AWD(no low range). The other way to get a proper 4wd it the Quigley 4x4 option that replaces the drivetrain with a real 4wd setup.

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by Gateway

If I do get a new one, what should I get? The 3500 with the 6L or Diesel can pull upto 10,000lb with the 4.10 axle(and pretty poor mpg). The 06 1500 with 5.3L will get 20mpg, the 3500 probably is around 10mpg. Also would it be of any beneit to get the 155 in wheelbase?

The 1500 is available with full time AWD(no low range). The other way to get a proper 4wd it the Quigley 4x4 option that replaces the drivetrain with a real 4wd setup.

Can't really answer until we know in what region(s) of the country you'll be doing most of your towing. As I stated above...and my co-moderator Bill has stated many times in other threads, WHERE you will mostly tow makes a bigger difference in tow vehicle requirements than any other factor.

We are in Seattle and I'd be taking it to BC, Oregon, Montana, California, Nevada and Arizona. So there would be some pretty good grades to go up and down.

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by Gateway

We are in Seattle and I'd be taking it to BC, Oregon, Montana, California, Nevada and Arizona. So there would be some pretty good grades to go up and down.

Yep, those states aren't exactly the flat-as-a-pancake midwest ...and in some areas you'll be dealing with deleterious effects of altitude as well as just steep grades So here's how to determine what to get (I'm not going to get into the details of the multitude of models in the GM lineup).

Using TM's website specs for the 3326 and 3124KS, the weight numbers are as follows:

• 3326: Empty weight, 3520; Cargo Carrying Capacity (CCC) 1396 for calculated GVWR of 4916
• 3124KS: Empty, 3185; CCC, 1595 for a calc GVWR of 4780.

Worst case (but only by 136 lbs) is the 3326.

For reasonably stress-free mountain towing, it's my strong opinion that your trailer's GVWR should not exceed 80% of the vehicle's "tow rating" if high altitude (over 7000 feet) is not a frequent factor; and not exceed 60% of the "tow rating" if high altitude is a frequent factor (50% if very high altitude...like Colorado's mostly 11,000+ elevation passes...is a frequent factor).

Using a fully loaded 3326 as the worst case (lots of storage in that trailer...very easy to reach the GVWR with the load for very a long trip), those percentages above translate as follows into desired "tow capacities":

80% of max = 6150 lb tow capacity
60% of max = 8193 lb tow capacity
50% of max = 9832 lb tow capacity

All things considered, I'd strongly suggest you not consider any tow vehicle with less than a 7000 lb tow capacity and try to get one with at least an 8000 or even 8500 to 9000 lb capacity. Go to the upper end of the scale if you expect to carry heavy loads in the tow vehicle (lots of passengers as well as cargo); the lower end of the scale may be ok if you travel extremely lightly.

As a point of reference, my Toyota Tundra has a factory rated tow capacity of 7100 lbs and I pull a moderately to heavily loaded 2720SL....it weighs around 3800 on long trips; around 3600 lbs on short trips. And I travel solo (no other pax) with a very light load (maybe only 300 lbs) of gear in the truck. Nonetheless, until I spent about $3000 on performance upgrades (total torque increase was a very considerable 23%...equivalent to the stock truck with a 400 ft-lb engine), this truck was able to just stay with traffic when towing over Colorado's very high mountains. After the upgrades, I can now easily stay with or even outclimb cars on the very steep and high grades when towing.

Don't be scared by low (numerically high) axle ratios either...the difference in fuel economy between a vehicle with 4.10 axle vs one with a 3.4 axle is perhaps only 1 to 1.5 mpg but the difference in towing capabilty is enormous. One of my performance upgrades was regearing the axles from 3.92 to 4.30 which provided a 10% torque increase, yet the effect on mileage was inconsequential (about .3 mpg).