96 C1500 ext 5.7 and a travel trailer

[Siggertx]

Any way to boost my truck into hauling a 6700lb trailer? I've got the 3.42 gears I believe

 

[Urambo Tauro]

What other supporting equipment does the truck already have? According to this site, 3.73 gears are good for pulling up to 7500 lbs, provided that the truck has an engine-oil cooler, transmission-oil cooler, and weight-distribution hitch. Not sure what the limit would be for 3.42 gears, though.

 

[Siggertx]

I've got the transmission and oil cooler, big radiator, heavy duty fan clutch. New shocks all the way around. Not looking to haul anything across country, just weekend trips to the lake and stuff.

 

[Urambo Tauro]

I was hoping that someone more knowledgeable than me would reply by now, but FWIW...

I don't know if this is the right way to be doing the math on this sort of thing, but if you take the aforementioned 5.7L/3.73:1 truck's 7500 lb capacity, divide it by the 3.73 gear ratio, and then multiply by your 3.42 ratio, you get 6876.

OR, if you take that website's 6000 lb rating for the 5.0L & 3.42:1 version, you could take the 6000 lb capacity, divide it by 5.0 liters, then multiply by your 5.7 liters, and get 6840.

TBH, I'm not real confident that this is the right way to calculate tow capacity, but I feel like it's gotta be somewhere in the neighborhood. I'm sure there's a much more nuanced and accurate way to do it, but 6840 and 6876 are pretty close to one another. I think you'll be fine pulling that trailer with a weight distribution hitch, just don't add too much weight to it.

 

[90halfton]

You'll need trailer brakes, and common sense. Don't use od. Good receiver hitch rated properly. 6700 lbs is not crazy, though I wouldn't do it for a living. I'm running 3.42s on 235 tires and have pulled 7k lbs without fuss. Main thing is don't drive too fast. The brakes were questionable on these trucks to start with. 20 years later with a trailer isn't going to help at all