Made my first long distance tow with black betty

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bizzo15

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Well my brother and I picked up some sleds a few weeks back and decided we wanted to ride them one more time before wqqqqqqqq2putting them away. There's no snow around here anymore so we decided to bring them up north for one last ride. We didn't have a sled trailer so we ended up renting a 6'x12' uhaul trailer which btw is really to small to fit two sleds. The trailer weighs 1,730lbs and I figure with both sleds in the trailer it was another 1,000lbs so all in all I was towing roughly 2,730lbs. Let me just say this 3.42 gears are NOT meant for towing, especially with a 305. The truck got it done but definitely struggled hard going up hills, flat ground I was able to do 55-65 but not being in overdrive the engine was working pretty hard. So hard in fact that I blew the passenger side manifold ear right off which made for a nice loud ride home. I ended up towing 150 miles round trip and burned 3/4 of a 35 gallon tank of gas. I don't even want to know what my gas mileage was :uhoh2:

Has anybody had a shop was out there gears front and rear axle and have a ballpark on the price? We are going to be picking up and sled trailer this winter and towing a lot more next winter and I'm trying to decided if I should just regear or buy a whole new tow rig.

Oh and here's a pic of our ghetto loading job on the uhaul trailer :)

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Mean Green

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Another possibility to keep in mind, is when your looking at buying a sled trailer is to find a good aluminum one with tandem torsilastic axles. The aluminum sled trailers are a lot lighter then the one you rented. And when your looking for a trailer, i wouldn't buy one that didn't have torsilastic axles. With them, you don't get the hop and such you do with leaf springs. And you have independent suspension also. As far as regearing your truck, I'd deffinatly go with 3.73 gears, and if you have the extra funds maybe even swap in a 14 bolt SF rear end. I have the 14 bolt in my 94' along with 3.73 gears, and anything i've hooked behind it has towed beautifully with no problems at all. I've towed a 18' tandem axle car hauler trailer, with my Camaro on it a good 100 miles without a hick up on any kind! Also if you'd like to save some money, and if your mechanically inclined, I'm sure you could swap gears yourself. It's not incredibly hard to do, just take your time and make sure you have the proper tools before starting!
 

bizzo15

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I'm pretty mechanically inclined and my dad is too but a gear swap just seems like a lot of work especially since I don't have a garage to work out of. I may just try and find some used front a rear 3.73 axles and swap them out instead of rear gearing or at least swap in a 3.73 rear axle and have the front regeared to match. As far as advice for the trailer goes, I'm definitely looking for an aluminum one most likely just a 2 sled open one with a salt shield. I'd like an enclosed one but I really don't have that kind of dough to spend.
 

Mean Green

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Yes, I'd just go with an open aluminum 2 place myself. Easy to load and unload, and you can use it to hall other stuff as well! Regearing is alot of work, but i just thought maybe you wanted to do it yourself to save some $$$. I do have a set of matching front and rear (14 bolt SF) 6 lug Axles with 3.73's in for sale, but it looks like your aways away lol
 

bizzo15

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Yeah if you were closer to me I would definitely snag them up. I'm sure I could tackle a regear job if I had the time and resources but currently I don't. I don't think I'll be doing much towing in the summer so it will give me a couple months to save up. Like you said though an aluminum trailer will be much lighter than what I just used to maybe I'll be able to get by with 3.42's till I get some extra dough.
 

bizzo15

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I have another question. I noticed when I hooked up the trailer if I turned my headlights on my trailer lights wouldn't work but if I left the headlights off trailer lights worked fine. Am I supposed to have a bigger fuse in to run the lights?
 

chevy_man

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It's not worth gearing to 3.73, go at least 4.10 or 4.30. Every time I hook a trailer to my 88' I wish for 4.56's with just the 33's.
 
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