First time towing

[Greg Watkins]

I will be towing for the first time this weekend. Mostly flat , some interstate. I have a 2002 D/A 2500 CC. Anything special about using it for towing? I will be changing the engine oil and rear-end fluid BEFORE I tow (only 1500 miles on the truck) . I have a 2K Suburban that I have been towing with and I ALWAYS use Tow/Haul mode and keep it in 3rd. Should I do the same with the D/A truck? (28 ft travel trailer approx 6000 lbs.) Thanks for all the information so far smile.gif

greg

[01_Duramax_Dually]

Greg,
First and most importantly, Welcome to the forum. You will find all your answers here....

As for towing. Tow like you normally do. With a 6K payload I would not use the Tow/Haul mode. It is not necessary. The recommendation is to use that function when you are at about 75-80% of max weight. I have a 11K trailer and have yet to use Tow/Haul mode. I would say that of the 23K miles I have, 16K of it have been towing.

Other than that....Let'er rip, teach that Allison a thing or two, make it work and enjoy.

A quick note...Watch your speed, you will find you can be towing going 75+ easily and not even notice it.... :D :D :D

Regards

Jeff

[RustyRoss]

Kinda depends on the terrain,traffic, and weather. I like having the engine braking feature with T/H. Helps keeps things under control. six grand don't seem like much behind this truck until you gotta stop now . . .

[DSLPOWR]

I second on what's been said above, she will pull great without tow/haul with that payload. You may want to play with it to see what it has to offer with the grade breaking, on long steep hills it's nice to have that extra to slow you down. Be sure to keep it right in drive so you can use all gears, with the allison you can do that. You probably won't even know that trailer is even behind you! ;)

[Luis]

Tow with ease.......I have the same set up, about 1k more on the weight. Don't need T/H for TAKE OFF only for landing with that weight. Much easier on the brakes. Try different ways.....It' All Good........Enjoy and be safe.

[midwestdmax29]

I realize that you're not taxing the truck much with that load, but put it in drive, set the tow mode and drive it. The trans will shift exactly how it needs to and you don't need to mess with anything. Isn't that why you bought it? You'll love it.

[mattb5150]

I towed with my Dmax for the first time last Sunday April 14th. I towed a 1959 Zenith Boles Aire 24ft. tandem axle from Santa Monica, CA to Gilroy, CA approx. 350 miles in very windy conditions the last half of the trip. The trailer hadn't moved in 20 years, we did get new rubber for it. It had the 7 pin connector for the wiring but we didn't trust that it was done correctly and didn't trust the electric brakes not to seize up on the trip.

So we put on my uncle magnetic mount towing lights and just wired the lights to the truck. No trailer brakes and I estimated the weight of the trailer to be between 5-6k. The truck pulled flawlessly, had it in tow haul the entire time didn't know that it affected grade braking but definitely noticed the downshifting when coming to stops even though I took it really slow. Most of the time I never knew the trailer was there until the wind started, even then it was very comfortable. Mileage unloaded on the way down was 18 mpg, loaded coming back 12.4 mpg.

Matt B.

[White Knight]

Made my first tow with our new 2002 GMC Durmax diesel with the Allison transmission. Left Florida April 2 and arrived back in Kentucky April 19. Drove a total of 2564 miles, used 182.544 gallons of fuel, and averaged 14.05 MPG. Drove 65 MPH most of the time and used the cruse control. The trailer is a 1999 27 ft. Airstream Safari, and we were heavily loaded since we were bringing a lot of unused "stuff" back from Florida. Truck would hold the speed set on the cruse control both up and down the hills. Would go up most hills without downshifting. The grade breaking of the Allison transmission is great. When slowing down, it automatically downshifts to aid in slowing the rig. This was not a "heavy" load for the D/A. I pulled with the tow/haul on and off. Don't really need it for taking off. One thing I didn't like was that it would not shifr in overdrive when in areas with a 50 MPH speed limit. sometimes I would turn the T/H off to get it to go to overdrive.

After I dropped the trailer I went home on the Interstate. Mileage solo was 19.28 at 70 to 75 MPH.

I also had a Jordan Ultima 2020 brake controller installed. It is so much better than my last electronic brake controller. It's control reminds me of the old Kelsey Hayes hydraulic brake controller, without the hassle of adjusting a resistor under the hood. When I had it installed, they adjusted the control level and I didn't have to make any changes.

Also used a set of Hensley clamp-on door mirrors. They are also great. It took me a few trys to get them adjusted to my liking, but after that they are in full adjustment when I reinstall them. Installation and removal is very quick. They extend far enough from the truck that there is a full view of what is going on around your vehicles. I got the convex mirror option which is a "must". They are as easy to install as the "slip on" mirrors that go over the OEM mirrors.