DonG
02-28-2003, 18:21
Report on a 5500 mile trip through Washington, Oregon, Calif, Arizona, New Mexico and a small piece of Texas, and then back again.
First the tow vehicle:
2003 GMC SLE 3500 with D/A, EC, LB, 2 wheel drive.
Added Linux, running boards, 5th wheel hitch, & Brake Master brake controller.
Changed oil and filter before trip. Had dealer add almost a quart of fluid to each transmission and rear end because they were found to be low before trip. Otherwise the truck is stock.
Truck had 1100 miles on it before starting the trip.
RV Trailer:
31 foot fifth wheel weighing 14,000 pounds fully loaded for trip. The trailer is equipped with hydraulic disk brakes for better stopping capacity. The trailer stands 12 feet 4 inches high, so it presents quite a frontal plane.
The truck weighs 7500 pounds loaded with wife, me, fuel, and stuff.
Total combined weight of rig was 21,500 pounds.
Mileage was about 9.8 mpg when towing from tank to tank. Sections that were mostly mountains I got closer to 8 mpg. A couple of stretches with no mountains at all, I got just over 11 mpg. I set the cruise at about 62 miles per hour and it would hold OD except for hills. I was quite impressed with this ability. The OD lock out came in handy since I used it to downshift to 4th gear before the transmission did. Sort of preempt when I knew a high hill was coming.
The engine temperature never reached 210 degrees even under the hardest pulls. The transmission stayed about 150 degrees most of the time. Only twice did I see it get near 200 degrees. I used tow haul mode the entire trip except when I needed to force it to shift into OD.
Overall I was very impressed with this truck. The 3500 one ton with duals handled the trailer very well. No white knuckles when trucks would blow by. No indication that the trailer was in control at all. I used only
First the tow vehicle:
2003 GMC SLE 3500 with D/A, EC, LB, 2 wheel drive.
Added Linux, running boards, 5th wheel hitch, & Brake Master brake controller.
Changed oil and filter before trip. Had dealer add almost a quart of fluid to each transmission and rear end because they were found to be low before trip. Otherwise the truck is stock.
Truck had 1100 miles on it before starting the trip.
RV Trailer:
31 foot fifth wheel weighing 14,000 pounds fully loaded for trip. The trailer is equipped with hydraulic disk brakes for better stopping capacity. The trailer stands 12 feet 4 inches high, so it presents quite a frontal plane.
The truck weighs 7500 pounds loaded with wife, me, fuel, and stuff.
Total combined weight of rig was 21,500 pounds.
Mileage was about 9.8 mpg when towing from tank to tank. Sections that were mostly mountains I got closer to 8 mpg. A couple of stretches with no mountains at all, I got just over 11 mpg. I set the cruise at about 62 miles per hour and it would hold OD except for hills. I was quite impressed with this ability. The OD lock out came in handy since I used it to downshift to 4th gear before the transmission did. Sort of preempt when I knew a high hill was coming.
The engine temperature never reached 210 degrees even under the hardest pulls. The transmission stayed about 150 degrees most of the time. Only twice did I see it get near 200 degrees. I used tow haul mode the entire trip except when I needed to force it to shift into OD.
Overall I was very impressed with this truck. The 3500 one ton with duals handled the trailer very well. No white knuckles when trucks would blow by. No indication that the trailer was in control at all. I used only