This past weekend I towed a 16' enclosed trailer with my polaris ranger in it. I have a 2012 GMC sierra 1500 all terrain with the 6.2L 3.42 gears 4x4 ...

This past weekend I towed a 16' enclosed trailer with my polaris ranger in it. I have a 2012 GMC sierra 1500 all terrain with the 6.2L 3.42 gears 4x4 and HD trailer package. The whole time while towing, it wouldn't come out of 4th gear. It got between 6 and 7 mpg with no wind to speak of. In my opinion it pulled horribly. Trailer and cargo might have weighed 4000 lbs. Love the truck but I am seriously contemplating replacing the gears to 3.73. Does anybody have any info on this situation or comments about gears? Would love to hear.

Either changing the gears or buying a diesel.

Seems odd. I pull 5000 with my 5.3 and I can hang in 5th on fairly level road.

If you change, I would skip the 3.73 and go for 4.10s...

tsduke wrote:Seems odd. I pull 5000 with my 5.3 and I can hang in 5th on fairly level road.

Does the 5.3 have 3.42 gears?

Yea I have 3.42 also. If I have strong head winds I might have to run in 4th more, but for the most part I run 5th with my camper with occasional shifts to 4th on hills.

Pulling my 5,000 boat with a 5.3 and 3.42 gears. I often leave it in drive, and it scoots right along in 6th gear. Occasionally it drops to 5, but it takes a really big hill or long grade to get me down to 4th gear. My towing MPG is usually about 13-14 MPG.

I think something is wrong with your truck. That engine should have no issue pulling that load with the 3.42's.

I hope I can get 14-15 on our annual trip to Canada this september. My buddy and his dad supply the boat so I always pull it. Can't wait to see how my 2012 pulls compared to my 05 with 4 speed. I don't think we are quite as heavy as you, but we are loaded with gear plus an extra 20 gallons of gas in cans.

I'm thinking it should pull pretty good compared to my camper since it doesn't have the wind drag my camper does.

True. a boat is fairly aerodynamic compared to a camper, or enclosed trailer. I will be pulling a U-Haul trailer to IA in a couple weeks. We shall see what happens then.

kcmarino wrote:This past weekend I towed a 16' enclosed trailer with my polaris ranger in it. I have a 2012 GMC sierra 1500 all terrain with the 6.2L 3.42 gears 4x4 and HD trailer package. The whole time while towing, it wouldn't come out of 4th gear. It got between 6 and 7 mpg with no wind to speak of. In my opinion it pulled horribly. Trailer and cargo might have weighed 4000 lbs. Love the truck but I am seriously contemplating replacing the gears to 3.73. Does anybody have any info on this situation or comments about gears? Would love to hear.

Either changing the gears or buying a diesel.

How fast were you driving and did you have the "Trailer Mode" engaged?

Our 2011' (equiped with a 5.3 engine, 6-speed & 3.42 gears)pulled a fully loaded 12'x6' tandom axil U-Haul trailer over 300 miles and averaged 12 mpg @ 65 mph on the Interstate while using "Trailer Mode".

Something doesn't sound right. I have the same setup. Pulling a 27' travel trailer, @7200lbs and don't go to 5th unless it's a big hill. Getting around 13mpg @ 60 mph.