I had the 4.3 in my old S-10 and it did great, I towed a boat most the time but on occasion I would haul a trailer with some 4 wheelers on it or a load of fire wood. Most the time it felt like nothing was there. I did have an upgraded suspension and tow package on it though so that might have helped. Not sure what you have on your Silverado for towing or how the 4.3 does in a full size truck on regular driving though. The engine, transmission and rear end were all stock, no intakes or exhaust or anything.

 

You can tow a car trailer behind it. You won't have passing power, so expect to take it easy and cruise, but it can do it. I'm picking up a 18' flat bed to tow my Ramcharger on.

 

add these to your truck, and you will have no problem towing anything

 

Well, I picked up a 20' steel deck car hauler, that thing probably weighs a ton alone. I plan on hauling my Ramcharger up to college in July, so about 250 miles. Mostly flat roads so I should be fine.

 

add these to your truck, and you will have no problem towing anything

Dude, this isn't a dodge forum.

 

looks like someone missed the "Worst exterior mods" thread.. :lol:

 

in the picture below that truck had the 4.3L in it for the first couple years of ownership...it took me threw any mud hole i threw at it...pulled as much weight as i ever put on it... granted it was a 5 speed and i was in total control...but it was the best truck ive ever owned! it was a everyday driving toy! roll in to town with tons of mud all over her...run to lowes and pick up 30 bags of concrete or a bed full of 4x4's....
i had a cheap ebay intake on it a throttle body spacer ( saw no performance) and a flowmaster 40 series single in dual out ( with punched out cats) it sounded just like the 8 cylinders...she would roast off the 33x12.50x15's no questions asked... i loved this truck... after about 1_1/2 yrs of owning @ 100K miles on the motor i threw a slave cylinder in the clutch, and a sway bar linkage...

@ 105K i lost 4 wheel drive found out while 4 wheeling! needless to stay i got stuck...then @ 115K i threw a rod threw the side of the block.. put a crate 350 in her, and found out the 4 wheel drive was i spun the aluminum teeth off the drive shaft in the differential... got a new drive shaft & got the motor running and she ran better then anything ever! about a year later cash for clunkers came around and i was on my junior year of college and it started to not wanna start ( definetly a fuel pump had to put gas down the intake to get her to fire but after she was running it was perfect ) and it was the dead of winter i decided to see what else it out there... so i traded it off on a honda civic Si

but the moral of the story is those 4.3L are a really stong motor i put it threw hell and back probably 50 times and she loved it and wanted more...

 

thanks guys for the feed back!

 

I know I'm coming in a little late (just joined this site) but I saw this discussion and had to comment. My last truck was a 2011 silverado reg. cab with the 4.3 v6. Yes this motor had balls. Not that quick from 0 to 60, but boy this thing could tow.
I have a dump trailer I use to haul stone, dirt etc for work; my heaviest load that I towed with the 4.3 was over 14000lbs
(truck and trailer). When I weighed the truck alone I tipped the scales at about 5300, so I was towing over 8700 lbs.
Not to bad for a v6 especially with 3.23 gears. The truck never seemed to mind the weight, a little slow from a start but would cruise effortlessly at 55. To be fair, I live where it is flat, I don't think this much weight would go over well with steep hills but around delaware no problem. I no longer own this truck because I got the power bug and traded for another '11 reg cab leftover with a 5.3v8 I like that it is faster from a stoplight, but I'll never tow anything with it that the
v6 couldn't.

Oh, and the v6 sounded better at the tallpipe,
Joe S.

P.S. the v6 did get better gas mileage while towing, about the same as the 5.3 unloaded.

 

thatss great js! i figured that they had some weight to them!

 

Well, I picked up a 18' steel deck trailer and will be towing my Ramcharger on it at the beginning of July. I'll let you know how that goes, 250 miles, most flat between Indiana and Michigan, but some small hills. I'm guessing it will be about 6,000lbs on the trailer.

 

Not a quick motor off the line, but one of the best V6's I have ever owned. Excellent torque, so good for towing. I loved the 4.3 I had in my Blazer, and neve had a moments trouble!

 

As stated above, it will do the job fine. You will just kinda be on the "slow but steady" plan on the accelleration. The 4.3 is an excellent engine.

 

I know I'm coming in a little late (just joined this site) but I saw this discussion and had to comment. My last truck was a 2011 silverado reg. cab with the 4.3 v6. Yes this motor had balls. Not that quick from 0 to 60, but boy this thing could tow.
I have a dump trailer I use to haul stone, dirt etc for work; my heaviest load that I towed with the 4.3 was over 14000lbs
(truck and trailer). When I weighed the truck alone I tipped the scales at about 5300, so I was towing over 8700 lbs.
Not to bad for a v6 especially with 3.23 gears. The truck never seemed to mind the weight, a little slow from a start but would cruise effortlessly at 55. To be fair, I live where it is flat, I don't think this much weight would go over well with steep hills but around delaware no problem. I no longer own this truck because I got the power bug and traded for another '11 reg cab leftover with a 5.3v8 I like that it is faster from a stoplight, but I'll never tow anything with it that the
v6 couldn't.

Oh, and the v6 sounded better at the tallpipe,
Joe S.

P.S. the v6 did get better gas mileage while towing, about the same as the 5.3 unloaded.

I'm glad you weren't in a accident while towing that load. Chances are, your insurance would be useless--overloading the manufactures specs is scary shit.....

 

Just towed an open trailer and a Model A Ford to Vermont and back, with a 4.3 2011 Regular Cab 2WD Silverado, 3.23 gears, with no problem. It was dead in the mountains, but the transmission temp. never went ovr 183 (most of the time around 170) and the engine temp. ran at the normal 210 all the time. I did add an additional transmission cooler. The truck does not have the tow package, but does have a suspension package. Got 13.4 MPG. I was impressed with the performance of this small engine. (I usually tow with a Suburban 454)

 

my 93 chevy with the 4.3 is a beast and wont die. hit 200,000 mile on it and i have had 35's on it for the last 60,000 and it keeps going. i take it to truck pulls and i have yet to pull under 250ft lol. and mud bogs i go to it just chugs along and goes anywhere i take it. i love it and wont ever change the motor size.

 

I've used my Silverado to tow my Ramcharger and the parts truck up to college, 260 miles one way, so I can't complain, it made the trip with about 10-11 mpg, I kept it in 3rd gear, tow haul on and I was doing about 75 the whole way, so mileage was going to suffer. It doesn't do as bad when I keep it at 60.

The Ramcharger on the trailer, and a friends Honda Reble in my bed.

The parts truck.

Both times I was pretty much loaded down, so I'm really happy with my truck.

 

does any one know why chevy/gmc
say on their build site you cant add the tow package to the 4.3L
only to the 4.8/5.3L iam talking about the reg cab 2wd/4wd?
thats seems odd to me.