Had another trip to an offroad park about 240 miles away. My F350 just isn't up to these type of trips, especially the steeper hills in Pennsylvania.
U-Haul lets you rent their pickups to tow your trailer. It's not cheap, but it's cheaper than a tow bill and way cheaper than a payment on a newer truck and having to DD A truck.
I ended up with a 19 Silverado 1500. These are pretty basic. It did have power window and android auto radio. Uhaul covered up the badges so no idea what model it was. It had the 5.3 , 6 speed auto /2wd and really tall highway gears. 6th gear at 65 was 1500 RPM!
The thing that impressed me the most was the MPG. It's a light truck being base model and 2wd, but I was blown away at the mileage of this truck! I put gas in it 3 times over the 520 miles I had it; all towing my Jeep on trailer (5800 pounds). First tank was 13.4 MPG. Second tank was the worst at 12.6 but that included the death hill. 3rd tank was 13.8 which was most of the ride home. Cruise was set at 65 the whole way, all figured were hand calculated. The MPG display on the gauge cluster always red a bit low.
The second was the power. I guess having 217000 less miles, 20 years more technology, less weight and a torque converter attached to a close ratio automatic helped a ton. This powertrain and gearing combo effortlessly maintained 65 on all of the hills we hit. There's a few hills on 81 where my truck has to run 40 with the 4 ways on and engine screaming away at 4000RPM. The computer had the transmission drop a few gears, never unlocked the torque converter and I never saw more than 2700 on the highway stretch.
On the "death hill" we call it, I was able to get the thing up to 45 MPH. With my tired old F350, it' usually done at 20MPH. It's a 13 or 14% grade with a hairpin in the middle. This truck did awesome! I also didn't have it to the floor to get up to 45. Still never saw more than 4000RPM.
I really, really liked the interior on it. The seats were awesome for a 10 hour drive. I even slept in it two nights. The steering wheel was great and I could turn down everything inside to a reasonable level so I wasn't blinded by the gauge cluster.
The truck really handled my tongue heavy trailer awesome. I didn't feel like the front was unloading or excessively bouncy. It was planted and firm!
Things I didn't like:
There was nothing on the dipstick. I had to add 4 quarts of oil. Being it was a Uhaul rental with 13000 miles, I am pretty sure it's never had an oil change.
The rear suspension squatted a lot! My trailer is heavy on the tongue for sure, but I maxed out the trailer jack and squatted the rear suspension 5 inches! I don't believe the weight was distributed poorly, because the truck handled the trailer awesome!
Lastly, I couldn't see over the hood. the dash is way too high as is the hood.
Honestly, really want to pick up one of these 5.3 / 2wd work trucks. Its perfect for my operation.
U-Haul lets you rent their pickups to tow your trailer. It's not cheap, but it's cheaper than a tow bill and way cheaper than a payment on a newer truck and having to DD A truck.
I ended up with a 19 Silverado 1500. These are pretty basic. It did have power window and android auto radio. Uhaul covered up the badges so no idea what model it was. It had the 5.3 , 6 speed auto /2wd and really tall highway gears. 6th gear at 65 was 1500 RPM!
The thing that impressed me the most was the MPG. It's a light truck being base model and 2wd, but I was blown away at the mileage of this truck! I put gas in it 3 times over the 520 miles I had it; all towing my Jeep on trailer (5800 pounds). First tank was 13.4 MPG. Second tank was the worst at 12.6 but that included the death hill. 3rd tank was 13.8 which was most of the ride home. Cruise was set at 65 the whole way, all figured were hand calculated. The MPG display on the gauge cluster always red a bit low.
The second was the power. I guess having 217000 less miles, 20 years more technology, less weight and a torque converter attached to a close ratio automatic helped a ton. This powertrain and gearing combo effortlessly maintained 65 on all of the hills we hit. There's a few hills on 81 where my truck has to run 40 with the 4 ways on and engine screaming away at 4000RPM. The computer had the transmission drop a few gears, never unlocked the torque converter and I never saw more than 2700 on the highway stretch.
On the "death hill" we call it, I was able to get the thing up to 45 MPH. With my tired old F350, it' usually done at 20MPH. It's a 13 or 14% grade with a hairpin in the middle. This truck did awesome! I also didn't have it to the floor to get up to 45. Still never saw more than 4000RPM.
I really, really liked the interior on it. The seats were awesome for a 10 hour drive. I even slept in it two nights. The steering wheel was great and I could turn down everything inside to a reasonable level so I wasn't blinded by the gauge cluster.
The truck really handled my tongue heavy trailer awesome. I didn't feel like the front was unloading or excessively bouncy. It was planted and firm!
Things I didn't like:
There was nothing on the dipstick. I had to add 4 quarts of oil. Being it was a Uhaul rental with 13000 miles, I am pretty sure it's never had an oil change.
The rear suspension squatted a lot! My trailer is heavy on the tongue for sure, but I maxed out the trailer jack and squatted the rear suspension 5 inches! I don't believe the weight was distributed poorly, because the truck handled the trailer awesome!
Lastly, I couldn't see over the hood. the dash is way too high as is the hood.
Honestly, really want to pick up one of these 5.3 / 2wd work trucks. Its perfect for my operation.
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because that's what I bought real cheap a while back. 
. It does pull well for what it is, but it's just a matter of too wide ratio gearing.On the steeper hills, if I shift out of 2nd at 4500RPM , that will drop the engine just below 2000 RPM. These 5.4s (especially NPI heads) don't make their torque until 2400RPM or so.
