Towing question -- Duramax 3.0

[dukegrad98]

Greetings, friends -- long-time member, infrequent poster. My family is preparing for summer vacation later in June, and I need to tap into the brain trust here for opinions and experience. The question centers around using a 3.0-liter Duramax as a tow vehicle.

We will be towing a rented travel trailer on a loop of about 3000 miles. It weighs 6200lb dry, and should still be well under 7000lb when loaded, with a weight-distributing / anti-sway hitch. I am debating which vehicle to take on the trip. Ordinarily, it's a no-brainer to hook stuff up to my Ram 2500 with the 6.7 Cummins. I've had it since new -- about 14 years and roughly 155k miles on the clock. The other option is our GMC Yukon with the Baby Duramax and the max tow package (either a '21 or '22 year model, I forget). We've got about 40k miles on that vehicle, and I've just never towed anything with it. The GMC would presumably get somewhat better fuel mileage, but more importantly, it would be much more convenient and comfortable for the rest of the family (wife + 2 young kids) during the long trip. I just question whether I am ready to spend two weeks towing at "half power" compared with the old Dodge. On the other hand, people tell me it's some kind of a miracle that my original 68RFE hasn't exploded yet, and I sure don't need to blow a transmission in the middle of a vacation trip where I'm dependent upon the vehicle.

If anyone has relevant trailering experience with the 3.0 Duramax, or other helpful thoughts, I'd sure appreciate hearing from you as we sort out our travel plans. Thanks much!

Cheers, John

[Jacob McCrea]

I would spend an hour or two and try towing it with the GMC, and consider the grades and winds you will be dealing with on the route. Sounds like the GMC would be OK if the grades and winds won't be too bad.

For what it may add: I just towed an 18' camper trailer (maybe 3,500 lbs) from PA to UT with a 2005 Nissan Xterra, which was at the outer edge of what that machine can tow - not because of the weight, but because of the drag that a full-height camper trailer creates. It was a stable enough combination due to the weight distributing/anti-sway hitch. But the wind off of tractor-trailers as they passed pushed it around a lot, requiring constant, tedious correction to stay on the road. And the headwinds coming across I-80 in Wyoming, in that high-wind region west of Cheyenne, were enough to make it feel like all 8 tires were flat. Downhills weren't as bad as I expected due to the drag from the camper acting as an air brake. But with so little horsepower, long grades and high winds would keep me well below the speed limit. If asked, I would say I "got away with it" and would have used my F350 if it had otherwise made sense (it did not). 2k miles towing at the edge of a machine's capabilities wasn't very enjoyable.

[Derald Rice]

X2 on the same experience that Jacob had.

Only in my case it was with a Ford F150 and a 20 foot enclosed trailer going across Kansas.....

On paper it was within limits, but with the winds were so horrible that I pulled into a Ford Dealer in Sallina KS, and
traded the F150 for a F250 that was on their lot.

Problem solved.

Still have the F250.

My choice would be to drive the Dodge and give up the comfort and possible gas savings in exchange for
peace of mind knowing that the rig would not get away from you in adverse conditions.

[ggunter]

I would definitely go for the truck with the most stability if you're going to hit any windy areas. When towing in windy areas you are constantly on edge the entire time. It's not enjoyable.

[Skuzzy]

For me it is a matter of which would be the safest option. Anything can break. Push that Duramax to the limit for a long haul could be just as risky as the tranny in the truck.

[dukegrad98]

Thanks, guys. All valid and helpful points. I'm still undecided, but I do intend to take the rented trailer on a brief "trial tow" with the Yukon and just see how it feels. Our route is mostly southwest -- Texas, New Mexico, southern edges of Colorado and Utah, Arizona, and back again. Nothing heavily mountainous, which is one area where the truck's power really shines, but good points are made about the wind.

Meanwhile, the old Dodge is doing everything it can to make sure I have no confidence in it. Over the weekend it threw a code for the fuel pressure sensor. It's running just fine, so I am not too stressed about that -- I'm pretty confident that it's a sensor problem, or a non-problem. The CEL light went out on its own at a restart before I had a chance to clear the codes. But then while I was doing some routine maintenance I also noticed that the truck also has a disconnected sway bar link. I have aftermarket links (https://us.bddiesel.com/products/dodge-sway-bar-end-link-kit-2010-2012-2500-3500-4wd?variant=37603002843319) with 1/2" hardware and locknuts, etc. All I can figure is that I actually broke the bolt holding the link to the sway bar, because it is totally gone. I've already got the new hardware to fix it, but before I can repair it I have to get the vendor to send me a metal bushing that also vanished when the hardware gave out. She's getting long in the tooth, but my kids have a huge attachment to that truck. I can't get rid of it, but I fear that it is rapidly approaching its days of being the occasional ranch chore truck rather than relied-upon daily driver.

Any additional thoughts still welcome, and I'll update once a decision is made.

Cheers, John

[dukegrad98]

I promised that I would update, so here I am. We returned from our ten or twelve day southwestern-loop vacation this past weekend.

The final answer was "none of the above." I had pretty much decided to take the Yukon, and got it all serviced up for the trip. It was then -- less than 24 hours before departure -- that I suddenly recognized an incredibly obvious flaw in the whole plan. Despite having the max towing package, my Covid-era Yukon does not have a trailer brake controller!!! Remember the chip shortage? That was the best explanation the dealership could give me for its absence on our unit, and on such short notice, they couldn't do anything to prep the vehicle in time for the trip. I sure wasn't going to tow without a brake controller. Meanwhile, since I thought I was taking the Yukon, I hadn't done any work on the Dodge -- and I wasn't going to set off with a broken sway bar link, either. The day before the trip, I was behind the proverbial eight-ball.

Ultimately, I borrowed a good buddy's 2024 GMC Sierra 3500 (SRW) with the Duramax V8. With a load-distributing / anti-sway hitch setup, the travel trailer was a piece of cake behind that truck. Cross-winds were not a major problem, but more than once we pushed into stiff headwinds -- that was heck on fuel economy, but time was more important than fuel cost so we motored onwards at speed. We covered just over 3,600 miles on our trip, with an overall average fuel economy of 8.8mpg. (When I calculated that, I certainly missed the pre-emissions Dodge. The last travel trailer I pulled with my own truck was nearly twice as heavy as this one, and it still gave me nearly 11mpg, on a very similar route!) I used four of the 2.5-gallon jugs of DEF -- a bit less than one jug per hundred gallons of fuel.

As much as I like our Yukon -- very much / more than I ever thought I would! -- I think this trip turned me off of the idea of replacing my Dodge with a GM truck. For being 15 years newer than my Ram, it just had hardly any new or better features. Sure, the infotainment screen is bigger...but it really just does all the same old stuff. It has more cameras...which I use rarely or never. I actually like my old analog speedo and tach, and I don't need them to be digital. My current thought is that I'd be money and miles ahead to replace the Dodge's 68RFE with something built or more reliable (Suncoast? Jasper? Randy's? Allison swap? analysis paralysis!!), do a little cosmetic clean-up on degraded rubber and other items, and then just keep putting miles on the trusty old Cummins.

Anyway...we camped, we glamped, we saw a bunch of national parks, we visited friends, and we had a great family time together with the kids. I just wanted to say thanks again for the input and suggestions, and give you guys the rest of the story on how we wound up rolling. As for trucks and tow vehicles, for now we'll just see what the future holds. Feel free to toss any suggestions or experiences my way!

Cheers, John