How much weight can it tow?

[Cap'n Hook]

Originally Posted by dubds10

Well it's looking like I may be hauling almost 10,000lbs. My one trailer is between 4-5000lbs dry weight plus the suburban with is another 4-5000lbs with all the extra parts. Figured out I need to put a different hitch on the blazer and rewire everything, so I'll be cutting out the current hitch and welding in a new one out back with new hook ups.

I guess we'll see how it goes for towing 9,000+lbs for 100miles. Original TH350 tranny and 3:73 rearend with a 350 crate motor with around 50,000 miles. If only I had my toy hauler built already lol Make life so much simpler...oh well.

First, what kind of trailer do you have that is 5K pounds empty weight? I have a 20' car hauler with steel deck, 2 and 5/16ths hitch with 5K lb drop leg, and 2-5200 lb axles that is only 2700 lbs empty!

Second, I would NEVER dream of putting 10K lbs behind my 39 year old half-ton rated Jimmy with the short wheelbase it has! Hell, the GVWR of my Jimmy is 5000 I think, and with a tongue weight of close to 1K lbs, that's gonna be almost maxing the GVWR on just the truck!

[low'n slow]

Why don't you flat tow it and avoid all the weight on the Blazer? You would sill need the good brakes though.

[Leinie]

I once towed a 16' U-Haul car trailer with a 91 Cavalier on it fron Denver to Minneapolis- behind my 72 Blazer. I would call that the limit of safe.
I wouldn't care to do it again, but I would in a pinch. U-Haul's computer gave me the thumbs up or they wouldn't have rented it to me.

[Critter]

Originally Posted by low'n slow

Why don't you flat tow it and avoid all the weight on the Blazer? You would sill need the good brakes though.

True, that would be better than using a trailer with no brakes. At least you would save a few pounds and not put any weight on the tongue aka your rear leaf springs. But still, a shorter lighter vehicle pulling a longer heavier vehicle is always a little dicey regardless.

[dubds10]

Originally Posted by pumpkin

It is not legal to weld a hitch to the frame in BC. I am a motor vehicle inspector, and that would fail.

Well that's good to know. I've seen so many hitches welded on to frames up here I figured it'd be fine. I ended up switches hitches with a buddy of mine anyways. His was a perfect fit for my blazer.

I was going to use a tilt deck trailer, which we use for the bobcat. It's 4500lbs dry weight. Carries 16,000lbs roughly. I didn't want to use it though due to the weight, so I spent all day Saturday digging my buddy's 18ft flat deck out of his mud pit of a yard. It's around 2000-2500lbs dry weight.

Went down yesterday afternoon with the top off..very cold drive. Loaded up the beast of a SUV and made the drive back to Bellingham where Bob (MUDMIZER) was kind enough to let me sleep over till today when I could cross the boarder. Once again, the bed was greatly appreciated Bob, hope to see your vehicles in the day light sometime Thanks for the great American hospitality.

The blazer pulled the trailer and 'burb great actually. For pulling around 7000lbs the Blazer didn't miss a beat. I honestly was surprised. The rearend only dropped maybe 2-3" overall. And I thought about a dolly or flat towing but I'm pretty sure that's not legal to do here in BC. Maybe in the states you can get away with it, but that's a long drive to flat tow. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get my trailer brakes hooked up in time or the weight distribution setup on. So it was all Blazer and driver doing the work...

Here's a pic of it I just took. Just got home and unloaded it in the driveway. Poor old 'burb will probably get chopped up and put on a newer turbo diesel chassis I need a good towing vehicle lol

Now I'm off to go pick up the '68 4x4 and bring it back today too...hopefully. It'll be a much lighter load though.

[dccarpenter]

Great to hear everything went well..sometimes everyone on these boards can be a bit too cautious. People towed with these trucks all the time when they came out..there were no 2010 silverado 3500 diesels available to do all your towing for you.

[Cap'n Hook]

You towed that without a top for 100 miles? In the Winter? Wow! Here in Texas I put the top back on in September when the nights start dipping into the 60's!

[dubds10]

It was a very very cold drive lol But without the top I was able to see everything better since I have those peep mirrors which are good for nothing when it comes to driving in general...especially towing a vehicle.

I just found another truck to buy. My neighbours are going to kill me though if I've got 4 of these beasts sitting in my driveway. Oh well...

[OldCreek]

no way!!!

[pumpkin]

Good to hear all went well.