Towing

[carkrazy1987]

What determines what towing capacity of a vehicle is?

i currently own a 02 s10 crewcab 4x4, with a tired 4.3. ive towed plenty with it before, with no issues, but i think its time to do a few upgrades.

i will be blowing the truck apart soon, ls swapping it, rebuilding the trans, adding aux coolers for oil and trans. also most likely big brakes, with trailer brake controller. i will be upgrading the rear springs at the same time to a bit heavier duty springs. i currently have a load leveler trailer hitch also.

so i guess the question again is, what says how much i can tow, besides my tow hitch, and owners manual.

in a hypothetical world, would i be able to have a fifth wheel with say a 2 car trailer? or would my truck just buckle under the pressure.

i know i could easily go buy a truck to tow. but i like my big lil truck. i can park anywhere, its comfortable, paid for.

what are your thoughts?

[DBasher]

[QUOTE=carkrazy1987
in a hypothetical world, would i be able to have a fifth wheel with say a 2 car trailer? or would my truck just buckle under the pressure.

what are your thoughts?[/QUOTE]

Hypothetical or not, that’s scary as hell to even think about. I’m wondering if the hypothetical trailer is a converted travel trailer
Do the upgrades you want with the lil S-10 and go out and find yourself a 3/4 ton Suburban or truck for 5k to tow with.

[carkrazy1987]

i expect alot of people to say just buy another truck i know that would be the easiest solution.

what i want to know is why/what is stopping my truck from being a capable hauler? wheel base, width, weight, truck too small, frame too weak.

[DBasher]

Originally Posted by carkrazy1987

what i want to know is why/what is stopping my truck from being a capable hauler? wheel base, width, weight, truck too small, frame too weak.

Yes, all of that.

[carkrazy1987]

now not trying to be arrogant or start a fight, just trying to educate myself.

where do these specs or requirements come from. or is it just general consensus that bigger is just better in this case.

obviously a 2 car hauler is a gross exaggeration. i feel that big of a trailer would just drag me around.

i would just like to be educated in the upgrades on my truck so it can be a good capable hauler for when i do pull a trailer.

[DBasher]

When towing, bigger is better. The frame, axles, hubs, bearings, brakes...everything needs to be up to the task. On a 1/2 ton or 1/4 ton everything is smaller, lighter and was never designed or engineered to sustain the loads you’d be asking of them.

I’d stick to, or close to, the manufactures recommendations for the S-10.

[Vegas69]

Physics, an S10 is a tiny truck which means it will handle things appropriate sizes. Think of a full size truck and what it tows and a semi, etc.. A 5th wheel could literally push you right off the road.

[Scratch]

Light suspension and poorly balanced bumper hitch will end up with the tail wagging the dog (YouTube towing fails). Your load leveler is effectively doing the same thing a fifth wheel hitch does which is put the load over or in front of the rear axle. The problem with load levelers is they are trying to buckle the hitch/frame behind the axle, so as to say pushing the front of the truck down by using the hitch to lift the rear. Within limits all is fine and the rig drives nicely. To put a number on what a modified truck can safely tow would be hard to do. In my opinion the manufacturer numbers are probably not too overly cautious. Remember every manufacturer spends millions of $$$ on r&d to make the trucks we use do what they are supposed to, deviate from that and it's a crap shoot. (Of course by that logic we shoul all scrap our latg cars and buy c7 vettes, vipers or ford gts)
All that said if you want to maximize your load capacity fifth wheel is best and be very cautious (again towing fails)

[TheJDMan]

I owned a 2003 S-10 ZR-2 and while it was a fun truck to drive around town and off road, it was simply too small and light weight to make a safe tow vehicle. I would never have tried to pull an open deck car trailer with it. It was simply too small. When it comes to a tow vehicle bigger and heavier is better and there is nothing you can do to an S-10 that will make it safe to tow even an open trailer and car! Don't waste your money trying to make it work because it will never be safe. Be smart, do yourself and everyone around you on the road a favor and buy a 3/4 ton truck. Don't be that guy!

[DBasher]

So the other issue with using your S10...insurance. Insurance companies don’t like to pay out on claims (duh). If you’ve altered a vehicle and are involved in an incident, they’ll look at it and most likely deny and kind of coverage for you. Not so bad if you jack knife and wrinkle your bed side, not so good if you hit another vehicle and injuries are involved.

Just sayin