Quote:
Originally Posted by jfk69
So I’m on a couple Keystone FB groups. I’m not sure why I bother lol. There was a post this evening from a guy who tomorrow takes delivery of his new to him 2020 Avalanche 378BH. He intends to pull it with his new to him 2016 GMC Sierra 2500HD Denali with a Duramax. I posted that it wasn’t enough truck and all hell broke loose. I was shocked, or maybe not, by the number of people attacking me and telling him it was “more than enough truck” and supporting their position by talking tow capacity and pictures of their own grossly overloaded rigs that “tow great”. 
I’m actually more afraid tonight to pull down the road than ever, in spite of having witnessed overloaded TV’s and rigs before. It reaffirms my belief that some folks are simply unable to swim out of the shallow end of the gene pool. The poster himself stated that “the numbers don’t work” but he sleeps at night not worrying about his wife and kids because he knows “the former owners pulled it with an F250 and they were fine”. Good Lord. |
2020 Avalanche 378BH.
Technical Specifications:
Length (ft/ft) 40' 7"
Width 8' 4"
Height (in/mm) 13' 4"
Dry Weight 13,616#
Payload Capacity 2,884#
GVWR 16,500#
Hitch Weight Dry 2,820#
So this 5er starts out with a 2,884# pin, on a DRY weight of 13,616, or just over 21%. Taken to full GVWR of 16,500# pin at 21% would be 3,465# even pushing the rear axle rating, without any passengers, Hitch, or stuff in the TV.
Now to the last sentence of your post.
"The former owners pulled it with an F250 and they were fine"
Well his 2016 GMC 2500 likely has a TOWING (AKA PULLING) capacity of about 18,000#+!
So here is the issue, stated many times before a 5er's best feature is also it's worst and gets people trouble in trouble.
That feature is a 5er's inherent stability while being towed. The first owner was probably correct that towing that 5er was fine even over loaded.
I was a bad boy on this forum for several years as I was towing in the end at 1,700# over our 2001 Ram 2500 GVWR, still within tire and axle ratings, but 1,700# over the 8,800# GVWR.
Well it towed very well, never a stability issue, I will say with 3.55's and a manual 5 speed it did work getting going.
It wasn't any issues with stability or even power that prompted the change, it was what happens if I am involved in an crash at 1,700# over GVWR! I saw potential lawsuits even if NOT at fault.
While this was my situation, I never encouraged other to do the same!
After we went full time we decided to get a better suited TV, for two reasons, being over weight, and DW didn't like following me in a second vehicle.
We now have a 2016 Ram 3500 DRW, with a 5,411# payload, and a 25,225# towing capacity.
I will say I also took advantage of Oregon ODOT weigh stations leaving scale displays on when closed and weighed often.