4.3 2010 Silverado towing?

[econo racer]

Has anyone towed there car on an open trailer with one? I towed with a 1988 with a 305 and it was decent. My trailer and car weighs about 5K. If I recall it has 300 hp.

[donforeman]

Model: 2010 Chevrolet Silverado 1500
MPG: 15 city / 20 highway
Horsepower: 195 hp @ 4,600 rpm
Towing capacity: 4,400 lbs

google search turned up this...

Just thought I would post my experience in case any of y'all with a 4.3 are considering towing anything. The little v6s will get the job done, but its going to be quite a task for the engine. Maybe if you're on flat ground you will have an easier time than I did. But these Tennessee hills definitely made me wish I had a 5.3 under the hood. My next truck will be a v8.

[Zmechanic]

I rode along with someone to go pickup a car on a flat trailer in exactly one of those.

On flat ground it holds its own fine. On hills you'll end up in the right lane most semis use making your way up slower than you'd probably like.

The 5.3's are around 300hp. No way the 4.3s make that.

[midnightbluS10]

The newest version is close to that. 285 hp @ 5300 rpm/305 tq @ 3900 rpm for 2019 for the LV3 Ecotec3 4.3L. Claimed 297/315 using E85. All aluminum. 11:1 compression. Direct injection. AFM & VVT. Billet steel cam and forged crank. 1.8 ratio rockers.

Still available as the standard engine in work trucks and base models.

[groberts101]

It'd get by without any mountains in your way.. but having only 4 forward gears will end up being your biggest achilles. Newer models are able shrink motor sizes due to ever increasing gear counts.

[econo racer]

Well i was definitely wrong on the HP. I realized that I must have read the specs on a new truck. because I was thinking that the trans had way more gears too as someone stated. The one I looked at was a 2010.

[peejay]

It'd get by without any mountains in your way.. but having only 4 forward gears will end up being your biggest achilles. Newer models are able shrink motor sizes due to ever increasing gear counts.

Not so much as you'd think. The gear explosion isn't so much for acceleration and towing ability as it is to keep the engine at its best possible BSFC to squeak out more fuel economy. Even then it can backfire, Chevy found that the added drag from the 6 speed auto was more harmful than the benefit of keeping the engine at peak efficiency in the LS2/LS3 days, because the peak BSFC was so broad.

So, conjecturally, they're able to make the engines more peaky efficiency-wise to complement the more gears available.

I towed a car on a steel flatbed trailer behind a 4l pushrod Ford and it had no problems at all with hills, didn't even need to leave overdrive if it was over 65mph. But this was in a B4000, not a huge modern truck that probably weighs almost as much as that entire truck/trailer combo...

[Truckedup]

I have an 03 Silverado 4.8 5 speed manual with 3.42 gears. It's rated to tow 5500 pounds.....But when towing a weight like that the engine likes to be at 4000 rpm going up hills to make any speed....

[gnicholson]

my question is why would you even consider towing with a 4.3 when the 5.3 is better in every way including hiway fuel economy. even that is to small for me

[Frankshaft]

my question is why would you even consider towing with a 4.3 when the 5.3 is better in every way including hiway fuel economy. even that is to small for me

Probably because that's what he owns. I would say yes, it will tow it. Take your time, don't hammer on it, and stay to the right. A friend of mine used to tow his with a F150 with a 300 straight 6, wasn't ideal, but it got it there.

[Roundybout]

Buddy had 2010 with the 4.3 and hauled around landscape stuff no problem. Also used it in NH lugging around ATV and dirt bikes. Probably around 3200-3500lbs

On the highway you'll need everyone of those 195HP to maintain speed up hills. You tip in throttle and the converter unlocks, then the downshift to third, you know the drill lol. Around town and cruising under 60MPH was no problem. Handled and braked fine too.

[groberts101]

It'd get by without any mountains in your way.. but having only 4 forward gears will end up being your biggest achilles. Newer models are able shrink motor sizes due to ever increasing gear counts.

Not so much as you'd think. The gear explosion isn't so much for acceleration and towing ability as it is to keep the engine at its best possible BSFC to squeak out more fuel economy. Even then it can backfire, Chevy found that the added drag from the 6 speed auto was more harmful than the benefit of keeping the engine at peak efficiency in the LS2/LS3 days, because the peak BSFC was so broad.

So, conjecturally, they're able to make the engines more peaky efficiency-wise to complement the more gears available.

I towed a car on a steel flatbed trailer behind a 4l pushrod Ford and it had no problems at all with hills, didn't even need to leave overdrive if it was over 65mph. But this was in a B4000, not a huge modern truck that probably weighs almost as much as that entire truck/trailer combo...

I spoke from firsthand experience.. also drove that drivetrain combo for years in my own company stuff. Have seen and driven many at work loaded up with work gear and mounted toolboxes/fueltanks used for highway heavy construction. Foreman hate em' and it's always the low guys on the totem pole that they get handed to. The newer stuffs higher gear count is MUCH more forgiving to hauling weight around due to added torque multiplication factors.

You'd have to give me one for free before I would choose to haul a car trailer around with it. Even then.. I'd probably still trade it off for a v8 with more gears. lol

[peejay]

Buddy had 2010 with the 4.3 and hauled around landscape stuff no problem. Also used it in NH lugging around ATV and dirt bikes. Probably around 3200-3500lbs

On the highway you'll need everyone of those 195HP to maintain speed up hills. You tip in throttle and the converter unlocks, then the downshift to third, you know the drill lol. Around town and cruising under 60MPH was no problem. Handled and braked fine too.

That's a good way to kill a transmission, especially the 4L60 if they were still using it back then. Downshift before you feed in the power, don't wait for the transmission to react and bang down a gear.

[mach1charlie]

I tow with a 04 regular cab 4.3 5 speed 3.42 gear. Never use 5th gear, 215k miles still on original clutch. Truck only weighs 4000lbs. That's the real problem, it's easy for the load to out weigh truck.

[dwilliams]

Has anyone towed there car on an open trailer with one? I towed with a 1988 with a 305 and it was decent.

In the early '90s I towed an open trailer with a bunch of cars between dealerships, up in the Ozark mountains, with mostly late-80s Chevy trucks with various engines. The 305 trucks were uniformly dogs; the 350 and 4.3 were practically industinguishable from each other, from a sample set of a dozen or so of each.

Based on that, I'd have no problem using a 4.3 for any reasonable towing.

[I'm guessing the results were due to the stock ECM programming, not the inherent characteristics of the engines themselves]