Towing / Loading fine with 5.4L
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Senior User
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 106
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Towing / Loading fine with 5.4L
Well...after reading on here good and bad points about towing with the 5.4 ......I finally have real world experience to share.
Yesterday, brother in law needed help, his older Blazer won't tow up hills so he called me.
We put 1500 lbs of tile and assorted grout etc in back of my truck...we hooked up his 3000lb trailer o'tools to my truck...his empty. We drove 200 miles beginning at 5000 feet above sea level, going over a pass at 10,000 feet and ending at the house he was working on at 8500 feet.
The truck towed awesome...yes I had to kick the overdrive off when climbing but I was able to go 70 mph oup those hills, even passing his dog of a chevy a couple of times. 3500-3800 rpms and 70 mph going up about a 6% grade! I am pretty stoked about it. The coolest thing was when the tile guy put the "pallet" of tile in back of my truck and it hardly moved. He says...wow, it didn't even sag! I was thinking the same thing, but acted like I was used to it.
Very happy w/ the performance of my truck...very happy.
Yesterday, brother in law needed help, his older Blazer won't tow up hills so he called me.
We put 1500 lbs of tile and assorted grout etc in back of my truck...we hooked up his 3000lb trailer o'tools to my truck...his empty. We drove 200 miles beginning at 5000 feet above sea level, going over a pass at 10,000 feet and ending at the house he was working on at 8500 feet.
The truck towed awesome...yes I had to kick the overdrive off when climbing but I was able to go 70 mph oup those hills, even passing his dog of a chevy a couple of times. 3500-3800 rpms and 70 mph going up about a 6% grade! I am pretty stoked about it. The coolest thing was when the tile guy put the "pallet" of tile in back of my truck and it hardly moved. He says...wow, it didn't even sag! I was thinking the same thing, but acted like I was used to it.
Very happy w/ the performance of my truck...very happy.
Senior User
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 178
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I had the same reaction the first time I towed with my 5.4L I live at about 4400ft and loaded my rig with an ATV trailer with 2 quads and my dirt bike.All the associated stuff that comes along with camping for 5 days in the sand dunes went into the bed. As you said the truck didn't sag a bit, in fact the only noticeable was the suspension wasn't nearly as firm (read that as stiff). I even got to pass an empty Hemi going uphill, I thought about offering the guy a quarter to buy some dignity. I had no problem keeping about 70 up a 5-6% grade. I wonder if the guys that aren't happy with the 5.4's had the 4.10 gears or the 3.73's (or something close to that).
