Weighed the Montana

[jhudson]

quote:Originally posted by Phil P

Jhudson

Looking at the specs for you truck I think you may have the wrong GCW. I think you are using the weight for the DRW truck.

Hi Phil,

No the numbers are correct for 2012 3500 extended cab SWR. I don't have the numbers for the DWR, but it is higher than the 24500 pounds GCWR that my truck has. I have confirmed with both my documents (ordered from factory), owners manual, and lastly dealer. As we all know the dealer will say any to sell a truck.

I special ordered this truck to the specifications I wanted. I just did not want the DRW.

Have a great weekend and thanks for the input.

Jay

[jhudson]

quote:Originally posted by Irlpguy


You did not mention your GAWR on your Montana, I suspect if you have 7k axles and Marathon tires were the original tires then your rating on the VIN sticker on the trailer would be 6750 per axle. I wonder if you would mind checking that figure just for my information only.

I checked the VIN sticker on the upper left hand side of the Montana and the GAWR is 6750# just like you said.

All for now,

Jay

[Phil P]

Hi jhudson

There must have been a midyear change. My friend SRW Silverado of the same year and same cab had a chart in the owner’s manual. The number you used was listed for the DRW truck and the column for the SRW showed a reduced amount.

I was impressed with the backup camera. That sure made it easier to backup to a tag-A-long trailer. That was what he was pulling with hobby equipment in it. Did you order the backup camera with your truck?

Phil P

[jhudson]

quote:Originally posted by Phil P

Hi jhudson

There must have been a midyear change. My friend SRW Silverado of the same year and same cab had a chart in the owner’s manual. The number you used was listed for the DRW truck and the column for the SRW showed a reduced amount.

I was impressed with the backup camera. That sure made it easier to backup to a tag-A-long trailer. That was what he was pulling with hobby equipment in it. Did you order the backup camera with your truck?

Phil P

Hi Phil,

You got me to look at all my charts again so I have that information for you.

3500 extended cab 4WD SRW GCWR is 24500#
3500 extended cab 4WD DRW GCWR is 30500#

Remember both of these are with the diesel and 3.73 axle ratio.

Interesting to point out that the 2500 extended cab has the same GCWR of 24500# with the diesel.

Now if I go to the gas 3500 extended cab SRW the GCWR is 20500# with the 4.10 axle ratio. The 3500 extended cab DRW has the same GCWR of 20500# If we change axle ratios to 3.73 both drop to 16000# GCWR.

When I ordered this truck I also went with the camera. Works great and is a great benefit when backing without the trailer in tow. Cannot see much with the trailer there. Mine only works when the truck is in reverse but I have heard there may be methods to override this going forward but I don't find the need to do that.

Hope I answered all your questions,

Regards,

Jay

[Chip]

Rereading these posts had a thought. If the 80% rule is applied to our Montanas weight we are all in big trouble.

[vangoes]

Excellent point Drew!

[Phil P]

quote:As for driving this unit, I was totally surprised! It tows smoother than my Titanium and I thought the Ti was good. I do burn more fuel though, with the Titanium I averaged 12 mpg, however with the Montana, so far I have done 10.5 mpg. I do not go over 60 miles per hour travel in the right lane and enjoy the views. I am not surprised as it does require more go peddle up the hills and weighs 5680 more pounds than my Titanium.

Hi

How much mileage do you now have on your Silverado?

Ours got poor mileage while towing and I was really disappointed.

Then at about 30,000 miles on our way from Seattle Washington to Spokane I gained 1 mile per gallon.

This was the case at every fill up until I reached 12 miles per gallon and it has stabilized there.

I just pulled a trailer from Florida to West Virginia and returned without the trailer.

I maintain 60 MPH when towing because that is where the most efficient fuel burn is under load.


I got 17.8 miles per gallon at 75 MPH on the run back home.

Phil P

[jhudson]

quote:Originally posted by Phil P

How much mileage do you now have on your Silverado?

Currently I have 23,000 miles on the Silverado. It sure would be nice to see it go up but I am not holding my breath. This vehicle runs urea(diesel exhaust fluid) and has the exhaust filter and 9th injector that burns about one gallon of diesel each time it needs to clean itself. My Dodge Cummins without all the emissions stuff was superior in mileage to the Silverado. Power is a different story though, Silverado excels here and in everything other category compared to the Dodge. But I have to say the Dodge was a 1999.

All for now,

Jay

[rohrmann]

Hi, This is for Jay. We upgraded from a 16K Reese slider hitch to an 18K PullRite slider mounted on the same standard rails. We need the slider with the 6.5 bed in our 2012 2500 Chevy DA CC. The margin of safety using the 16K with our 2012 3402 was pretty slim, plus it was a pain to go through the motions when we did need to slide the Reese. The PullRite works great, starts sliding once you get over 16 degrees either way from dead straight and comes right back when straight again.

Our 3402 also came with the E range Marathons and mounted on the aluminum wheels. I too will eventually switch up to G range tires, so was very happy to discover inside the wheels is says 110 psi rating on the wheels, so will work with the G range tires.

[Phil P]

Jhudson

You will probably start gaining mileage somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 miles.

I purchased a 2012 Cruz for my wife and the car has always had a shake in the front end.

GM has spent a lot of time trying to fix it. They had field engineers down here working on it and they couldn’t fix it. We pickup our 2013 Malibu Monday 9/23

While the engineers were here the service manager pointed out that we had the Silverado 3500 Duramax. I got some good information from them even though they had to check with their truck people to answer some of my questions.

This was some time before this thread was started.

However when I told them about my mileage increase they informed me that the Duramax engine doesn’t “break in” until somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 miles and the engine has a reputation of running strong thru 200,000 miles. They also indicated that the reason for mine apparently breaking in around 30,000 miles was because of my operating most of the time at or near the GCW rating for the truck.

They never said anything about operating 80% below the design weight of the vehicle.

I have always purchased the truck designed to do the job I need to do I never purchased them 20% over the specification for the work to be performed.

Never had a problem and when we were in the House Moving business we were over loaded by permit most all the time. Never had a problem.

If the engineers say it can be operated at 23,500 lbs that’s where I operate them. The delivery guys beat their Silverado’s much harder than we do for sure and if they were having any problems they would be finding them at the weight / inspection stations.

Phil P