BLJ66

I have a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 4WD Ext Cab 143.5" LTZ and recently I wanted to figure out its towing capacity. WOW! what confusion there is around this subject.
My truck has a 5.3L with a 3.08 axle so I figured no problem. I googled it and looked it up and discovered that it can tow 6800#, (3.42 axle ratio is rated at 9600#).
I double checked these numbers in the owners manual where there is a table for all configurations and confirmed they are correct for my configuration.
OK, no problem (I should have stopped) but I continued to research this and discovered all sorts of numbers flying around.

So I looked up my trucks specs by VIN and got the following specs related to towing: (numbers in bold are the values I believe to be true)
Gross Axle Wt Rating - Front 3950 lbs 3950.0 min 3950.0 max
Gross Axle Wt Rating - Rear 4200, 3950 lbs 3950.0 min 4200.0 max
Curb Weight - Front 3127 lbs 3127.0 min 3158.0 max
Curb Weight - Rear 2085 lbs 2085.0 min 2163.0 max
Gross Vehicle Weight Rating Cap 7200, 7000 lbs 7000.0 min 7300.0 max
Gross Combined Wt Rating 11500, 11000 lbs 11000.0 min 16000.0 max
Wt Distributing Hitch - Max Trailer Wt. 9600, 6800 lbs 6400.0 min 10400.0 max
Wt Distributing Hitch - Max Tongue Wt. 1440, 1020 lbs 960.0 min 1560.0 max
Maximum Trailering Capacity 10400 lbs 10400.0 min 10400.0 max

So here is where I see the confusion.
Question 1) If I am putting in my VIN, why do they give me a range? (for example: is my GCWR 11000 or 16000?), that a big difference.

My truck has a GVWR of 7000# so with a dry weight of 5200# that allows me to haul up to 1800# of stuff. OK that makes sense.
My truck (according to the above table) has a GCWR of 11000# so if my dry weight is 5200# that means I can tow up to 5800# but wait...it says my Max Trailer Wt is 6800#, 11000 - 6800 is 4200#. Where did that extra 1000# go?
Ok since that was confusing let use the "Maximum Trailering Capactity" that will surely clarify my confusion, nope. it says 10400# which is even worse.

Question 2) So what is my "Maximum Trailering Capacity".
As I understand towing capacity you add up your GVWR + Max Trailer Wt which for my truck would be 7000 + 6800 which equals 13800#. That number is not close to the 10400 MTC they list or even the 11000 listed for GCWR
So I thought maybe I was wrong and its your Vehicle Dry Weight + Max Trailer Wt which is 5200 + 6800 = 12000 again that does not equal 10400.
So what is "Maximum Trailering Capacity"? (Looks like a marketing bullet point to me) and I should be using 6800# for max trailer weight and of course go light as possible keeping it to 80% of this number or lower.

If anybody could answer these questions and shed some light on how Chevy goes about spec'ing out there trucks for consumer consumption would be appreciated.

Here are some RPO codes for my truck that may be applicable for reference:
C5W GVW RATING(7000 LBS)
GU4 AXLE,REAR,3.08 RATIO
KNP COOLING SYSTEM,TRANSMISSION,HEAVY DUTY
K5L EQUIPMENT ENHANCED COOLING PACKAGE
LC9 ENGINE FLEXIBLE FUEL,(GAS/ALC),8 CYL,5.3L,SFI,ALUM CYL DEACT,GM
MYC TRANSMISSION AUTO 6 SPD, HMD, 6L-80
VR4 TRAILER HITCH(WEIGHT DISTRIBUTING PLATFORM)
Z82 TRAILERING PACKAGE(SPECIAL)(REESE TYPE HITCH)
Z85 CHASSIS PACKAGE,INCREASED CAPACITY

Doug D

I would check the sticker on the door of your truck. It should be specific to your vehicle. At a minimum it should have the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating and the max axle weight ratings (GAWR Front and GAWR Rear)

No clue what "Maximum Trailer Capacity" is. Might be the max rating of the Class IV hitch.

tech2

go by the owners manual guide.
the weights may be different due to different builds. ie 2wd vs 4wd. the vin decoder probably isn't build specific to the T

this is how i see it.
max trailer weight is the max trailer weight you can pull but you still must consider tonque weight that loads the rear axle. if the max trailer weight is ok but any of the axle or combined weight rating are over...lighten up.
you must consider each factor and make sure you are under for each one.

BLJ66

I believe I have finally figured this out. So for others that may be confused when you pull up specs using the VIN decoder, read on..
When you look at a spec line item that has multiple values, the values are for all possible configurations for your VIN: (I guess your VIN is not build specific as I thought)
For example here is a VIN decoder line item from my original post:
Wt Distributing Hitch - Max Trailer Wt. 9600, 6800 lbs 6400.0 min 10400.0 max
it has 4 different values (6400,6800,9600,10400).
The question arises which value applies to my specific vehicle.

I read another thread that mentioned a "Chevy 2011 Trailer Guide" a guide published by Chevy. So I googled and pulled up this PDF and was able to match up the numbers. (I never knew about this publication)
In the trailer guide is has the following:
Ext. Cab Standard Box 4x4 with a 3.08 axle ratio and a 5.3L engine your maximum towing weight is 6,800
Ext. Cab Standard Box 4x4 with a 3.42 axle ratio and a 5.3L engine your maximum towing weight is 9,600
Ext. Cab Standard Box 4x4 with a 3.42 axle ratio and a 6.2L engine your maximum towing weight is 9,400
Ext. Cab Standard Box 4x4 with MAX Trailering Package and a 3.73 axle ratio and a 6.2L engine your maximum towing weight is 10,400

With this info we can now better understand how those numbers work in their current form.

It also appears the spec line item "Maximum Trailering Capacity 10400 lbs 10400.0 min 10400.0 max" is the maximum weight if you have the max configuration (Optional max trailering package and the largest engine 6.2L).

Hope this help clarify numbers for others.