Anybody do serious towing with their E3500? I have a 2016 Express 3500 passenger extended with the 6.0 and 3.42 gr. I am considering purchasing a 35’ travel trailer GVWR 7600#. Lots of mountains here. Experience towing a long heavy load like this? Advice? Is the van going to be an ok match?

 

I'm sure its quite capable. that suspension, eng, trans, ratio in a truck would pull that no problem. The van should also.

 

You will need the GM optional transmission cooler and an aftermarket cooler to tow that or you'll overheat your engine and transmission in the hills. You'll probably want to go to the wrecker and pull a set of mirrors off of a box van because nobody makes extension mirrors for these vans.
I have only towed that much weight with a 16' trailer so I can't comment on towing a camper that size but a few people on here have. My van has a 4-speed with the 6.0 and it did it OK with the 16' but I wouldn't want to go any heavier.

 

Cody,

That is exactly my setup.... 2016 extended 3500 with the 6.0L gasser, towing a 35' travel trailer that weighs around 7600# (loaded). Inside the van is me, my wife, 6 kids, and all of their "necessary" items for the trip. My goal is to keep the total trailer weight under 8000# to ensure that I don't go over the GCWR of 16,000#. I haven't been in truly mountainous terrain with it, but we've driven in the foothills of the Appalachians through NC, VA, and PA on a trip to NY state. You can expect to slow down going uphill, but not embarrassingly slow. The 6.0L does pretty well. There is no "factory optional" trans cooler for these vans (the only thing you get with the factory towing package is a trailer hitch and trailer wiring harness, which I installed in an afternoon in my driveway for about $300-400), but I recommend an aftermarket trans cooler for additional cooling if you are pulling in hills often (it's on my to-do list since our van's primary purpose is to tow our camper).

I've commented in other threads about my setup, and I'm happy to share my experience.

 

I bought a used (25,000 mile former rental fleet) 2019 Express 3500 long wheel base 12 passenger van, 6.0L, 6L90E, 3.42 with the G80 HD locking diff this past May and using it to tow a 2019 Grand Design 2400BH at around 6500lbs. Ive put 5000 miles on the van so far, all of it towing. MPG is 7-9 usually, 17-18 unloaded. My trailer is 24 foot but is heavy and quite tall compared to most TTs I see in this length so it catches alot of wind and the engine will notice. The van tows great and I am in the Texas hill Country so alot of grades are the norm. I usually tow in manual mode with 5th selected. If Im going into a head wind, the van will spend alot of time in 4th gear around 2900-3000 RPM but otherwise will cruise comfortably in 5th at 2300RPM at 70 MPH. I had to do a panic stop on my last trip and I was blown away with how quickly it stopped and my trailer brakes were only set to 5.5 at the time. The grade braking on the 6 speed works very well in the hills. The factory mirrors work fine but there are towing mirrors available. I have a rear camera on my TT and although the long reach towing mirrors would be nice, there are not a necessity on these vans in most situations. The van is very stable in all situations and even large 18 wheelers or cross winds dont upset it.

The ride isnt great but tolerable and expected for a 1 ton. Im a little disappointed with all the rattles in a 1 year old truck but new shocks are next on the list and one of these days Im going to take all the interior panels off and try to eliminate some of those rattles.

I never have needed 4x4 and even used the van to pull a overloaded pontoon boat up a slippery boat ramp. The G80 did its job very well and I still have the stock (junk) tires with little tread left.

If the price wasnt sooo good on this van I got (with the G80) that seemed hard to find on the used market, I would have held out for the '21 model with the 6.6L gas engine. I could be wrong but just like the 6.0L didnt get much if any of a max trailer rating increase when it went from the 4 speed trans to the 6 speed trans and GM dropping the axle ratio to 3.42 for better MPGs, I suspect the new 6.6L will get an even taller rear axle and rating will stay about the same. Also may have something to do with the (small by today's standards) brakes inside of the 16 inch wheels. I dont think they can go any larger on the brakes with these wheels. That being said, real world the 6.6L will be a big improvement just like the 6 speed was a real world improvement over the old 4 speed. And the 6.0L engine is simple, robust and reliable with a proven track record.

As others have stated, you will need a brake controller (aftermarket) and a way to monitor the trans temps as the factory cluster does not give you this information for some odd reason. Shocks are also a popular upgrade as the factory ones are garbage. I have heard others talking about a rear sway bar and Im interested to try that. The rear end on this van tends to float around unloaded during emergency maneuvers much more than I remember on our old 1995 G30 van (which was also a 12 passenger but much shorter wheelbase).

Also know that nobody seems to make molded all weather floor mats for this van. I bought the expensive GM ones and was disappointed in their overall fit and that they did not have a lip to trap water and mud. If I were buying a new van, I would get the rubber flooring instead of carpet. Its crazy that weather tech doesn't make these considering how long this van has been in production and the millions of vehicles on the road.

 

Sorry, meant to quote ya, what mirrors did you go with, how was the install?

 

Is that GVWR the true GVWR, meaning the trailer's max weight, with water, toys, luggage, fully stocked fridge etc? I have a forest river 26dbh that's stamped something like 6k on the tongue, but that's dry weight, I imagine packed I'm up around 8k at least. I pulled it last summer with a 5.3 suburban 1500, and I white-knucked and crawled up many hills from So Cal to South Dakota and back. I just got my 2019 3500 for future trips, and I know it will easily pull the trailer if I could pull it a few thousand miles with a 5.3...But again I'm pulling a 26 foot trailer and its a lightweight one... I cannot imagine a 35 foot being that light fully stocked.

 

I think it can really vary with manufacture, number of slides etc. My trailer made by Grand Design is only 24 feet long and has one slide but it has a scale verified empty weight of 5800 lbs which matches the empty weight sticker on the trailer. Mine came with all the "extras" like the spare, double propane, electric jack, battery etc. When I am stocked up ready to go I am about 6700-6800 lbs. Gross vehicle weight rating on mine is 7600. I rarely ever travel with water in the fresh tank but one time I did and the van didn't really notice the extra weight but I was also in South Texas so not many grades. My point is when I was shopping for a trailer, I was originally looking at 24 feet and shorter to match with my older 1500 chevy truck at the time and noticed that many trailers much longer than the one I ended up buying weighed less but seemed to be built cheaper. In my opinion, the longer and lighter (for their size and length) trailers are the more dangerous ones especially when paired to smaller tow vehicles. That was the choice I made back then but now my family has grown hence the purchase of the Express which tows night and day better than my 1991 350 5 speed half ton but now I will have to look at bigger trailers soon I guess.

 

I bought these (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LTXP23C), but I'm not really impressed with them. They do extend far enough to see down the side of the RV, but they are kind of small and shake when driving, which means they are good enough to identify if a car is approaching, but that's about it. Additionally, they attach with a plastic bolt that feels very cheaply made, and one mirror frame broke and nearly fell off during my first use. I glued it back together with epoxy and fabricated a new bolt out of metal and they've stayed in place ever since (I still don't like them very much though) I find myself using the small convex mirror on van's stock mirror assembly to watch my trailer wheels for backing (my TT doesn't have a camera on the back of it... yet).

I've very seriously considered these (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Towing-Mirr...w/372250196465). Their price bounces between around $360 to $500 depending if they are "on sale" or not, but that's a lot of $$ for some mirrors. Even though the primary purpose of my van is to tow our TT, I'm not sure if I want to have the box-truck mirrors on permanently. They look easy enough to swap out, but It's an additional hassle. (I wish they made extendable mirrors like the trucks have, c'mon GM!).

 

Thanks, I'm probably going to get those cheap ones, I just want to make sure when I change lanes there's no one back there. How did that one break? Can I prevent it by pre-buying metal screws...not over tightening, etc? Also, do you think additional "putty" between the mirrors would reduce shake? I'm thinking either plumbers putty, or "museum putty" like this: https://www.lowes.com/pd/DAP-BLUESTI...hesive/3024947