Owners

Tips for Safely Hauling with your New Truck

There are many things to consider when towing with your new truck. Things like capacities, safety, procedures, and accessories. Before you hit the road, read on for a list of everything you should know about safely towing with your truck.

Procedures

Figuring out your truck’s weight capacities is crucial. This doesn’t just mean finding out if the engine has enough power to tow or haul a load. It also means taking the weight of your items inside the truck, like passengers or supplies, into account. Your truck’s ball and hitch also have to be the right size. If you don’t have a snug fit when you clamp down, it can lead to a dangerous driving situation. Another failsafe is to use cross chains underneath the hitch from the truck to the trailer. This is to prevent the trailer from slamming into the ground or pulling away in the event it unhitches from the truck.

Recommendations

Thankfully, many GM trucks have cameras to aid you in hitching. The multiple camera views offer help when lining up to hitch, and are great for keeping an eye on your payload or trailer during the trip. The Chevy Silverado even has a camera to give you a look inside the trailer when towing animals. Most trucks have a standard towing capacity, but you may need a little more. Towing Packages up the capacity by upgrading the frame and hitch platform, adding a wiring harness for the trailer, and engine cooling. Never forget to perform a light check before you leave to make sure brake and turn signal lights synchronize to your truck. The in-vehicle trailering systems from GM help you with pre-departure checklists and tire-pressure monitoring.

Trucks to Consider

There are many trucks from Chevy and GMC that have the reliability and power to tow safely. The Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon are midsize trucks that can pull up to 7,700 pounds. Moving up to the full-size segment, the Chevy Silverado 1500 is the best at towing with up to 13,400 pounds of capacity. The GMC Sierra has an industry-first carbon fiber composite bed that hauls a lot without damaging the truck. Both have an impressive 15 camera views available. For monster weight, the heavy-duty versions of those trucks pull astounding loads. Both GMC and Chevy HD models have a standard capacity of over 18,000 pounds, but when equipped with a gooseneck hitch it grows to a heavy-duty 35,500 pounds.

For more tips on safe towing, information on towing accessories, and to test drive our lineup of heavy-duty trucks, visit us at Wiesner of Huntsville today.