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I was in a similar boat - I was terrified of towing. It kept me up nights! I particularly envisioned getting stuck in gas stations. About a month ago I got a 24 ft trailer. I found that towing - which I am still not completely comfortable with - was nonetheless pretty much a breeze - just allow...

This is something I recently learned. You cannot go by the towing capacity to understand how much you can tow. How much you can tow is determined by the amount of payload (passengers, stuff) in the tow vehicle as well as the weight of the trailer. If you carry alot in your truck you can't tow...

Thanks - that's food for thought as I would be towing much more.

That would be a great van. Love the fact they now come with locking differentials. They didn't use to.

On man - that is a quite a van!

Nice! Thanks for all the ideas. I was thinking about a tune as well. I wonder how much torque that would provide. Probably worth it just to try it out and see what it produced. I found a shop that would swap in a 6.0L - $12-15K - lots of money - but the power would be great. The 4.8L has been...

Thanks - I hadn't thought of a new cam at all :)

Yes - very helpful. It took me five years to try that and it quickly got me out of what appeared to be an ungodly mess :)

It is the wrong vehicle for sure - or is the most difficult vehicle for sure - and it would be cheaper to pick up a pickup. For now a van is needed. If in the future it isn't = a pickup, Suburban or something like it would be better. Good luck with your rebuilt Suburban. Something like that...

Changing the gear ratio is a good idea - don't know why I hadn't thought about that. All the Chevy vans to my knowledge are 3.42. That might be the best first option!. It simply won't go up some hills - so there the gear ratio change makes sense as well. I know it's not cheap but that might be...

2010 / has tow/haul mode / 3.42 / its got the 6-speed I'm not excited towing on the road but not really worried about it. Slow and steady. So long as it has time to build up speed it's fine. It's the dirt roads - particularly in the desert that I'm worried about =.

Here's the issue - a baby V-8 with little low end torque may have to tow a 5000 lb trailer in the future. I'm not worried about on-road - although I would hardly look forward to some hills. Off-road is my concern as I tend to get into some somewhat sketchy areas and do get stuck from time to...

6.6 will actually get better mpg than the 6.0. It's a newer more efficient engine and the reports I've seen suggests it gets a couple of mpg better. Unless you can order from a dealer or online and then are willing to wait quite a while or can snatch one up as it becomes available, I don't see...

I guess the issue is finding one in good shape. That's incredible gas mileage for that heavy truck/Ambo that's for sure.

I've thought of that - be nice to have 4x4 - but if you look in a Suburban and look in a van - a van - even the low Chevy vans - have so much more space. I have an extended van - I would stick with an extended unless I was hauling a trailer around. I've found I need every bit of space I can get...

I'm looking at the 6.6L or the 6.0L because I may be towing. Other than that the 4.8l in my current van has been just fine even when the van is fully loaded - up to and even once over the grow vehicle weight maximum. The V6 has a bit more power than the baby V8 I believe - but it is mated to...

Thank you!

It's crazy how the weight creeps up on you. I was lucky I had a 1-ton I would have been 1100 lbs over payload with a 3/4 ton. That little 4.8L actually did just fine with all that weight. It seems like Bob is very happy with his 15K heavy ambulance. Maybe with that 4x4 and dualies, you're OK...

I wish I had your skills! Ambulances certainly have lots of pro's. The only thing I really worry about the ambulance is the weight and getting unstuck if you get stuck. Some are 9-10K base weight - which will probably end up being 12K when everything is added in. That seems somewhat doable (?)...

I had two places which had to make adjustments - the van was too heavy and unwieldy with its solar panels and cargo boxes on top for one dealer to lift it up - but the mechanic simply used floor jacks. The other place the van was too heavy for a new alignment machine to work. Otherwise that's...