Towing-Blazers ?

[HyperDonzi]

How good do they pull? Will be the 4.3 V6 non Vortec. 1996 Blazer. Will be pulling around 3k max, will it be dependable?

Thanks,
Tommy

[MOP]

Tommy having towed a lot heavier stuff years back with a old Ford P/U and also a 6 cyl Chevy P/U I think dependabilty is in your foot. Last year I towed a 28 foot wood inboard skiff on a dual axle with brakes with 4 cylinder Ford P/U W/ automatic about 250 miles. I go back to some pretty low HP trucks pulling laughable loads by todays standards. I run a Dakota V6 W/auto and do just fine, trailer and boat about 3000lbs.

[1996Z15]

How do you like your Dakota? Now that I have a boat I am seriously considering selling my Corvette so I can tow the boat if I want to go somewhere other than my area with it. I like the looks and the size of the Dakota's but I am a bit leery since it is American. I had been leaning towards a Toyota Tacoma but they seem to be more expensive and most of them have 4cyl. engines.

[goatee]

check in the owners manual, or online.
my jeep (4.0) is rated for 5000lbs. and so is my hitch. personaly,, i dont think you will have any problem. as long as you have the right hitch for the job. and remember,,,, its not the size of the motor, its the strength of the frame!

[MOP]

Tommy no matter what you end up with you should like "goatee" says get a frame hitch, it raises the tow rating and is a ton safer.

1996Z15 I like my Dakota alot, I run pretty hard not that I beat it but it does not get babied. It just flipped 83,000 nothing broke so far it, I just did my first brake job put drilled slotted rotors, drums, the whole Magilla. The catalitic converter rattles like crazy need to change that out. I run synthetic which jumped the mileage up from 18 to 21 on the road 1 mile around town. Its a club cab which I thought was a great idea, ended up being a back seat full of god knows what no room for people.

[Darrell]

HYPER:

I don't have the spec's on the prior Blazer/Jimmy but the truck version (S10/Sonoma) is rated @ 5900 lbs for V6 with 3.42 gears, I would think that the Blazer would be close to that.

Darrell

[boldts]

Tommy,

We used to pull our 18 Classic with a V6 Chevy Blazer II 4dr, Tahoe Edition, 4 X 4. Never had any problems towing the boat anywhere and those of you who know me, I tow a lot and not just in state.

I traded the truck in our now used Chevy Tahoe 4 dr 2 wheel drive full size truck. Glad I did with the purchase of our 22 Classic. Although in Cincinnati, I wished I had the 4 wheel drive.

Let me also state the reason for the trade in. On a trip to PA, coming down a mountain, I went to stop and had no power brakes! I got the boat and the truck stopped using the emergency brake, but very scary for a couple seconds. It seems the 4.3 V6 had a known, but unrecalled problem with the EGR valve building up carbon and causing the loss of vacuum to the brakes. Rather than paying to fix the EGR problem, the dealer had a white Tahoe that just had to be pulling our blue and white Classic.