2020 GMC Sierra Heavy Duty First Drive - Tow Happy

Heavy-duty truck buyers tow things often. So do many light-duty truck buyers. So perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised to be be asked, shortly after stepping off an airplane, to get behind the wheel of an HD truck towing something like 13,000 pounds of RV.

This, despite having trailering experience that hovered near zero. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve trailered. I did it years ago in Maryland on another GMC event, and last year in the same region (Jackson Hole, Wyoming) with the light-duty Chevrolet Silverado, but until last week, that was about it.

Gulp.

GMC would tell you that the combination of its trucks’ capability and some high-tech doodads make trailering easy, even for the novice. GMC would be correct on that count, but there’s more to the story when it comes to this year’s crop of trucks.

We were turned loose in a variety of GMC Sierra trucks over the course of two days – and not all had a mobile home’s worth of weight behind them. Still, towing and hauling were a bit part of this particular junket; even when we weren’t towing, we were driving trucks with beds full of logs. We also did a bit of light off-roading.

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  • FreedMike Yeah, this trend needs to die a painful death.
  • THX1136 This reminds me of a 'fad' back when I was in high school that was equally silly. A few folks would put spacers in the rear springs to lift the back end of the vehicle to ridiculous heights. We would joke that they must think it makes the car go faster since it feels like you're driving downhill all the time. Dangerous for all the reasons Redapple2 mentions.
  • Arthur Dailey Just a couple of questions. Are you adding a stabilizer to your gas tank as the gas sits so long? Aren't tires usable for up to 10 years after manufacture, rather than 7? And should you wait so long between oil changes? Even with the low mileage can the oil degrade? Eagerly awaiting responses from one and all.
  • Redapple2 I m afraid I d hate the crazy color 2 yrs down the line of a 6 year ownership. So, after dark blues, and dark reds I m back to a wonderful deep, pearly, lustrous white. Looks good at night. In the day. Clean; and when dirty, hides it.
  • THX1136 Some folks down the street from me had a beautiful blue/green Jeep. I stay away from grey, brown, silver and black. Ironically I own a white vehicle at the moment due to not being able to afford the blue one I was considering and not wanting the aforementioned colors. A nice emerald green, most shades of blue (Santa Fe Blue is a favorite) and the 'hotter' colors like orange, purple and yellow appeal, but as KOKing mentioned it's got to look 'right' on the car in question.