Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra 1500 Diesel Tow Ratings Might Increase Soon
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The Chevrolet Silverado 1500 diesel and GMC Sierra 1500 diesel may be slated to receive upgraded tow ratings sometime in the near future.
The fresh rumor comes to us courtesy of a new report from Motor1, which cites statements made by the assistant chief engineer of diesel engine controls at General Motors, John Barta. According to Barta, development is currently underway to improve the materials used around the engine bay in an effort to raise tow ratings for the Chevrolet Silverado diesel and GMC Sierra diesel.
For reference, the engine in question is the new 3.0L inline six-cylinder LM2 turbo-diesel Duramax.
While higher tow ratings are never a bad thing, Barta also indicated that GM was aware that 95 percent of its light-duty customers don’t actually tow more than 9,000 pounds. As such, the automaker originally made the decision to focus on fuel economy with its light-duty diesel offerings, rather than sheer towing capacity. With that in mind, the two GM trucks already provide the sort of capability required by the vast majority of customers, plus impressive fuel economy as well.
Barta also expressed that while tow ratings can be useful for bragging rights, in reality, most light-duty customers don’t need sky-high tow ratings. As such, he said that GM believes it managed to find the correct balance between towing and fuel economy with the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 diesel and GMC Sierra 1500 diesel.
It’s particularly noteworthy that these new light-duty pickups were optimized for fuel economy, and not outright towing capacity. As we covered earlier this month, the 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 diesel leads in mpg figures over competitors from Ram and Ford, posting 33 mpg on the highway, 23 mpg in the city and 27 mpg combined. As Barta points out, part of this is down to the engine design, as an inline six-cylinder has fewer rotating components than a V6, and thus provides greater efficiency. Both the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel and Ford F-150 Power Stroke come with V6 powerplants.
Regardless, the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 diesel still posts a maximum tow rating figure of 9,300 pounds with the proper configuration. That said, the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel is rated at 12,560 pounds, while the Ford F-150 Power Stroke posts 11,500 pounds, both considerably more than the two GM trucks.
| Model | Configuration | Max Trailer Weight (lbs.) |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 Chevrolet Silverado | 2WD Short Bed/Crew Cab | 7,600 |
| 2020 Chevrolet Silverado | 4WD Short Bed/Crew Cab | 9,300 |
| 2020 Chevrolet Silverado | 2WD Standard Bed/Crew Cab | 7,500 |
| 2020 Chevrolet Silverado | 4WD Standard Bed/Crew Cab | 9,200 |
| 2020 Chevrolet Silverado | 2WD Standard Bed/Double Cab | 7,600 |
| 2020 Chevrolet Silverado | 4WD Standard Bed/Double Cab | 9,300 |
| 2020 GMC Sierra | 2WD Short Bed/Crew Cab | 7,400 |
| 2021 GMC Sierra | 4WD Short Bed/Crew Cab | 9,000 |
| 2022 GMC Sierra | 2WD Standard Bed/Crew Cab | 7,300 |
| 2023 GMC Sierra | 4WD Standard Bed/Crew Cab | 9,000 |
| 2024 GMC Sierra | 2WD Standard Bed/Double Cab | 7,400 |
| 2025 GMC Sierra | 4WD Standard Bed/Double Cab | 9,100 |
Indeed, if GM manages to up tow ratings for its two diesel light-duty pickups, while still keeping the impressive fuel mileage figures, we’ll see it as a big win.
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Source: Motor1
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I have no doubt it can pull more than the Ram and Ford, it’s so far proven to offer the best acceleration. The t1xx trucks with other engines offer higher capacities too.
This is more of a – if Ford and Ram want to post BS ratings that are not realistic we probably should too.
I’d rather have a tuneable ECU and TCM lIke the Ford and Ram for what I am looking for against the competition
It’s smart to up the capacity. People would prefer to purchase a ram with better interior, higher tow rating, and lower cost. This coming from a LTZ 6.2 owner.
If you get your diesel truck with 4 wheel drive and you are towing at slow city speeds or at a maximum speed of 50 MPH ( 80 Km ) in urban type driving, you can tow with much more weight if you put the drive setting in Low. This will reduce strain on the drive system and you will also have better acceleration with the lower gear ratio of the Low setting while in 4WD. Diesel engines work well while under load because they produce more heat, in winter, spring or fall temps. Heat is energy and diesel engines do not produce max power if they run too cool.
I think they did this for the common person who thinks that it is not as competitive or not as strong of a truck because it has the least payload and tow ratings. When all honesty, the Ford diesel was having difficulty towing 9,000lbs and trying to get to speed. So what is the point of having all that “max capacity” and you can’t drive functionally.
I’ve yet to see the Ram so I will withhold comments. But I’m confident that the Silverado/Sierra will be the diesel to beat.
Yea but they made that mistake with the HD’s prior to 2020. Most people don’t tow more than 23K so why rate them higher? Well because Ford and Ram beat the drum of higher tow ratings, as does the internet. When the other like trucks are 2K higher in tow ratings, it makes it appear that if your pulling up third place by such a wide margin, that your truck is just weak. Unlike the HD ratings, they don’t need to be first and you can even be third if it is by a couple hundred pounds, not a couple thousand however. They need to find at least 1500 more pounds of capacity, 2K would be even better.
9k lbs is such a strange area to rate any truck. Whether it has the power or not it would be nice to get the 10k rating just for liability and trailer options. I’ve never seen a 9k trailer but is plenty of 10k around. I talked to my insurance about this and they told me flat out I was not covered pulling a trailer heavier than the trucks rating.
You could be in trouble with the law if you’re overweight of the truck rating, and if you have an accident a halfway intelligent lawyer is going to have your trailer weighed an if you’re over the truck rated capacity not only will you not have insurance you will lose the law suit against you losing everything thing you have or ever hope to have.
In my opinion… I think it is unsafe to tow something that is more than double your tow vehicles weight. Regardless of tow ratings. I have maxed out half tons and was not driving with confidence. Felt like the tail was wagging the dog.
Pulling more than double the tow vehicles weight is common and if not there wouldn’t be much on the shelves in stores across the country. Using your example of a half ton is certainly a different experience than anything larger than that. I wouldn’t use that experience as gauge of all trucks pulling over twice their vehicle weight. The trailer and how it is loaded is a very important part of the towing experience. I pull 3 times more than my vehicle weight in a ’18 3500 Duramax and do many others and it does it very well. If you get into class 8 territory it can be over 5 times and sometimes considerable more than that.
Hopefully one of these day GM will shoot for the best from day one rather than haveing to upgrade. Their lack of fore through got to be costing them. IMO if you design your vehicle to be the best in class right from the start you will be money ahead and not have to spend on costly upgrades.
They need to offer the diesel with the max towing package. They can keep the 3.23 drive ratio for gas mileage, but people that tow want the 3.42 drive ratio and the 9.76″ rear axle. If they offer this I will buy it!
The Silverado can definately tow more already. They only post the “rating” which means very little in real life. None-the-less, it’s kind of stupid to tow more than 10,000 with any 1500 truck. None of them are really made to last long doing that.