Whether for pleasure or work, towing is an important part of many vehicles’ jobs, and the ability to confidently pull some sort of trailer ranks high on the list of concerns many prospective buyers consider before purchasing a vehicle. However, there are some preparations to keep in mind when towing, and here’s a breakdown on the safety features that GM recommends disabling before towing with its products.
There are a number of features and technologies The General recommends deactivating prior to towing a trailer, including:
- Park Assist
- Reverse Automatic Braking
- Rear Cross Traffic Alert
- Rear Cross Traffic Braking
- Lane Change Alert
- Adaptive Cruise Control (unless the vehicle is equipped with trailering functionality)
- Super Cruise (unless the vehicle is equipped with trailering functionality)
In addition, the following features should be set to Alert unless the vehicle in question is equipped with Super Cruise:
- Automatic Emergency Braking
- Front Pedestrian Braking
- Intelligent Brake Assist
It’s worth noting that General Motors also advises against using Automatic Parking Assist while pulling a trailer. Additionally, some technologies may automatically turn themselves off if a trailer is detected by the vehicle.
In other GM-related, GM Authority reported back in October 2023 that the Detroit-based automaker was working on a system for a wireless trailer connection. At present, data transmission and communication requires some type of physical connection through electronic wires. As such, these systems can become compromised if the physical connection becomes disabled in any way.
In today’s age of digital systems, electric vehicles, and automation, a cutting-edge wireless towing solution can make sense to a lot of customers. In fact, The General has filed other patents that enhance outdoor-oriented activities, like a tow assist system that could enable vehicles to boast larger towing capacities, or a system capable of estimating the energy consumption of an off-roading EV.
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Comments
God’s sake GM, see the over-engineering forest for the trees.
So before pulling a trailer we need need to turn off or adjust 10 things (which may or may not have done this themselves)? IN addition to the usual selecting tow-haul mode and adjusting the brake controller output??
As for the trailer connection, wired is still better. I’ve seen too many flaky wireless signals to even think of trusting brakes to it, plus you still need to get power to the trailer.
@5500–Agree with you completely!!! I’ve had too many glitches with bluetooth and wifi connections to trust vital systems to wireless operations. I wonder if those engineers would like to fly in an airplane where all controls were wireless!
I agree, way too complicated and stressful for me. I’ll just park the boat and the trailer and stay home.
“I’ll just park the boat and the trailer and stay home.”
Or get an older truck where the only adjustments are mirrors and brake controller. (Maybe load-levelers and air springs, but those are aftermarket and not gifts from the factory.)
IMO we shouldn’t need a pre-mission setup, for a vehicle which should be designed and expected to tow on a regular basis. Should be a couple quick tweaks and GO, not poring through the dash screen and owner’s manual making sure one got everything. Or worse, having to redo it all when you shut the ignition off for something and all the settings default back! Again, over-engineering.
In 2017 I took delivery of a new boat driving a new Tahoe with Tow Haul mode on. Got on the Interstate to come home and Lane Keep Assist caused the car to fishtail. We missed a tractor trailer by less than a foot. Finally got off the interstate, disabled Lane Keep Assist and made it home safely. Not much of a safety feature if it damn near gets you killed.
Lawsuit waiting…..
If you can’t drive without all that technology then you belong on a bus and not behind a steering wheel. Next truck is going to be a pre emissions truck with modern drive train.
Ditto man, for a family hauler I enjoy our new Suburban, but this will be our last new vehicle purchase. Overall it’s been one headache after another since the first service. Between the garbage fragile tires they equip the Z71 with to the callbacks to install parts that they apparently couldn’t source prior to building the truck. I’ve been eyeballing a few old C10s and F-100s around the area for a while because I honestly don’t think I would trust this thing with a trailer or a long offroad trip.
Still maintaining our 2004 Silverado 2500HD for just this reason. When towing a dump trailer with six ton of material I don’t need any input from a GM computer.
Gad,Istill use my 1998 GMC K1500 4×4 Suburban w 3;73 gears to pull and back up my trailers. The truck is a reliable vehicle with 145,000 miles on it. My 2015 Gmc XL (120,000) is probably my last suburban I trust ,it’s been ok since I replaced the electric shifting mechanism on the transmission . Electricity has its limits and the newer trucks are basically cars (or limos) imitating trucks with the limits of cars.
Gotta love GM’s commercials showing hands free towing!! Highly responsible towing a trailer, camper, etc and hurtling down the highway hands off the steering wheel playing paddie cakes. Now GM advises turning these features off, brilliant advertising.
My Goodness, just ordered a 2024 Canyon Denali 2 weeks ago before I come across this information. I sure hope they have made some changes to allow one a simple trailer pulling action. I’m 80 years old, not to tech savy and only pull my fishing boat and 27 foot travel trailer around.
The GMC article makes it sounds like I will have to take a pilots course. Time will tell and hope it works for me.
Wayne
Good luck and be careful!
Trailers should be wired for safety as they are now. What’s wrong with just making the camera connect wirelessly and programed to the trucks multiple camera views software. There are several out now that you can buy but need a second screen, as GM hasn’t given access to the software for programming.