pulling with a 454BB and a turbo400 built.

[_Auzzy_]

hey yall, just picked up a 1985 GMC C3500 camper special single cab long bed dually and a parts ruck up for 1G bout 2 weeks ago, maybe has 100,000 on it no body rust, little dent on drivers fender and cracks on rear fiber glass fenders, motor has been rebuilt and the tranny has a shift kit in it for towing but the truck needs work, first off before i could even drive it me and my buddy corey swapped the driver lower control arm cause the ball joint ripped through it. had to skycrane it on to the trailer. right now i'm dropping the driver tank to replace it cause it rusted out. so far i have replaced the sparkplugs and wires, distributor, had leaks on the radiator fixed, removed all the smog crud and fixed any vaccume leaks, new airfilter, oil changed, and cleaned the interior up.

future plans include a deeper oil pan for the tranny, replace all u-joints in the driveline, mount a steering stabilizer up, get new tires (debating super singles on the rear) re-do the ghetto exhuast to 2.5-3" and come in front of the tires, fifth wheel hitch, airbags, and two tone paint black and kinda light blue is with silver striping seperating the two. along with some black rims, buddy is trying to talk me into making it a short bed dually, almost tempted, with super single rears yay or nay? i'll get pics up in a bit. but my question is when pulling with a drivetrain setup like i got has anyone else done it? what did you get for mileage and howd it handle?

 

[mbryson]

OK, motor (might be similar to towing with an FI small block from the '90s) if it's still '85 stock. I'd imagine it's been rebuilt and that could mean anything. The beauty of the big block is that you can do anything you want to it for a pretty reasonable price. If you put a nice rebuild into the motor you'll have something that can really pull hard and could rival '90s stock Cummins trucks for towing power (build the motor for torque--might need to swap from those "peanut" stock heads).

It's your truck, so who am I to tell you what to do, but why mod it to a shortbed? Being a dually, you can use a slide-in camper with a lightish car hauler to bring your house along with you to wherever you go. Kinda handy if you ask me. In my opinion (esp. if I still lived rural) I'd rather have a long bed.

I'll be surprised if you're over 8-9 mpg towing and 10-11 mpg around town.

 

[Chevycrew]

x2

Also the longer the wheelbase, the more stable while towing.

 

[LT.]

The problem with the super singles is when you blow out a tire. With the duals you can still limp into a town and get one replaced or repaired. With the super singles you are at least going to have to replace it right then. If you are towing and hauling when it blows it could make for a scary ride. Keep the duallies, and keep it a long bed for stability.

LT.

 

[Tacoma]

I drove a cc dually w that drivetrain and 4wd for a couple hundred thousand miles. It always had about 3i4k in the bed and I never got more than 10.5mpg. Averaged 8.75 for about 200k.

Never felt like it was working at all, and since I got the same mileage pulling a big trailer across the country, I guess it really wasn't. I love the 454... just wish it got better mileage.