Need Some Quick Advice

Hey Guys, I’m looking at upgrading my tow vehicle some. The two vehicles I’m looking at both have a 4.3 V6 in them. One is a 1996 with 94,000 miles and the other one is a 1997 with 70,000 miles. My current vehicle, a 1988 Blazer, has alot more miles on it. I have heard good things about those motors but would like some feedback from guys who tow boats with that motor or know someone who has or does. I want to get into something better than I have now so I can get on the water alot more in 2004. Thanks, Bill

Bill,

I used to own a S-10 PU with a 4.3 V-6 in it…i pulled my 16’Lund Explorer with it…it was great for the short haul but i worked it pretty hard when I pulled my pleasure boat…not the one i own now but my 19′ VIP that i used to own…you have a bigger boat now that i did back then…

I think if i was you i’d go with a V-8 if you can…not that the 4.3 wouldn’t do it but the vehicle will last you longer if you don’t have to work it so hard..

good luck

Bill, I pull a 20 foot Ranger with my Avalanche 2500. It never really works the engine at all. 8.1Liter with 455 pounds of torque. Only go around once, may as well go in syle. Treat yourself to a treat.

Hey Bill, i agree with ecnook, i know a little about motors and the 4.3 is a good motor but a v8 will labor less and you’ll get better mileage too. Talk to a good mechanic, not a salesmen and he’ll tell you which motor to get. The 4.3 is the same bore and stroke as the 350 chevy minus two cylinders. Its really close to the old 265 chevy motors which were good motors but on the light side of the v8 engines. Get some good advice from a mechanic who works on v8’s, overhauls them etc and ask which one breaks down the least etc. If i were to buy a truck to pull a motor home, a gas guzzling situation, i’d get the biggest motor i could find because they labor less when pulling something and get twice the milage that a smaller motor does, later Bill

i would look at a suburban with a 350 v8. i had the 4.3 in a 98′ 1/2 ton pick-up and i upgraded to a 99′ 3/4 ton with a 350 after only one year. i don’t know how big your boat is but just don’t think of engine size, don’t forget about braking, transmission size, tranny coolers, and most of all room for stuff and prople. i have had 2 suburbans and can tell you they can hold alot of stuff. and to tell the truth there isn’t much difference in miles per gallon.just my 2 cents worth…….tom

I’m looking at All Wheel Drive Mini Vans like Nate has. Takes only 5 minutes to remove the middle seats and the rear seat and then you have all that room for sleeping in the back if you don’t want to come home that night. They don’t come with V8 engines, only the 4.3 V6 which has alot more power than my 2.8 that is in my Blazer. I will be towing a 16.6 ft. Lund Mr. Pike 16 on a Eagle trailer. Nate tows his 1800 [18 ft.] Lund Pro V with his Mini Van and it tows alot better than his 3.0 in his Ford Ranger he says. Most of my towing would be to Red Wing 50 miles each way, Lake City 34 miles each way and Fairbault 55 miles each way. A V8 would be nice but almost have to go to a full size truck to get it and am hoping to get by with a smaller vehicle for right now. I’ve found two Mini Vans in the 6,000-8,000 dollar price range where a good 4 wheel drive truck without a ton of miles is hard to find in that price range. Touch decision I guess. I’ll take all the feedback I can get. Thanks Guys, Bill

Bill,

This thread will answer a lot of questions for you. I had the same question right around this time last year and guys were very helpfull in my decision. New Truck

Unfortunately it said just what I knew it would say. I remember reading it back when you were shopping. I like the idea of the lower miles on the motors than what you have on your suburban as I would like it to last along time and would mostly use it for just towing. It would sit the rest of the time. Am also hoping to maybe be able to upgrade my 1970 camper too this year and have a permanent sight for it. Trying to do both makes it even tougher on making up my mind. I know Kerry Harvey tows with a 4.0 in his Explorer and seems to do ok and his boat is like yours which is bigger than mine. Tough decission. Guess I was hoping for more favortism towards the 4.3 V6 for my limited distance towing. Might do a couple trips to Mille Lacs but the rest is around 50 miles each way. Thanks, Bill

Bill, I have the smaller V8 (4.6L) in my Ford F150, thinking it would be great. It’s still not big enough, but it does the job for now. If you’re like most of us, iut comes down to how much you can spend. You might be better off getting a truck with a V8 and put a topper on the bed for your sleep overs at the lake. I know some guys who even put a matress in the bed for the over-nighters. Maybe look at a mid-90s F250. If you can afford to get the extra power, you wont regret it. Good luck!

Bill, the 4.3 is a good engine! Its a mid range power engine and it’ll haul a full load of firewood in a pickup up any hill around the mississippi river bottom. It’ll serve your purpose for pulling your boat. Ive got one in my s-10 blazer and am happy with it and i pull a 14′ jon with mine. Its got enough power for what your needs are. On a 50 mile run you’ll burn another gallon of gas over a v8 but the 4.3 runs good. You’ll be ok with it.

Bill I bet if you shop around you could find a full size truck with a V8 for about the same money that you would spend on the S10 blazer with the 4.3V6, and as was previously mentioned you will get better gas with the V8 because it will not have to work as hard as the 4.3V6. You also said that you were thinking about upgrading your camper, if you went with a pick up you could go with a pickup camper. Here are some places you could start looking.

EBAY MOTORS

FIND CARS.COM

TheAutoOutlet.com

TruckTader Online.com

1992 CHEVROLET 1500

Chevy Tahoe’s

Did Brian Sander sell his Tahoe yet?

Quote:

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And HEY! That Tahoo is for SALE! $7500.00

Leather & Loaded

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Welcome to my Truck Stop

1990 to 1997 Trucks at Findcars.com

Bill if you like SUV’s check out Jeep.I had a Grand Cherokee(95) with a V6 that got great gas mileage pulling my Trophy 175.It did not have alot of power at the start but as far as cruising speed it was great and I would get 15-16 mpg.I do know that Jeep makes a V8 also.The back seats fold down real easy also for sleeping or cargo.Best of luck Bill.
Ryan Hale

Bill, I currently have a 4.3 Blazer and having had an F150 w/ a 351 and a Tahoe with a 327 prior, all I can say is to lean a STRONG ear toward that V8 motor. The 4.3 is a great little engine and if little boats were all you had, no question. But you like boats that carry a little weight to them. Could a 4.3 do it? yeah………….but talk genuinely with anyone who’s had the V8 and then downgraded…………..we’ll always tell you to get an 8.

Bill, I would also recommend the V8 if possible. Like someone else said, it’s not just the power, but the wear and tear on the tranny and rear end. I pulled a 17 foot smokercraft with a 90 hp motor behind my fatherinlaws new chevy trailblazer and it was not near enough. It couldn’t handle the hills and was hard on the tranny. I then pulled it with my new avalanche (V8) and it was night and day. I hear what you’re saying about wanting a smaller vehilce, but if you save a couple thousand in purchase price, you may put back in with tranny repairs and so on. Good Luck with your search. Maybe if you carry a little less tackle, you can get by with the V6!!!!

Thanks Guys. Steve, all those ringworms I’ve been buying don’t weigh much. I’ll probably get my rear end chewed for this but I did buy the Mini Van tonight with the 4.3 V6 motor. I want to try the Mini Van for awhile because I like the sleeping feature it offers, has a conversion package, plus it only has 70,000 miles on it. [just barely turned 70,000]. Great for hauling grandkids to the Fairbault lakes too. I want the low miles hoping it will last longer. I spent 4 hours last night on the internet searching for trucks, SUVs and Vans and in that price range with a V8 they all had 30,000-55,000 plus more miles. This is a one owner van and I talked to the owner twice about it. He traded for a Honda car as he moved to Pine Island and wanted better gas mileage to and from work. Down the road if I don’t like it then I will trade for a truck or Explorer or Tahoe with a V8. I bought it with that idea in mind so trading wouldn’t upset me. I bought my boat that I have now about 7 months before I could afford it because the sponsor price/deal was there. My Ford Tempo 4 banger towed it for awhile before I could get the 1988 Blazer with a 2.8 V6. This van with half the miles and a 4.3 V6 should tow better. I’m working my way up to a V8 you could say. Thanks for all the advice. I appreciate it very much and because of it I won’t mind trading so much again if I have to. Thanks, Bill

Bill, Had a 1995 Suburban and it did a nice job with my boat. I have a 17 ft Alummie Competitor with 100 Merc. She started to dime me to death as it had a pile of miles on it. I bought it with 105,000 on it. Now I went all out and got a new 04 Chevy pu with the 5.3. There is no comparison in power and driveability. The big thing with subs is to get one 1996 or newer to get that 5.7 Vortec. Car Soup.com has a ton of these subs for sale. They get pretty good gas mileage also. I wouldn’t be to afraid of the mileage on these rigs as 90% of the miles are highway miles. Just ask if they have pulled a house trailer with them as I would stay away from them because of tranny troubles.

My 2 pennnies worth.

Gundy

hi Bill,
thought I’d throw 2cents in here, I have an Olds Bravada, with the 4.6 six, pulls very nice with the Lund Mr Pike 17. which is quite heavy boat. get the trans checked on the vehicle you are looking at. if you will do any long pulling, then get a trans cooler added to the vehicle. overheating transmissions will eat them up. check to see if any of these vehicles have done much towing.
good luck. Jack.

Thanks Jack, neither one had a hitch on it which was a big plus. Thanks, Bill

It’s cool Bill……………that’s a good 6 motor and will definitely outshine a 2.8! They’ve got a pretty solid reputation and good lifespan too so it should get you to the next step. When you do get to the next step…………..you’ll quickly side with all these V8 opinions…………there’s just nothing like ’em.

Bill,

I have pulled boats for over 10 years with 3.0-liter V6 FWD cars. So far, I have not yet had a single problem and my current rig weighs 2000 lbs. Here are a few things I think are very important when towing with a smaller engine/transmission:

1. Keep it out of overdrive (4th gear). Your MPG will go down but the engine and transmission will do much better. I only get 15 MPG when towing.

2. Shift down to second gear when going up big hills.

3. Drain and refill the transmission fluid every year (costs less than $10 if you do it yourself).

4. Don’t take long trips in hot weather (the furthest I tow is 55 miles).

I am sure you will enjoy the new vehicle. I wish I had your 4 wheel drive for the icy ramps.

Dave Gulczinski

You guys are going to laugh like crazy but here’s my story. My old fishen buddy used to pull his bass boats with a 4 banger 5 speed Mazda truck. He even pulled a 21 ft. ricky green Bass boat. Chuck & I went tournament fishen on a shoe string budget so we sacrificed being a little under power going up the big hills & against a huge head wind for all of our fishing toys and the time spent on the water instead of working overtime for those big high priced towing vehicles. Those Mazda’s pulling the boats all over the place usually go up to 150 thousand miles before any thing major. I bought this last mazda with 9 thousand miles on it ” it was a salvage ” for $6000. It’s a 2.3 and geared pretty high, I regularly run 65+ mph pulling my heavy boat that has every thing in it. I have now got 40,000 miles on it with no problems and am expecting to get atleast 140,000 miles. Grant Ya, most of you probably make more then I and can probably afford to pay more for a more luxurious vehicle but this is my way of being able to spend a lot of time on the water. Some times ya gotta do what ya gotta do Incidentally, I’m on my 3rd Mazda Truck. Good fishing to you all {John}

Hey Bill.
Caongrats on the new Mini Van. I think you will like it just fine. Now you have an excuse to get to Mille Lacs some more! Do yourself a favor and make sure to get a tranny cooler put on. It’s a couple hundred bucks, but it will save you in the long run.

Hey Bill, congrats on the new ride. You will love that van if it’s the same as I’m thinking. My uncle is on his 3rd or 4th one. That motor has a ton of power for a 6. I had it in my S10 blazer and it would pull and 1800 fisherman down the road 70 mph. I strongly suggest you get the tranny cooler put on though. I almost burned up my tranny once. After the cooler was added, no problems.

Congrats Bill. I’ve mentioned somewhere on here before that my father-in-law pulls his boat with a mini van and it does pretty good. Myself, I like a little more power, but then again I’m often pulling 300 plus miles. But, like someone already said, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. That mini van I spoke of pulls better than my on Ford Ranger for some reason. I would pay close attention to what Dave G. had to say about the tranny. I think just about anyone pulling without a tranny cooler would be best off keeping it out of overdrive, and keep an eye on the fluid levels. Best of luck with the new ride Bill!

BILL,

YOU DID WELL FOR YOURSELF. ARE WE TALKING A GM PRODUCT RIGHT? IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THOSE VANS I HAVE A BUDDY WHO USES THEM FOR SERVICE VECHICLES. HE THINKS THEY ARE THE BEST THING THIS SIDE OF A 10 LB WALLEYE. RUNS UP MANY MANY MILES PER YEAR ON HIS. VERY FEW PROBLEMS.

GUNDY

Thanks Guys. GREAT to hear some good reports. Everyone was scaring the hec out of me but I really like this van, Chevy Astro, and just had to try it. Picked it up tonight after work and I’m very happy with it so far. Yes, a tranny cooler will be added. Just talked to a friend, a truck nut friend of Nate and me, about adding a cooler and he said best to do it and then I come on here and everyone is saying to add one too. When Nate and I went to Okoboji Iowa for a week in Sept. he pulled his 1800 Pro V with his van and got alot better gas mileage than I did and his van ran strong and cool and my Blazer ran weak and hot on the trip towing my boat down there. So hopefully this van will do the same. Just had to get something better and with less miles. The last two years I wasn’t on the water as much as I use to be and really miss it. Can’t go another year with out being on the water as much like I use to be. Thats the problem with upgrading as its expensive. Thanks, Bill