Hi Rocket,
Trying to help you sort this out, but we need more info. We need it to even have someone compare their towing experiences to what your asking.
You said:
Quote:
2008 Chevy Colorado club cab today, 5 cylinder.
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I'm assuming you mean 5 speed manual transmission in place of 5 cylinder engine? or was the 5 a typo for a V6 engine? And the club cab, is that the extended cab or the crew cab and what bed length? as starter quesrtions.
Using these small trucks to tow a 2 axle travel trailer is going to take some number crunching as there are some combinations which will not work and a few that may be able to pull it, but handling it is also part of the need.
Here is the manual:
http://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam...ado_owners.pdf
See pages 4-44 through 4-55. There are many combo's there. We need to know which one you are looking at.
Those charts are broken down into:
Cab style
2 x 4 or 4 x 4 wheel drive
Engine size
Rear axle ratio
Auto or manual transmission
Those 5 get us started but you still need more before you can decide a good match or not.
Ideally a picture of the driver side door sticker showing the allowable weight ratings really helps. And while your picture taking, being it is a GM, inside the glove box is a sticker with a bunch of product codes (RPO codes) that can tell you what the truck was built with, like an aux transmission cooler, tow package etc. They look like this. These were off my 2003 Suburban but it shows what to look for. Look in the back for a reciever hitch and take a pic of the ratings sticker on it.
Door sticker
Glove box RPO codes
I looked up the 2002, 1950 from our files section, this 2 axle trailer has a 5,000# GVWR, empty has a 380# dry tongue weight and a dry 3,455# gross vehicle weight, dry meaning "empty", no camping gear, battery, spare tire or even LP gas in the tanks.
I'm not saying the Colorado you found can do this, it may come out to be a not a good choice, but you can learn along the way what to look for.
The "tow rating" of the vehicle can be a very misunderstood rating when it comes to towing travel trailers. The fine print had gotten many a good camper before into a not good situation. Even if the pull rating works, the tongue weight and truck weights has to fit which trump the tow ratings. GM says this on page 4-54
GM Said:
Quote:
Trailering may be limited by the vehicle’s ability to carry
tongue weight. Tongue weight cannot cause the vehicle to exceed the GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) or the RGAWR (Rear Gross Axle Weight rating). The effect of additional weight may reduce your trailering capacity more than the total of the additional weight
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While a base stripped version of the truck with only one 150 lb driver might be able to just fit inside the tow rating of an empty camper, no one really camps like that. We all like to take camping things with us. And the campers we pull being 8 feet wide 9, to 10 feet tall create wind drag called "frontal area" that is eats into tow rating where towing an open trailer, does not have the wing drag or frontal area as bad.
My son used to have the S10, ext cab long bed pickup. The predecessor to the Colorado. It was great on gas mileage for him while being a good little pickup for odds and ends. I do not recall if he ever towed his pop-up with it. He has a higher profile pop up that can create the wing drag, I just do not recall if he ever used the S10 to tow it. He now has a larger Sunline camper and 3/4 ton truck but may be a point of reference on actual experience.
Since you have not yet bought the truck, now is the time to sort this out. And we are here to help.
This thread will give you some more breakdown of the details to think through.
http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f7...ing-10775.html
Hope this helps
John
PS, you mentioned you did not like the feel of the camper without a WD hitch or anti sway controls, you will need these on the Colorado.