Chevy & GMC Vans

anyone knows a good transmission for heavy hauling with a custom build astro van?

as i will be picking up a trailer of the weight of 6500lbs 3 axles.
My tranny is a 4l60e and have about 400,000 km on it. still running strong

The stock trans with a rebuild will do it just fine. However you will be way over the tow rating for the van. You are way over the braking capacity as well as the limit of what the body can handle. The suspension will also be way overloaded and it will wander and porpose all over the road. The max tow rating on these vans was 5500lbs with I beleive a 600lbs tounge weight. When the trailer weighs that much more than the tow vehicle it will have some truly horrific driving characteristics.

I would get a bigger vehicle as opposed to spending money rebuilding a van that was never ment to do the job your asking of it.

thanks for the info. my van was rebuild with bigger and heavy duty suspension and did all my breaks with a v8 350 under the hood.

i never thought about the body

You may have the power to pull that much weight with your V8, but the 6500 pounds is way to much weight to put behind an AstroSafari.
You will probly get the load moving, but keeping it under control, and getting it it stop safely, is gonne be kinda sketchy with that much weight behind a (short) vehicle that weighs even less that that. Have a nice Jacknife !

doyoulikeithere wrote:You may have the power to pull that much weight with your V8, but the 6500 pounds is way to much weight to put behind an AstroSafari.
You will probly get the load moving, but keeping it under control, and getting it it stop safely, is gonne be kinda sketchy with that much weight behind a (short) vehicle that weighs even less that that. Have a nice Jacknife !

Sure don't want to Jacknife that is for sure plus the weight of the trailer is 2X the weight of my van and i don't think those trailer have a Electric break on the Axles either. not sure where in Vancouver it is, but chances are that will hit a few hills here and there.

If the trailer has a gvw of 2500lbs or more it has to have brakes. Now if they are functioning that is a different question. Is this for a one time haul or are you keeping the trailer for regular use? If it's a one time deal I would recommend renting a pick up truck with a built in brake controller. If it's a trailer you plan on keeping the van just isn't a big enough vehicle.

Any cross wind or getting passed by a semi or having to do a sudden or hard stop the trailer is going to push the van all over the road.

i don't think that trailer had any Electric brakes on it, even though my van is equipped for it, but only for a 2 axles not 3 and this is going to be kind of a one time use. just haul it to where i want to live and that is it.

For a one-time haul, I would hire someone with a 3/4 or 1 ton truck. It would really suck to have 1500# tongue weight rip the hitch right out of the unibody. They really are not that strong.