K20 pulling 19k lbs...

[Dano500]

This has to be a complete joke. It's like a train wreck, I just cannot help but keep watching. There is absolutely no way that any person who would consider themselves qualified to tow something this big and this heavy could be seriously considering using whatever that is in that pic. If you can't look at square "U" bolts on a round axle and see that it isn't safe to drive... I can only imagine what the rest of that truck looks like based on that one pic.

This guy has got to be playing with us. He cannot be y

This has to be a complete joke. It's like a train wreck, I just cannot help but keep watching. There is absolutely no way that any person who would consider themselves qualified to tow something this big and this heavy could be seriously considering using whatever that is in that pic. If you can't look at square "U" bolts on a round axle and see that it isn't safe to drive... I can only imagine what the rest of that truck looks like based on that one pic.

This guy has got to be playing with us. He cannot be serious.

Hey, man, you don’t have to be such a big jerk. I was thinking out loud, there is nothing wrong with that. I got a lot of good advice. If you don’t like it leave to post and keep your opinion to yourself.

And no where did I ever say I was, or wanted to do it the way it is. Jerk.

 

[Dano500]

Also that caddy motor ain't fitting in a square body truck w/o some serious mods unless you have the Eldorado pan.... been there done that.

That actually not true. Check out YouTube. Few videos of square bodies with this motor. Not as bad as you think.

 

[Shorty81]

You will love that big 500, my 496 makes loads of torque.

 

[Redfish]

Hey, man, you don’t have to be such a big jerk. I was thinking out loud, there is nothing wrong with that. I got a lot of good advice. If you don’t like it leave to post and keep your opinion to yourself.

And no where did I ever say I was, or wanted to do it the way it is. Jerk.

Dan, take a deep breath and read this very carefully. Please.

You started this thread with questions. The overwhelming response was that it was okay to build your truck however you wanted to but that towing 19K pounds with it was a BAD IDEA. Many of us have experience with towing and we ALL told you to get a suitable truck, that what you plan to do is NOT SAFE no matter how much horsepower and torque you put under that hood.

You keep ignoring The Truth and keep focusing on how much horsepower you can get out of this Cadillac engine. We keep telling you that is NOT the deciding factor.

Based on past Forum Foolishness I decided that you are either playing us all for fools just to see how riled up you can get us or you are very young and have NO CLUE.

I now realize you are not just playing us. You really have no clue. That is NOT an insult. We can help you, we want to help you. Your confusion about the U-Bolts on the rear..."Oh, so they are upside down?" The pic of that tells me this truck is not ready for towing anything and neither are you. I am reading along in your other thread about this truck and your struggles to get it to run. That tells me you need help, you really don't understand what you are dealing with here.

What you need to understand is that hooking up 19K pounds to a truck like this is DANGEROUS. This is not about "proving people wrong". You are gambling with your own life and the lives of the other folks on the road around you with this.

Am I a Jerk? Maybe. But I am trying to help you.

 

[GTX63]

First and foremost, it is a safety issue.

I have owned Squarebodies since the mid 80s. I also currently own and drive a late model 6.0 2500 Silverado.
I pull equipment trailers loaded with everything from vehicles, to tractors, excavators, skid steers, etc.
I pull RVs up to 32'.
There are no circumstances in which I would pull the 5th wheel mentioned with a Squarebody truck, no matter the modification or setup.
If you have the money to customize a truck to pull a 19k 5th wheel, then you have the money to purchase the proper truck for the job.
The setup you are describing would look amazing at an auto show, but it has zero business on a public road.

No matter the forum, one can always find a thread where the OP says they are looking for advice, but seemingly will not accept any feedback other than posts that give confirmation to their idea.
It should not take 79 posts to convince you.
The physics and limitations and hazards have been explained multiple times.
Beyond the risk to other drivers, an accident involving an overloaded vehicle would set you up for a lawsuit by any good ambulance chasing lawyer. It can already be difficult to find proper insurance coverage on old squarebodies, so I'm not sure who would write a policy for such a setup as you are describing.

My post isn't an attack or trying to be argumentative. I am being honest and speaking from experience.
Find a 4500, write the check and build your squarebody for something else.

 

[Dano500]

You will love that big 500, my 496 makes loads of torque.

Wow! Now that is nice.

 

[Dano500]

First and foremost, it is a safety issue.

I have owned Squarebodies since the mid 80s. I also currently own and drive a late model 6.0 2500 Silverado.
I pull equipment trailers loaded with everything from vehicles, to tractors, excavators, skid steers, etc.
I pull RVs up to 32'.
There are no circumstances in which I would pull the 5th wheel mentioned with a Squarebody truck, no matter the modification or setup.
If you have the money to customize a truck to pull a 19k 5th wheel, then you have the money to purchase the proper truck for the job.
The setup you are describing would look amazing at an auto show, but it has zero business on a public road.

No matter the forum, one can always find a thread where the OP says they are looking for advice, but seemingly will not accept any feedback other than posts that give confirmation to their idea.
It should not take 79 posts to convince you.
The physics and limitations and hazards have been explained multiple times.
Beyond the risk to other drivers, an accident involving an overloaded vehicle would set you up for a lawsuit by any good ambulance chasing lawyer. It can already be difficult to find proper insurance coverage on old squarebodies, so I'm not sure who would write a policy for such a setup as you are describing.

My post isn't an attack or trying to be argumentative. I am being honest and speaking from experience.
Find a 4500, write the check and build your squarebody for something else.

Hey, thanks for your advice and it didn’t take 79 posts for me to understand. Maybe around 50. Lol

 

[Dano500]

First and foremost, it is a safety issue.

I have owned Squarebodies since the mid 80s. I also currently own and drive a late model 6.0 2500 Silverado.
I pull equipment trailers loaded with everything from vehicles, to tractors, excavators, skid steers, etc.
I pull RVs up to 32'.
There are no circumstances in which I would pull the 5th wheel mentioned with a Squarebody truck, no matter the modification or setup.
If you have the money to customize a truck to pull a 19k 5th wheel, then you have the money to purchase the proper truck for the job.
The setup you are describing would look amazing at an auto show, but it has zero business on a public road.

No matter the forum, one can always find a thread where the OP says they are looking for advice, but seemingly will not accept any feedback other than posts that give confirmation to their idea.
It should not take 79 posts to convince you.
The physics and limitations and hazards have been explained multiple times.
Beyond the risk to other drivers, an accident involving an overloaded vehicle would set you up for a lawsuit by any good ambulance chasing lawyer. It can already be difficult to find proper insurance coverage on old squarebodies, so I'm not sure who would write a policy for such a setup as you are describing.

My post isn't an attack or trying to be argumentative. I am being honest and speaking from experience.
Find a 4500, write the check and build your squarebody for something else.

.

 

[Dano500]

Dan, take a deep breath and read this very carefully. Please.

You started this thread with questions. The overwhelming response was that it was okay to build your truck however you wanted to but that towing 19K pounds with it was a BAD IDEA. Many of us have experience with towing and we ALL told you to get a suitable truck, that what you plan to do is NOT SAFE no matter how much horsepower and torque you put under that hood.

You keep ignoring The Truth and keep focusing on how much horsepower you can get out of this Cadillac engine. We keep telling you that is NOT the deciding factor.

Based on past Forum Foolishness I decided that you are either playing us all for fools just to see how riled up you can get us or you are very young and have NO CLUE.

I now realize you are not just playing us. You really have no clue. That is NOT an insult. We can help you, we want to help you. Your confusion about the U-Bolts on the rear..."Oh, so they are upside down?" The pic of that tells me this truck is not ready for towing anything and neither are you. I am reading along in your other thread about this truck and your struggles to get it to run. That tells me you need help, you really don't understand what you are dealing with here.

What you need to understand is that hooking up 19K pounds to a truck like this is DANGEROUS. This is not about "proving people wrong". You are gambling with your own life and the lives of the other folks on the road around you with this.

Am I a Jerk? Maybe. But I am trying to help you.

ell thanks for not being so rude this time around. I understand what you and everyone else are saying and I definitely appreciate the advice, but if you would have read all of my replies to the group, before your comment, you would have understood that I was genuinely asking if one did upgrade the engine and trans and suspension and brakes on a solid k20 frame if it could be possible. Grit dog had that discussion with me about frame strength.

This is why I was asking in the first place. Stronger parts give vehicles higher limits. If this wasn’t true, pickups wouldn’t be riding around on 44” tires and 14 second factory cars wouldn’t be racing 10” quarter miles, etc. plus I did watch a video of a 454 K20 pulling 14k lbs and he didn’t mention any upgrades, so maybe you can understand why I asked in the first place. My apologies for calling you a jerk before. Thanks again.

 

[GTX63]

I can remember when NFL linemen were getting up to 300lbs and fans were like "OMG this is amazing!" Then 320lb, 330lb and some at 350lbs.
Aaron Gibson, who played briefly for the Chicago Bears, set the record for the NFL and weighed 410 lbs at the time.
Huge players that were fast and quick. Then it became evident that they could not sustain longevity in the league. Doctors were coming out and noting that the human skeletal frame could not sustain the weight and physical exertion that was being put upon the tendons and ligaments.
You are asking if you can take a 185lb running back to the Golden Corral every day and switch him to nose tackle.
I drive my 73-87s more than anything else I own because they are fun, and I work them often and hard, but even a 1 ton squarebody does not equal the capabilities of a modern 1/2 ton Silverado.

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

That actually not true. Check out YouTube. Few videos of square bodies with this motor. Not as bad as you think.

The truck we had, was built in 1975, when YouTube was only a glimmer in someone's eye. The shop that built it had done at least two prior square body Burbs, and probably done some of the Action Line trucks before that. I know what was done, because I watched and helped my Dad redo most of it. The front crossmember where the motor mounts attach was grafted in from the Cadillac frame; lots of sketchy welding that he had to redo. The transmission crossmember and mount were also damaged and had to be fixed. The original build even used the Cadillac driveshaft with the double Cardan universal joints on each end. This truck's driveline was disassembled by us and we found a bunch of things to fix or re engineer. We were in the process of rebuilding it when we had to relocate our parts store, and it never got fully rebuilt. But I remember the work, because that was the first major repair work I did on a vehicle with Dad.
The amazing thing to me, knowing how rough it was, is that it did run and drive reasonably well. We drove it for a few weeks, every day, while we were assessing and discovering what needed fixing. The first stage was just getting the grunge and oily sludge and slime off everything. I guess a prior owner was afraid it would rust and so they put oil or grease on everything....
And in the current times, there may be parts available to help with this engine swap. In the late 70s and early 80s, you had to know what factory stuff to use, or fabricate something.
There's a member of the GMT 400 forum who put a Cadillac 500 engine in a '95 K1500. His build thread is very detailed, and I've had many discussions with him about various aspects of it. It was not a drop in, plug and play, swap on his truck either, and not just because of the 4wd. He's in the Dakotas so he does need the 4wd!

 

[bucket]

First and foremost, it is a safety issue.

I have owned Squarebodies since the mid 80s. I also currently own and drive a late model 6.0 2500 Silverado.
I pull equipment trailers loaded with everything from vehicles, to tractors, excavators, skid steers, etc.
I pull RVs up to 32'.
There are no circumstances in which I would pull the 5th wheel mentioned with a Squarebody truck, no matter the modification or setup.
If you have the money to customize a truck to pull a 19k 5th wheel, then you have the money to purchase the proper truck for the job.
The setup you are describing would look amazing at an auto show, but it has zero business on a public road.

No matter the forum, one can always find a thread where the OP says they are looking for advice, but seemingly will not accept any feedback other than posts that give confirmation to their idea.
It should not take 79 posts to convince you.
The physics and limitations and hazards have been explained multiple times.
Beyond the risk to other drivers, an accident involving an overloaded vehicle would set you up for a lawsuit by any good ambulance chasing lawyer. It can already be difficult to find proper insurance coverage on old squarebodies, so I'm not sure who would write a policy for such a setup as you are describing.

My post isn't an attack or trying to be argumentative. I am being honest and speaking from experience.
Find a 4500, write the check and build your squarebody for something else.

I disagree, somewhat. Not figuring the legal part of it with weight ratings and all that, from a mechanical standpoint, a stout squarebody truck could be built to safely do the job. A 1-ton dually with a boxed frame, modern axles with big brakes (Dodge or Super Duty... or even 450-550) and proper springs would do the job just fine and be perfectly safe. Of course the downside would be the time and $ involved in such a build.

I can remember when NFL linemen were getting up to 300lbs and fans were like "OMG this is amazing!" Then 320lb, 330lb and some at 350lbs.
Aaron Gibson, who played briefly for the Chicago Bears, set the record for the NFL and weighed 410 lbs at the time.
Huge players that were fast and quick. Then it became evident that they could not sustain longevity in the league. Doctors were coming out and noting that the human skeletal frame could not sustain the weight and physical exertion that was being put upon the tendons and ligaments.
You are asking if you can take a 185lb running back to the Golden Corral every day and switch him to nose tackle.
I drive my 73-87s more than anything else I own because they are fun, and I work them often and hard, but even a 1 ton squarebody does not equal the capabilities of a modern 1/2 ton Silverado.

Yeah, I don't think so. Towing and hauling with the average modern 1/2 ton truck simply blows.

 

[Keith Seymore]

Hello and thanks for your advice.

I like those tiny houses! So, if you don't mind my asking, what is the setup of the pickup? One factor I would have to help is the fifth wheel vs. the bumper pull. Again, I really think stopping would be the main concern.

Sorry for the delay in my response -

It's an '04 2500HD, Duramax/Allison with 3.73 gears. GCW rating is 13,500 on the ball, 15,500 for gooseneck/fifth wheel.

That particular day the plan was to move the tiny house from the back 40 up to the front yard, but then the scope crept to actually taking it via surface streets over to a storage facility.

I did move it one more time from storage to the new owner's location.

K

 

[Grit dog]

I disagree, somewhat. Not figuring the legal part of it with weight ratings and all that, from a mechanical standpoint, a stout squarebody truck could be built to safely do the job. A 1-ton dually with a boxed frame, modern axles with big brakes (Dodge or Super Duty... or even 450-550) and proper springs would do the job just fine and be perfectly safe. Of course the downside would be the time and $ involved in such a build.



Yeah, I don't think so. Towing and hauling with the average modern 1/2 ton truck simply blows.

Yeah, anything is “possible” but being a good overall decision or not is what has been questioned.
I get it, folks that don’t know what they don’t know have to learn. We all do, just for different things.

Regarding the new half tons vs old HD trucks, no they don’t have the springs or axle capacity, but I’d take any of the newer 1/2 tons over our (fairly capable big block 4.10) squarebody K20 for anything that won’t break the rear axle all day long and twice on Sunday.
Not even a competition.

 

[Keith Seymore]

.....

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The DIY renovation took five years and $180,000. The couple travel North America in their custom mobile home, which has a hot tub and spiral stairway.

ca.news.yahoo.com