heck, my 454 dually gets great mileage if I shut the engine off and coast down hill. unfortunately the real world keeps getting in the way.

Pulled my 30' Panther 1000's of miles (14 yrs) with my 1999 1/2 ton 5.3 Sierra.
I currently pull my 37' AT with an 8.1 Avalanche with 3.73's. Took a trip out to 1000 Islands NY from West Michigan and back with no issues. Never felt I needed more engine and mileage wasn't too bad ~9 mpg. I do make sure the breaks are good.

But it's still better than what the boat gets(LOL)?

Appreciate the feedback. You’re correct probably closer to 6-6500 with trailer, fuel, etc. I recall checking a couple years back and pretty sure it has 3.42’s in it. I did have a local tuner flash it over the summer and it definitely tows better, but it still was at 4-4500 rpm on the rolling hills. You think a set of 3.73’s would help to give it a little extra grunt and not necessarily need to downshift? I don’t mind taking hills at 55, but it didn’t seem to matter to the truck my speed, it just wants to keep the RPMs high towing up grades.

I was looking at whipples yesterday and know that would do the trick, but it comes at a cost as well. Maybe I’ll start with gears and see how she goes. Already laying the groundwork with my wife on why a whipple “just makes sense” 😂.

After receiving my personal property tax bill yesterday on a 10 year old truck and 8 year old minivan, no F’ing way am I buying a new truck. The county was kind enough to adjust used car values with the current market.

Thanks for all the input from everyone! Definitely helpful for factoring in a decision.

I’m sure youre right, it’ll probably be just fine. I’m pretty religious about maintenance. Curious to hear how the new 10 spd trans does for you.

I pulled my 16,000 pound 31 foot inboard diesel parasail boat on a all steel trailer almost weekly with my 98 350 non vortec conversion van for many years.

Had airbags on the van but just surge brakes on the trailer. Never was a question of pulling power just pre planning for stopping and situational awareness.

Recently Pulled to Florida from Michigan 10,000 of boat and gear with my 2003 5.3 Explorer hi top conversion van loaded with another ton of gear so probably grossing 18,000.

Going through Tennessee I drove just like I drive my semi. Rush the hills and play the gears as rpm’s start dropping and keep the motor revving .

I was super impressed how good that little 5.3 did and didn’t feel bad running it in the 4000 rpm range running the hills, just keeping an eye on the trans temps.

I’ve only pulled 15000 behind my 6.2 Escalade on flat in Florida but I can say it definitely has a lot more torque than the 5.3 in my van.

Heck it was only 40 years ago all semis were grossing 80 thousand with only 250 horse of 8-92 Detroit roaring away.

I used to regularly haul 10tons of hay and trailer behind a 1982 F350 6.9 back in the day, you wanta talk about beating the absolute living crap out of a truck. Had over 200grand on it and still pulling when I left the farm.

Actually fwiw your 98 should be a Gen 1 Vortec.

Exactly, that's what makes me chuckle every time these threads pop up.
Think about all the stuff (boats, racecars, whatever) hauled by the standard for so long prior to that time. The 4 door Chevrolet C30 or GM C3500 dually.
Any old picture there they are hauling stuff.

With these anemic power numbers taken from 1979 and 1988 brochures snips below.
Interesting to note in 88 there was the carb LE8 and the L19 454, notice how much lower the torque was produced on the L19.
Might be a misprint.
Edit Found a 96 L29 also

And they had 3 speed transmissions or at best a 4 speed manual.

2500/3500 with T400 4.10 gears and factory wheels where close to 3k rpm at 65mph.