You guy see the bent zr2

I'm not surprise about the frame. I actually saw a colorado bed almost hitting the cab flexing bad while towing an empty boat trailer on the freeway. I was laughing hard watching the middle go up and down while the front and rear not bounce.

 

Just read the fine print on the Chevy towing page.

"Towing capability is capped at 5,000 lbs. for Colorado ZR2, regardless of engine."

Also from this AU article on bent UTEs there's this piece of info.

"And it’s only the rare car company that makes any allowances for dirt roads; most prominently, Land Rover changes their maximum tow weights from 3500kg to just 1000kg when off-road."

Just over 7700 lb tow rating down to just over 2200 lbs when towing off road. Or 28.6% of the rated tow capacity when off road. The tongue capacity should be reduced as well I guess. If we apply the same rule of tow capacity reduction that Land Rover uses for other vehicles.

My Tacoma has a max towing and tongue capacity off 6500 and 650 lbs respectively. A reduction to 28.6% would yield 1857 and 186 lbs.

A ZR2 Colorado Duramax has a max towing capacity of 5000 lbs. The 28.6% formula yields 1429 and 143 lbs.

"GM’s investigator took trailer to a certified CAT scale. Trailer is 2100lbs. Tongue weight is 347lbs."

 

The main issue with this is that the manual states trailers with loads of 2000lbs or more is supposed to have brakes. If you actually had brakes the tongue wouldn’t need to be as far reduced, but depends how risky you want to be.

Researching the road he was on says average time in a 4WD vehicle w/o a trailer is 15 mph over 78 miles and is a high clearance 4x4 trail only. https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/4001-smoky-mountain-scenic-backway.html. Even if he was going 25 mph that was faster than most would even attempt it without a trailer. The part that gets me when reading his side is he states “ i hit a dip in the road hard enough i though i better stop and check the trailer”. The whole defamation on social media in hopes influencers will side with you because things didn’t go the way you thought is getting really old.

 

His trailer was too heavy, there was no susoension travel left lol.

 

Bend new frames

 

Lol

 

Its an average speed, maybe sometimes less than 5, maybe sometimes 25. Bottoming out isn’t good with no trailer and can’t be improved with one. He effed it no doubt and hit something too fast but that doesn’t prove the Colorado is as stout as it should be. I’m not ready to assume it’s only driver error. Let’s just wait and see.

 

Yeah.

I was looking at off-road teardrops. The info I posted regarding the reduction in tow weight is something I'm going to be using as a limit if/when I tow something off road now. The logic being that the same considerations of what's happening between the frame and the trailer apply regardless of the vehicle. The number had someone with the expertise necessary to derive it and W/O having something from Toyota it's a better guess. If I hadn't read the 28.6% number my honest guess would have probably have been around 50% and a 3,250 lb & 325 lb tow and tongue weight looks too damn similar.

 

It makes sense if you consider that the tongue weight probably increased from 347 lbs to a couple of thousand pounds in a fraction of a second (force exerted while dropping a foot or two at the speed of gravity). This, while bottoming out, would have put a LOT of force on the frame at the fulcrum point (whether the shocks or axle bumpstops) Oversized tires probably increased the leverage, then braking almost immediately afterwards just continued the bending force with the weight of the trailer pushing forward. Probably a ton or two of force pushing down and forward almost instantly (I'm no physicist, but I'm sure someone could to the math). I doubt many truck frames could have withstood that, at least not ones supporting a truck that can get in the low 20 mpg's unloaded.

 

Gravity supplies the initial force but at impact it's only the downward speed of the tougue and its weight and the relative speed and direction(up or down) of the hitch and the distance from the hitch to the bump stops and the distance between the bed mounts and the cab mounts, weight and movement of the front half of the frame. Multiply the weights and leverages(mostly trig but calculus if you want to include front suspension flex) to find your answer so it gets complicated quickly. I doubt it's two tons though, since there aren't any 10/1 leverages that I can see unless the front end bottomed out simultaneously. I'd just as soon wait and see but given manufacturing trends I'd place my money on steel shaved too thin to save on weight.

Still too fast, not blaming Chevy but not buying one either.

Good arguement for hd springs or air bags and cradles, this would not happen unless it bottemed out.