How long to wait before towing with a new truck?

[Raspy]

The differential might be the most important part to break-in before towing. Change the oil in it before you tow.
It's real easy to advise others to just run their trucks hard immediately, but I wouldn't do it to mine. A bit of care initially goes a long way. My 2004 Cummins ran better when I sold it at 280,000 miles than it did new and it never used a quart of oil between 10,000 mile oil changes. After three differential oil changes in the first several thousand miles the oil started coming out clean and would go for over 50,000 miles and still look clear. Why not give your new truck some good treatment at first?

 

[sixdogs]

The differential might be the most important part to break-in before towing. Change the oil in it before you tow.
It's real easy to advise others to just run their trucks hard immediately, but I wouldn't do it to mine. A bit of care initially goes a long way. My 2004 Cummins ran better when I sold it at 280,000 miles than it did new and it never used a quart of oil between 10,000 mile oil changes. After three differential oil changes in the first several thousand miles the oil started coming out clean and would go for over 50,000 miles and still look clear. Why not give your new truck some good treatment at first?

I do take excellent care of my trucks but have not heard of changing the differential oil so soon. How about waiting a few thousand miles? I could do that but do I need to?

 

[Rock Crawler]

I bought my 2017 Ram to tow. The weekend after I bought it I put 9,000 lbs on the *** end and did a 10 hour round trip haul. It's a truck... built and bought to tow. I can't buy a new truck and stop moving things that need moved until some time/mile limit is hit. I've always bought my trucks and used them, never have had a problem. My 1999 F-350 7.3L PS has 180K on it now and has never had the differential grease changed. That thing has hauled heavy all it's life, cross country and across town. It just returned last week from Texas where it hauled a church owned shower/bathroom trailer down and back for helping those folks who have no facilities.

 

[orezok]

I’ve been a licensed general contractor since 1979. In that time I have never seen a sub that got a new truck, attached an overweight trailer to it and told a laborer to get it to a job 30 minutes away in 20 minutes. They typically have no more failure that the babied ones. Now that is REAL world experience.

 

[Raspy]

I do take excellent care of my trucks but have not heard of changing the differential oil so soon. How about waiting a few thousand miles? I could do that but do I need to?

Do whatever you think is right and wait as long as you'd like. When you do change it, look at what comes out. When nearly new, the oil will look silvery from hard face steel circulating through the gears and bearings. I just laugh at guys who proudly never change the oil and think everything is fine because it hasn't actually destroyed itself.

If you are curious about the differential call a rear end shop that does ring and pinion swaps. Ask them if they want you to tow heavy as soon as you roll out of their door. Ask them when the best time would be to change the diff oil.

Cummins engines are so well built and heavy duty that they don't give a break in period. But still........

 

[JPRambo]

If you wait till after the 500 mile waiting period you can't take it back to trade up $$$$$

 

[kcflhrc]

I'm not sure a Turdra can pull 7000 lbs. let alone stop it.

 

[George2615]

Chevy has the same towing specs as kcflhrc mentioned word for word. It should be in the owners manual towing section.

 

[sixdogs]

Chevy has the same towing specs as kcflhrc mentioned word for word. It should be in the owners manual towing section.

Yeah, mine says 500 miles but I would like to tow 6500 lbs for 10 miles on flat roads before that. I could take it easy?

Great responses and thank you all.

 

[jay3534]

fast takeoffs and and excessive idling will probably do more harm.