What should I do first? will be towing a 20-23ft holiday trailer. Will also be installing both eventually once the money comes in...it looks like a cam will be cheaper. and 33" tires on soon too...gears will probly make more sense?

 

I've got 33's and 3.73's and it's a good combination. If I was going to put the money into switching from 3.42's though, I'd strongly consider 4.11's. Especially with the taller tires and the load you're going to tow. A cam would be a distant second - my 2 cents.

 

Just tow in fifth and youve got a free gear change

Id go with a low end tq cam personally unless youre a drag racer then youll probably see more benefit with the gears once the 33s are on. A small converter also really helps these trucks. Personally I think pretty much all LS trucks shouldve come from teh factoryw ith a 2600 converter.

 

IMO, if you're going to be towing often, I would stay away from heavy oversized tires. My tires weigh 76lbs a piece and it has to downshift just to go up some overpasses when unloaded...I do need to adjust my 4th gear downshift as well but big tires make towing that much harder. I have the wimpy 5.3 tho

 

yea, just drop a gear in the transmission..

what gears do you have now? 3.08s?

 

ill have 32.8" tires and theyre pretty light if i remember. or i will once i get my body lift on anyway. i have 3.42's for gears

 

For what you are towing you need 4:10's no if and's or buts. dont care what others think seen snow birds pull more than one roasted 6 speeds into the shop from crappy gears and heavy travel trailers in the last few years. Especially if you are planning on going to a larger tire.

 

I love my 4:10s an i dont pull anything

 

So do I, but you can forget about using 1st gear much for anything other than towing, but, then again, maybe thats not such a bad thing. Be careful with the camshaft, especially on selecting one. It's cheaper to buy the parts, but it's quite a bit of work and you will need a retune to make it work, and I've found that no one seems to know or say much about tuning for the VVT cams, which is why my mileage has gone to ****. If you go the camshaft route, be sure to stay conservative on the specs, ask lots of questions and in particular insist that they sell you a tune with it that works.
The cheapest good gear set I found were at Randy's Ring and Pinion. They have AAM gears (who is the OEM manufacturer) cheap, like less than half the price you would get GM gears from a dealer. They went right in, didnt need a reshim and I don't hear any of that whine you normally get from aftermarket gears.

 

Probably because they were towing in OD. With the gears he has and a 33" tire he can tow in 4th all day long and probably be at the perfect rpm around 65mph.

My buddy's stock avalanche has got plenty of towing miles on it chasing pipeline work pulling his 28' travel trailer in 3rd(4l60e) with no problems and the 6speed has bigger clutches than the 60e.

Do you have any more details on the failures? I'm really wanting to do this swap but I don't want to have to worry about towing.