Why Silverado/Sierra Buyers Should Consider Adding Max Trailering Package

[NorthskyBlue NHT]

Anyone thinking of purchasing a new Silverado or Sierra 1500 pickup should consider buying one with the Max Trailering Package (RPO NHT). The big reason? Payload capacity. You can see on the below image of my door sticker, my NHT-equipped truck has a sizeable 2095 lb payload.
In this day and age when many half tons have payloads of 1300 lbs or even lower; having 2095 lbs available essentially means I never have to worry about exceeding my GVWR with passengers and gear when towing my travel trailer. The package includes lower gearing (3.42 vs 3.23) a taller ring gear (9.76 vs 9.5") and a larger radiator among other things.

 

[zonedout]

Good point, but keep in mind you still have a relatively low max tongue weight which essentially limits you to about 9000-ish pounds considering 13% tongue weight of a typical TT would transfer about 1170 pounds which is higher than the 1140.

It does mean you could hook up 9000-ish pounds while still stuffing your family in it. But I basically have a hard limit of 8000 pounds for any half ton, regardless of towing packages and engine sizes and rear axle ratios. 8000 pounds is at the upper limit of comfortable for almost any situation IMHO, any more than that and I'd rather just go 3/4 ton. They don't ride that badly anymore these days and the extra control of a 3/4 ton is worth a lot unless you only tow once a year just down the road or whatever.

 

[Fightnfire]

This is good information but I wanted to show how this has changed a bit in recent years. It's not nearly the gain it was in the past.

Starting in 2019 the max trailering package has had diminishing returns for total payload, is it worth it? Whether it is or not is up to you as a buyer. Here are some facts:

Pre-2019 the NHT package netted most truck over 400lbs of extra payload, that's a nice bump and probably worth it. From 2019 on that number has gotten lower and lower. Today if you add the max trailering package to a new Chevy or GMC you are getting an additional 300lbs of GVWR. (Gross vehicle weight rating which is the maximum weight capacity of your truck and all added items; driver, passengers, gear, tonneau's or canopies etc.) Subtracting your "as shipped" weight of your truck from the GVWR gives you your payload rating.

That package costs $1,125.


It bumps your GVWR from 7,000 to 7,300.

The max trailering package also forces the addition of these following add-ons, the $1,595 is because you can't get the max trailer package with the base 4 cyl turbo.

These add-ons also unfortunately add some weight to the truck, so that 300lbs of GVWR is not translated directly to your payload number. (shown in the chart below)

So, what was once a decent deal with a nice bump to payload has turned into a pricier option that nets less and less returns over the years.

This charts shows those diminishing returns with the 6.2 gas and 3.0 duramax on the base truck with zero options to maximize payload:


You can see in 2019 the payload had a good difference, from then on it's diminished from 430lbs difference to 160lbs on the 6.2. This is due to the standard payload increasing a bit and the NHT addon decreasing.

This chart was taken from this thread which is a good discussion on the NHT package:

Decreasing payloads (and value from NHT) over past 5 years

I've been looking at Silverado 1500 quite a bit recently as an option to replace my 2013 Ram 1500. I don't think it's likely to work out that I'll find what I'm looking for in Silverado 1500, but while looking at payload stickers for Silverados/Sierras on the internet and asking some local dealer...

www.gm-trucks.com

Also, as @zonedout pointed out above you will typically hit your max payload, or tongue weight, even with the NHT package before you hit your max trailering capacity. That's pretty similar for all of the manufacturers trucks if you are towing with anything more than just yourself and the trailer.