Help!

It means you have a 1500 Suburban. It also means that when fully loaded with family and stuff that you are dangerously close to the vehicles GVWR. which will leave you with very little in the way of towing capacity.

What is it that you're going to be towing?

WoodGlue

Look at the light-weight travel trailers, get the right hitch / weight distribution bars and you will be fine. Enjoy the show!

If it is a 5300 (is that what 5.3L means?) with a 3.73 axle ratio, then my owners manual says I can tow 7700 lbs max trailer weight with 13,000lbs GCWR. So is that not what that means? My family of 6 weighs in at less than 800lbs.
So Donn, what does very little towing capacity mean?

I owned that vehicle once upon a time. Towed our popup we had at the time really well. I suspect your family is not always going to have a combined weight of 800 lbs. Unless you have 4 daughters.

My suggestion is to stay under 24-26' long because of trailer control/sway in the wind. Get a good trailer brake controller, WD bars/sway control and keep the total trailer weight under 6,500 lbs for comfortable towing leaving you a little power to spare.

The number you need to be more concerned about is the payload rating. Realistically you will be limited to a trailer of about 6k GVWR max if you are toting a family around. We would need more info to really narrow it down. The GVWR of the tow vehicle would be a starting point and the number of family members and gear expected to be carried in the vehicle.

WoodGlue wrote:
What is it that you're going to be towing?

WoodGlue

That is what I am trying to learn. We are going to be in an area with some trailers to see tomorrow. We would like a light bunkhouse, we need to sleep 6. But we think a hybrid that we are going to see from a private party tomorrow might be what we need to do.

I towed with a 5.3 liter Suburban from 2004 to 2007 with a 26 foot travel trailer. The 5.3 liter is very poor towing anything above 5000 lbs dry weight.
Your experience will range from constant shifting in head or side winds or going up any slight grade. Towing in the mountains or steep hills will pull you down to 30 to 50 mph with you foot pushing the gas pedal into the floor.

You need to be extremely careful in your selection. Do not believe a salesman who will tell you anything to get you to buy.

I ended up upgrading to a Chevrolet 3500 dually pickup with a turbo diesel. It tows my 35 foot TT like it is not there.

Don't forget the weight of fuel and water,(in the storage tanks). Food and gear add weight real fast. You have to add that weight to your total capacity. Do not listen to the RV salesman. They will frequently tell you can pull more than you should. It's not just the gear ratio. Heavy duty shocks, radiator, breaks, transmission, etc. I have pulled 2 different TT with a Suburban just like yours-it's not a good, or safe idea. If you need passenger space and power-I bought a 1 ton van. It's not too hard to find a used work van-they're inexpensive, not pretty, but will do the job.

We have the same engine and axles in our 2000 GMC truck. We have been pulling our 28' Jayco bunkhouse for 7 years now with no problems at all. Now, we do not have a lot of hills that we tow up. There are times when I would love more power on some of the steeper ones but the truck does do its job but has to work a little harder. I wouldnt want any bigger trailer at the moment. Myself if I was you I would go with the lightest trailer that fits your needs.