2001 GMC Yukon 1500 as TV

Campfire Time wrote:
A couple of things I think are missing, as I'm not seeing them. Page 4-53 in your owners manual breaks down your actual towing capacity. A Yukon XL with 4:10 gears and 2Wd with 5.3 V8 is the one equipped to have an 8800# tow rating. Are you sure this is your truck? I suggest before you proceed you do a bit more research and validate what you really have. If it's 4WD with 3.73 gears, you are down to 7,600 lbs capacity.

You can find out your gear ratio by cross referencing the RPO code in the glove box.

3.42 = GU6
3.73 = GT4
4.10 = GT5

4.10 is pretty rare. 3.73 is very common.

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Either way I think the 6400# trailer should be just fine. With an XL I would not worry about sway. Watch the payload, and just make sure it's setup correctly, which you should with any rig.

I used the VIN lookup to get the tech specs. This is the towing info:

Wt Distributing Hitch - Max Trailer Wt. 8800 lbs 8800.0 min 8800.0 max
Wt Distributing Hitch - Max Tongue Wt. 1000 lbs 1000.0 min 1000.0 max

Axle ratio is not listed, but all of the other listed equipment matches my truck, including the list price. ;-)

Here are the gear ratios listed, which I realize are not ideal for towing heavy loads:

First Gear Ratio (:1) 3.06 3.06 min 3.06 max
Second Gear Ratio (:1) 1.63 1.63 min 1.63 max
Third Gear Ratio (:1) 1.00 1.0 min 1.0 max
Fourth Gear Ratio (:1) 0.70 0.7 min 0.7 max
Reverse Ratio (:1) 2.29 2.29 min 2.29 max

I'd prefer to keep TT in the 5k lb range (or less), but my wife really likes the 6,400 lb Lance, which is also the most expensive. :-(

And I just reviewed the codes in the glove box. You are correct, my code is GT4, which drops the capacity significantly. May help my cause!