Forum Discussion

NCMODELA's avatar
NCMODELA
Explorer
Jun 15, 2013

2003 Yukon XL Towing Capacity

Hi guys, I am new here. I have a 03 yukon xl with a 8400 lb towing capacity. 3.73 gear, brake controller and weight distributing hitch and equilizer bars. I was going to purchase a 2008 keystone sprinter 28 BHHS with a dry weight of 6600 lbs.

My question is not so much will the car pull it, I know it will. But is this a safe weight, i will be doing alot of NC mountain towing, I am not looking to go fast but I don't want to have the pedal to the floor and be doing 30 mph. The weight is within the 75-80% tow weight but you guys know how this will acutally pull. I pulled a 3500-4000lb car and trailer back from chicago through the mountains without the wd hitch and honetsly i couldn't even tell it was back there. It ran 55 without hesitation. But this is heavier and a box.

Thank you in advance.
Bill
  • NCMODELA's avatar
    NCMODELA
    Explorer
    Jun 16, 2013
    Thanks for the help, one salesman told me this was fine, one said i could go to 7500lbs and the one i really trusted said i would be pushing it.

    With that being said I just found a 2011 Summerland 26BHS with a dryweight of 5680lbs and 645 published tounge weight, 924 calculated off of GVWR at 12%.

    Why is there such a difference between the two tounge weights? Is the first one calculated off of the dry weight?

    We were also looking at a jayco jayflight 29X BHS. It was 5600 lbs dry.
  • downtheroad's avatar
    downtheroad
    Explorer
    Jun 16, 2013
    You are being wise...doing this kind of research BEFORE you buy.

    The published weight is the "dry" weight of the trailer. No options, no gear, nothing in the holding tanks. No one camps in an empty trailer.

    Find the GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) of the trailer. Multiply that by 13%. This will give you a rough tongue weight.

    I'll add---be careful when the salesman tells you that, "You can pull it no problem."

    As I posted earlier, I suspect that you are going to be close or over weight when you load up and hitch up your Yukon with this trailer....trip ready.
  • eric_james's avatar
    eric_james
    Explorer
    Jun 16, 2013
    I would shop dry camper weights no more than 6000 lbs. I wouldn't recommend being over 6500 lbs loaded for flat land towing. Mountain much less. Look for 5000-5500 lbs and be happier.
  • NCMODELA's avatar
    NCMODELA
    Explorer
    Jun 16, 2013
    So the payload max is 1677 lbs, GVWR is 7000. I will bring it by the sales tomorrow and see. Two questions, first how close can i go to the payload and be ok? Second, is the published tounge weight of the trailer not reliable? The people at camping world never said anything about this. My hitch on the back says 600lb max without wdh and 1500 with wdh. If I have a wdh does that take any weight off of the hitch?

    Thanks
    bill
  • lanerd's avatar
    lanerd
    Explorer II
    Jun 16, 2013
    I agree... forget the towing capacity and concentrate on the SUV's payload capacity as that will be your limiting factor. ANYTHING you put in or on the SUV will have to be subtracted from the payload rating. Once you have that weight figured out, the tongue weight of the trailer can NOT exceed that remaining payload capacity.

    The best way to figure the tongue weight (other than getting it actually weighed) is to take the GVWR of the trailer and multiply it by at least 12%. For example... if the trailer's gross weight is say 8000 lbs, then the tongue weight will be around 960 lbs. If your SUV has a 1500 lb payload capacity and you put another 500 lbs of people, equipment, other stuff....you've just maxed out the payload capacity of the SUV.

    Hope this helps

    Ron
  • 3_0charlie's avatar
    3_0charlie
    Explorer
    Jun 16, 2013
    Don't forget the RGAWR, the Yukon Xl (basically a Suburban 1500) has a low rating (~4200#); with that estimated TW at over 1000#, I'd be careful with receiver max. weight + the truck's payload taking a serious hit (as explained by the previous reply).
  • downtheroad's avatar
    downtheroad
    Explorer
    Jun 15, 2013
    Welcome to the Forum...
    Very rough answer coming from very few details...
    It will probably pull it, but in the mountains you will be running high rpm's.

    Bigger issue is PAYLOAD. Rough guess that you will have over 1000 lbs of tongue weight when fully loaded..What you are quoting is a dry weight which is meaningless.

    The trailer is a bunk house? If so, that means kids and all their stuff loaded into the Yukon and trailer.

    Check the PAYLOAD for the Yukon and don't forget the 1000+ lbs of tongue weight.

    Best advice: load up the Yukon with everyone and whatever gear you will put in it and weigh it. Then add in the trailer tongue weight and see if you have enough payload left.

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