3/4 or 1 ton SUV ?

Gator398 wrote:
Three years ago we pulled a 5x8 enclosed trailer with our 9 passenger 2012 GMC Savana explorer van, 3 adults and 4 kids and cargo trailer usually at about 3k lbs. We had brake rotors replaced every 3 trips or so, whenever the braking vibration would get unbearable. The 6.0 motor was good enough for this but would not be enough for a TT in tow, and I could not imagine what the wind blowing it around would feel like as that was pretty unbearable at times as well.. When the A/C in the van started blowing warm was the final straw and we will never go back to a motor crammed into a compartment again (that includes bus/Class A). Be smart and buy a tow vehicle with a real hood and built stout enough for pulling AND braking. The '05 Excursion is the last real option for passenger hauling +trailer, if you can get over the late 90's interior and features for what people selling them wish they were worth. Maybe, thanks to coronavirus and the resurrection of road travel mixed with the collapse of the cruise industry, we may finally see the return of the true HD diesel powered 3/4t and 1ton SUV, not the thing Nissan has right now that is a towing joke. I imagine if Ford (for example) makes a long wheel base 2022 Excursion-Max with 7.4L gas, they wouldn't be able to build them fast enough for all of the RV's out there being piddled along with terrible tow vehicles.

Did you buy your van used? How many miles were on it when you had all of these issues? It appears it was a conversion van, which could have added a ton of weight if it was a high top. Are you sure you had the 6.0L and not the 4.8L?

At 70k miles I still had the factory pads and rotors on our Express. It hauled my family of 7 and two dogs perfectly fine while towing a 33’ 7200# GVWR trailer. I CAT scaled it once and I was over15k pounds, but under the 16k GCWR. When traveling with our dogs and we would make a stop somewhere, we would leave it idling with the AC on for them, sometimes for over an hour if not two. It would be a meat locker when we came back to the van. I

If you think the 2005 Excursion was the last vehicle made for towing and hauling, you must not be aware that GM made the 3/4 ton Suburban through the 2013 MY and we all know the Suburbans actually had a higher payload than an Excursion, thus actually making it the better tow vehicle.