6500 # toy hauler with '03 Z71 Tahoe w 5.3
I know this is old hat for most of you but I thought I'd put it up because I looked for it and couldn't find it when I was buying the TH.
This summer we put on about 1700 miles pulling the camper and all but about 200 in the Colorado Rocky Mountians.
I averaged about 9.7 while pulling. I can't get exact because we spent a little of each tank driving w/o the TH and did some crawling up a pass in 4 low.
The GCVW is probably in the low to mid 12,000# range. The Tahoe came standard with a trans cooler so I didn't have to do anything for pulling and has about 110,000 mi. It runs great but the interior isn't holding up that well.
The Tahoe pulls just fine up the hills as long as I can keep the rpms up. If I shift into second on the hills and keep it at 3500 - 4000 rpms it pulls great and I don't even need to keep my foot in it. It holds 50 or so just fine unless A GD Semi or BMW gets in the way. Then I am pretty much screwed into first and 30-35 mph and I can't get going fast enough to shift into second in the power band. Kind of annoying but in the long run really not that big a deal.
I was thinking about upgrading but at this point I can't find anything I like worth the money. I'll probably just drive the Tahoe into the ground. I need an SUV for family and work but none of them are that great for towing. Maybe Ford will bring back the excursion at some point. That's what I really want.
This summer we put on about 1700 miles pulling the camper and all but about 200 in the Colorado Rocky Mountians.
I averaged about 9.7 while pulling. I can't get exact because we spent a little of each tank driving w/o the TH and did some crawling up a pass in 4 low.
The GCVW is probably in the low to mid 12,000# range. The Tahoe came standard with a trans cooler so I didn't have to do anything for pulling and has about 110,000 mi. It runs great but the interior isn't holding up that well.
The Tahoe pulls just fine up the hills as long as I can keep the rpms up. If I shift into second on the hills and keep it at 3500 - 4000 rpms it pulls great and I don't even need to keep my foot in it. It holds 50 or so just fine unless A GD Semi or BMW gets in the way. Then I am pretty much screwed into first and 30-35 mph and I can't get going fast enough to shift into second in the power band. Kind of annoying but in the long run really not that big a deal.
I was thinking about upgrading but at this point I can't find anything I like worth the money. I'll probably just drive the Tahoe into the ground. I need an SUV for family and work but none of them are that great for towing. Maybe Ford will bring back the excursion at some point. That's what I really want.
