7-8 seat tow Vehicle?

250 Excursion, 2500 series Suburban, E250/350 Ford van. Take your choice. All can make excellent tow vehicles for large families

Sounds like you're getting closer to buying that Hybrid. :B

Any other restrictions? Budget? New/used? For large family RVing, few half tons have all the ratings (towing/payload/receiver) for much more than the 6000 pounds you mentioned. All the current full sized have tons have tow ratings over 8000 pounds, but one or more rating will be exceeded when towing an 8000 pound RV with 7-8 people inside the vehicle.

For new, you really only have full sized vans. GM has the Chevy Express and GMC Savana vans. Standard is the 6.0L gas engine and optional Duramax diesel. Tow rating is about 10,000 pounds with enough payload to handle a family and RV. Nissan has the NV passenger van with about 8500 pounds of tow rating and good payload. I'm not sure what the receiver limits are, though.

Used, you have the GM 1-ton vans as well as Ford E350 van. Vans have aweful resale value, so they are much cheaper than SUVs of same age/condition. The 2008-2013 Suburban and Yukon XL 3/4 ton SUVs with about 2100 pounds of payload, but 1000 pound receiver limit. That's about 8000 pound loaded TT. If you want higher than 8000 pounds loaded TT and and SUV, then you need to go back to 2000-2005 Ford Excursion or 2000-2006 GM Suburban/Yukon XL 3/4 tons.

Another option is taking two vehicles. New and Used pickups are plentiful for towing 10k+ pounds, but not carrying so many people. A regular cab 3/4 ton pickup can be had for pretty cheap, plus a minivan or other favorite people hauler. I see many people so that in Michigan. 500 mile or less round trips isn't too much extra cost to take a second vehicle.

A 6 door Mega Cab Dodge, or a 81 E350 conversion van with a 460.
Or somewhere in between.
Maybe some more criteria would help!
Or just a search on this site. Same question comes up about every week.

"Any other restrictions? Budget? New/used? "

No, not really.
At the moment I am just researching what is out there...

I really want HTT, but we are 4 in our immediate family, and always go camping with our relatives.

Right now we are using 2 vehicles
The Mini get everybody to the destination, and the Jeep tow the Pop-up.
- the Van and the Jeep towing capacity is only 3500lb.

It will be great if we could trade the van for a 7 seat car that can tow a mid size HTT. (~4500lb loaded)

The Yukon XL 3/4 ton SUV that was suggested look promising (and VERY expensive), so I will look into that (used?), I don't see myself driving a full size van or 6 door pickup truck...

Dodge Durango seats 7 and IIRC it has 7200 lb tow capacity with the 5.7L Hemi.

Expedition, Tahoe/Yukon, Durango even can tow up to 7k pounds.

Or look at 1/2 ton pick up trucks, just knowing that you'll need to take 2 vehicles on your trips.

Durango and all the half tons with 7000-9500 pound tow ratings do not have the payload for 7 people and 700-1000 pounds of trailer tongue weight. So they are kind of like you can tow a lot or carry lots of people but not both at the same time comfortably, or under their ratings.

SUVs are more popular that full sized vans, thus cost more new as well as used. They also are offered with a lot more features and equipment than vans. A "loaded" 2015 Chevy Express has about the same equipment as a base Suburban LS. You want 4 heated leather seats, NAV, rear seat entertainment? It will have to be aftermarket on a van.

Finding a 2008+ 3/4 ton GM SUV will be tough. They are not too common because the economy in late 2000s GM just didn't make them as few were buying. Oh, you're in Canada - that's even more rare.

Those are two main points why prices are so high.

4500 pound loaded HTT seems unlikely with 7-8 people's stuff. 6000 seems realistic. So that's 700-800 pounds of TW. 2015 half ton SUVs (Expy/Suburban/Yukon/Sequoia/Armada) have 12000-1600 pounds of payload. That may be enough for your needs depending on your specific weights.

How many miles are your trips? Fuel isn't as cheap as the US for taking two vehicles, but driving a 3/4 ton Suburban at 13mpg daily driving non-towing average isn't cheap either.

I'd probably say stick with your favorite crew can half ton pickup. You can get 17-18mpg every day and tow a 6000-8000 pound RV when needed. Let the extended family meet you cat campsite.

Ah yes, the old conundrum.

"I want to haul a ton of people and a big trailer too"

"I don't want a van"

May as well ask how to drive nails but don't want to buy a hammer. A vehicle is just a transportation tool. Get the right tool for the job, or don't do the work.

As someone else noted, this comes up regularly.

More info on my situation:
The HTT' that I wish to buy/tow is fairly light:

Jayco X18D (6-8 beds)
(UVW = 3500lb, DHW = 390, GVWR = 4600)

Ductape wrote:
Ah yes, the old conundrum.

"I want to haul a ton of people and a big trailer too"

"I don't want a van"

May as well ask how to drive nails but don't want to buy a hammer. A vehicle is just a transportation tool. Get the right tool for the job, or don't do the work.

I was just hoping that there is an alternative to a full size van.

APT wrote:

... 4500 pound loaded HTT seems unlikely with 7-8 people's stuff. 6000 seems realistic. So that's 700-800 pounds of TW. 2015 half ton SUVs (Expy/Suburban/Yukon/Sequoia/Armada) have 12000-1600 pounds of payload. That may be enough for your needs depending on your specific weights...

Thank you for your post, VERY informative!
Sequoia or Armada are very nice vehicles with good payload, I will look in to these model as well!