maximum towing capabilities with tahoe

Stick to a hybrid TT

Chuck&Gail wrote:
Careful. Ask Chevy to look in their book for the VEHICLE tongue weight spec. Not the receiver, the VEHICLE. It is likely 650#. Note you want 13% to 15% of the FULLY LOADED TT weight on the tongue. This means you max FULLY LOADERD TT weight is 5000#!!!!!!!!!!! If your TT is 4800# dry, you can only add 200#.

Check with Chevy, ask to see WRITTEN towing guide.

Definitely check, but the best way is to weight the setup you are planning to use, load the truck how you will take it camping, and visit a scale.
The rating that usually maxes out first on the Tahoe and Suburban is the RAWR (rear axle weight rating). This is given on the door tag for your rig. My '03 Tahoe has a 4200 RAWR (mine is 3.73 gears, the newer ones may be 3900 with the 3.42 gears) and my hitch has a 1000lb tongue weight limit for weight distributing. In reality with my Passport 238ML (3800 dry, 4500 as I have it loaded with gear, full propane and fresh tank), I'm good for about 800 on the tongue before I punish the rear axle, but unless I load it poorly I'm running about 550 lbs on the tongue. With the short wheelbase of the Tahoe I think 24 feet and 5000 pounds is the comfortable limit. The 5.3L with the 6 speed transmission will not have much trouble with this, but with the squishy coil spring rear and P rated tires the thing is going to porpoise a lot with a heavy trailer.

You aren't going to be able to use the 3rd row seats for passengers while towing a trailer over 5000 lbs without overloading the rear axle.

Careful. Ask Chevy to look in their book for the VEHICLE tongue weight spec. Not the receiver, the VEHICLE. It is likely 650#. Note you want 13% to 15% of the FULLY LOADED TT weight on the tongue. This means you max FULLY LOADERD TT weight is 5000#!!!!!!!!!!! If your TT is 4800# dry, you can only add 200#.

Check with Chevy, ask to see WRITTEN towing guide.

girlsma wrote:
It weighs about 4800 dry and the cargo weight is about 1800.

When considering mating a tow vehicle to a trailer always use the trailer's Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR)lb. Those dry weights are often under estimated and do not include such things as the air conditioner, awning, microwave, TV antennae, Propane tanks and battery. I bet if you actually weighed that trailer with its "4800 lb. dry weight" you would be surprised to see how much it really weighed.

Here are some lightweights you can look at: Lightweights

Thanks,that's what I was afraid of hearing,if only we could find a trailer for around 5,000 lbs that met our needs.

Having towed 10s of thousands of miles with a fully heavy duty tow equiped 04 Tahoe (tow rated 8,100#) I quickly learned that about 6,000# actual wieght was the practical limit for capacity. Your Tahoe (according to your description) is not as tow equiped as this one is.

How did your Tahoe do with your current trailer when you think you had loaded heavy? The trailer you are looking at will be heavier than that completely empty off the lot. It is only my opinion but a none heavy tow equiped Tahoe should probably stay below 5,000# loaded.

I think you mean a 5.3L? In real life towing any more than 7000 actual is a strain anyplace but the flat lands

Mine was weighed with fresh water only. It does not include grey or black water. There is a sticker that says what is included on mine. Not sure what other brands do. If you are not sure, multiply the capacity of your fresh water by 8.66 to give you the weight and add it to your dry weight