Tow Report - 2004 3/4 8.1 Suburban
Hey Folks,
Some of you may remember me going back and forth here about a year ago on whether or not to trade in my 2005 Denali XL on my now 2004 3/4 Suburban. Well I did. I wanted to post a quick one year review + towing report of the "new" suburban.
My one year thoughts will be pretty short. Pros: paid for, decent ride, great power, no maintenance issues. We have upgraded to a DVD system in the car, as well as keyless entry and blue tooth radio, so it is a bit more modern than it was when I bought it. Cons: gas mileage empty is terrible, like maybe 11 mpg bad, not nearly as nice as the Denali, no bucket seats, and the 4.10 gears kind of suck to drive on the interstate at 75.
My trip report will be longer and more detailed. I loaded up the family of 5 and took off from Kansas to the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee a few weeks ago. We were pulling our new to us 2002 2505 KS Frontier. Not sure about total weight as one reason I got the 3/4 Suburban is now I don't have to worry about it. I'd guess the camper was close to 6,000lbs.
Anyway, after almost 2000 miles of towing, I couldn't have been more impressed with the suburban. We were traveling with my dad who was pulling a 27ft travel trailer behind his 2007 1500HD with the 6.0 V8. His truck is sufficient for that job, but it works it. He could go about 180 miles between fill-ups. I would often times not even be down to a half a tank with the suburban. That's a nice difference between a 26 gallon tank and a 37 gallon one. Through the rolling hills of I40 through TN, his truck would drop down to 45mph on some hills. I could have, and did sometimes, set my cruise control at 65mph and it would just chug along in high gear (thanks 4.10 gears). To be fair, my dad's camper is a fair bit taller than mine, so the wind is a big factor for him. I did the majority of the trip leading him so he could tuck in behind me.
At fillup time, I would guess I averaged right at 9 for the trip. My worst fill up was 7.8mpg and my best was 10.4. The 10.4 was impressive since I've only seen 11mpg + twice when running this thing empty.
Pulling was a fun job. Set the cruise and sit back and relax. I told the wife that we could easily do a trip to FL for Disneyworld or something by ourselves with this set up in a rather stress free fashion. Funny enough, even though my dad's truck has the smaller 6.0, when we'd stop for gas, I'd always be within half a gallon of what his truck was taking, usually taking more gas, but sometimes less. I'm very happy trading an extra half gallon of gas for the seemingly limitless power of that big block. This set up was rock solid. No sway, absolutely no braking issues even though I had a few times I had to take some quick stops. Truck rode nice and level with the WDH dialed in (really rides level without it too, but I used it anyway). All in all a fun towing experience and I was not ready to go home.
Side note: My family LOVES our "new" KZ Frontier. It has quad bunks up front which is awesome for my three kids. It has a full length couch, dinette for 4, and a queen sized rear slide-out bed. Tons of storage underneath and everything worked AWESOME on the trip. We had a lot of fun.
Takeaway thoughts from the trip: I no longer have an urge to buy a newer 3/4 suburban to try and get better non-towing mileage with. Since this beast is paid for, and does an awesome job on long towing trips (only has right at 100,000 miles) I plan to let this thing become more or less a garage-queen and use it for only towing jobs. I'm probably going to go buy a nicer newer car for myself and the wife to use as a daily driver (I work from home). The wife's Pilot is getting up there in age. 145,000 miles. My thoughts if I can get a cheaper smaller car for her and I to drive daily, this would save some life in both the Suburban and the Pilot. The Pilot will be replaced hopefully around the 200,000 mile mark. I might end up keeping this suburban for a long, long time....
Sorry for the long post.
Let me know if you all have any questions or comments!
Some of you may remember me going back and forth here about a year ago on whether or not to trade in my 2005 Denali XL on my now 2004 3/4 Suburban. Well I did. I wanted to post a quick one year review + towing report of the "new" suburban.
My one year thoughts will be pretty short. Pros: paid for, decent ride, great power, no maintenance issues. We have upgraded to a DVD system in the car, as well as keyless entry and blue tooth radio, so it is a bit more modern than it was when I bought it. Cons: gas mileage empty is terrible, like maybe 11 mpg bad, not nearly as nice as the Denali, no bucket seats, and the 4.10 gears kind of suck to drive on the interstate at 75.
My trip report will be longer and more detailed. I loaded up the family of 5 and took off from Kansas to the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee a few weeks ago. We were pulling our new to us 2002 2505 KS Frontier. Not sure about total weight as one reason I got the 3/4 Suburban is now I don't have to worry about it. I'd guess the camper was close to 6,000lbs.
Anyway, after almost 2000 miles of towing, I couldn't have been more impressed with the suburban. We were traveling with my dad who was pulling a 27ft travel trailer behind his 2007 1500HD with the 6.0 V8. His truck is sufficient for that job, but it works it. He could go about 180 miles between fill-ups. I would often times not even be down to a half a tank with the suburban. That's a nice difference between a 26 gallon tank and a 37 gallon one. Through the rolling hills of I40 through TN, his truck would drop down to 45mph on some hills. I could have, and did sometimes, set my cruise control at 65mph and it would just chug along in high gear (thanks 4.10 gears). To be fair, my dad's camper is a fair bit taller than mine, so the wind is a big factor for him. I did the majority of the trip leading him so he could tuck in behind me.
At fillup time, I would guess I averaged right at 9 for the trip. My worst fill up was 7.8mpg and my best was 10.4. The 10.4 was impressive since I've only seen 11mpg + twice when running this thing empty.
Pulling was a fun job. Set the cruise and sit back and relax. I told the wife that we could easily do a trip to FL for Disneyworld or something by ourselves with this set up in a rather stress free fashion. Funny enough, even though my dad's truck has the smaller 6.0, when we'd stop for gas, I'd always be within half a gallon of what his truck was taking, usually taking more gas, but sometimes less. I'm very happy trading an extra half gallon of gas for the seemingly limitless power of that big block. This set up was rock solid. No sway, absolutely no braking issues even though I had a few times I had to take some quick stops. Truck rode nice and level with the WDH dialed in (really rides level without it too, but I used it anyway). All in all a fun towing experience and I was not ready to go home.
Side note: My family LOVES our "new" KZ Frontier. It has quad bunks up front which is awesome for my three kids. It has a full length couch, dinette for 4, and a queen sized rear slide-out bed. Tons of storage underneath and everything worked AWESOME on the trip. We had a lot of fun.
Takeaway thoughts from the trip: I no longer have an urge to buy a newer 3/4 suburban to try and get better non-towing mileage with. Since this beast is paid for, and does an awesome job on long towing trips (only has right at 100,000 miles) I plan to let this thing become more or less a garage-queen and use it for only towing jobs. I'm probably going to go buy a nicer newer car for myself and the wife to use as a daily driver (I work from home). The wife's Pilot is getting up there in age. 145,000 miles. My thoughts if I can get a cheaper smaller car for her and I to drive daily, this would save some life in both the Suburban and the Pilot. The Pilot will be replaced hopefully around the 200,000 mile mark. I might end up keeping this suburban for a long, long time....
Sorry for the long post.
Let me know if you all have any questions or comments!
