Towing w/87 1500 suburban

The Suburban may be able to pull the weight of the trailer but I doubt very much it will be able to pull it and come to a stop in any reasonable amount of distance. GM did not go to disc brakes at all four wheels until 1999. My 1998 Tahoe took a country mile to come to a stop when towing a boat trailer that weighed under 3500 lbs.

On my trailer frame right at the front by the propaine tanks has a weight of 6200# stamped on it im not sure if thats the weight or this other weight it says on the brochure for the trailer.

Trackrig wrote:
Are you just talking about towing the TT to the lake and then leaving it there (how far is it) or are you now talking about taking off on extended trips?

Bill

yeah i will be taking it to the lake on the weekends every now and then on friday night to camp and fish and come back home sunday. Ill be taking it to lake texoma which is about a 45 min drive straight shot up hwy 75 north so there wont be alot of stop and go traffic.

The problem with Suburbans is not the weight of the trailer per se, but their payload capacity. A 1500 has a payload rating of ~1500 lbs. Subtract the weight of your hitch, family, fuel and gear, and the remainder is what's available for tongue weight of the trailer.

As previously said, a 6900-lb trailer will have a tongue weight of around 1,000 lbs. So that leaves 500 lbs for you, your family, and cargo. If that's enough, great, you're good to go.

Trailer Life Tow Guides may only go back to 1999. They show the Suburban 1500 with the 6.5 engine as having a 8000 lb tow capacity but they don't show the payload capacity in that early version.

If that is the 'dry weight' of that trailer the actual loaded weight is probably at least 8000 pounds. And your Burb is 12 years older than the 99. I'd really worry about the payload, that trailer probably has at least a 1200 pound tongue weight. I suspect when you attach it to the Burb you might bottom out the rear end. We has a 94 Burb that we towed with but only lighter trailers, less than 4000 pounds. It worked great for those trailers. I would not have tried a 30 footer tho. The brakes were definitely a weak point on that car too. Pikes Peak killed the differential on it too, on the way down.

Yes to the WDH if it seems that it will tow that trailer

That's a bit much for that truck. You would be overweight (limit is 6500 lbs).

Manuals link

Whatever you use though you will want a WDH.

Edit: :o I'm off a decade...

Are you just talking about towing the TT to the lake and then leaving it there (how far is it) or are you now talking about taking off on extended trips?

Bill