Towing with a Tahoe

Stephen W wrote:
My neighbor bought a new 27' 2016 Forest River Wildwood that had a dry weight close to yours. It is 30' overall, including the tongue and bumper and I think it has a GVWR of 7200#. It flat overwhelmed his 2012 Tahoe, which was rated on the sticker to tow 8200# with the 5.3 engine and what I remember to be a 3.42 axle. He bought the Tahoe new and it had been a great vehicle with no issues.It had the optional towing package.

He has a CDL and tows heavy commercial trailers nearly every day in his job...and this RV combo scared the heck out of him. Power was not an issue, sway was the problem and nothing we tried would settle it down. Over several months, we tried WD hitch adjustments, sway control adjustments, weight distribution, tire pressures, empty vs full water tank, hitch height, etc., nothing helped. I had five travel trailers before our MH and was aware of the short wheelbase issue, but never experienced it.

I followed him in my MH for a few hours on a camping trip and anytime he got above 55 mph, the sway got bad, especially when an 18 wheeler passed, it was all over the place.It was a long afternoon and his wife was very upset. General RV, his dealer, told him his Tahoe would "have no problem" handling his new trailer and didn't want to help solve the problem. They had his money, right?

He ended up buying an F-250 Lariat 4x4 diesel and that solved the sway issue completely. He can tow at 70 mph (too fast, in my opinion) and says he doesn't notice 18 wheelers when they pass him. Happy wife, too.

Sorry this was so long, but this was a real life experience I was involved in and I thought it might help with your decision. My neighbor just needed more truck and now he's a happy camper.

I have no doubt that the "F250 Lariat 4x4 diesel" handles a trailer that's somewhere around 1/2 of its rated towing capacity considerably batter than a 1/2 ton anything, particularly a short wheelbase vehicle.
However the trailer didn't magically just tow like a dream behind a bigger truck, if it was a virtual death trap behind the Tahoe, or there were some significant changes made, or the Tahoe story is a bit embellished.
I've never towed a 27' Rockwood, but have towed hundreds of different trailers behind dozens (or more) different trucks. Some under, some at, and some well over the tow rating. Probably 50% in mountians or 75% in territory that isn't as friendly as Florida.

The only trailers that automatically sway at a set speed, 50-60mph IS that speed, are either very grossly overloaded tongue weights, usually combined with too heavy of overall trailer weight, or a trailer with not enough tongue weight.

This doesn't add up and the OP shouldn't expect this kind of behavior or issues at all really.

The weight of the trailer is one thing to consider, but length does matter as well. Pulling 30' of trailer at 7K is a lot of trailer. Pulling that with a shorter wheel base, half ton chassis is asking a lot.

My neighbor bought a new 27' 2016 Forest River Wildwood that had a dry weight close to yours. It is 30' overall, including the tongue and bumper and I think it has a GVWR of 7200#. It flat overwhelmed his 2012 Tahoe, which was rated on the sticker to tow 8200# with the 5.3 engine and what I remember to be a 3.42 axle. He bought the Tahoe new and it had been a great vehicle with no issues.It had the optional towing package.

He has a CDL and tows heavy commercial trailers nearly every day in his job...and this RV combo scared the heck out of him. Power was not an issue, sway was the problem and nothing we tried would settle it down. Over several months, we tried WD hitch adjustments, sway control adjustments, weight distribution, tire pressures, empty vs full water tank, hitch height, etc., nothing helped. I had five travel trailers before our MH and was aware of the short wheelbase issue, but never experienced it.

I followed him in my MH for a few hours on a camping trip and anytime he got above 55 mph, the sway got bad, especially when an 18 wheeler passed, it was all over the place.It was a long afternoon and his wife was very upset. General RV, his dealer, told him his Tahoe would "have no problem" handling his new trailer and didn't want to help solve the problem. They had his money, right?

He ended up buying an F-250 Lariat 4x4 diesel and that solved the sway issue completely. He can tow at 70 mph (too fast, in my opinion) and says he doesn't notice 18 wheelers when they pass him. Happy wife, too.

Sorry this was so long, but this was a real life experience I was involved in and I thought it might help with your decision. My neighbor just needed more truck and now he's a happy camper.

I agree with the new generation of the Tahoe with a six speed over a four speed automatic. "Maybe the six speed will do better". I know my four speed with a 3.42 sure didn't do the job.
Curly

^What he said.

Curly2001 wrote:
The Tahoe with that gear ratio is marginal at best for what you want to tow.

I disagree. 6-spd with 3.42 offers far better final gearing than 4-spd with 4.10 and probably outperforms 4-spd with 4.56 ratio. On top of that, if he has a 4-spd he would gain all the other benefits of a newer generation of SUV.

“tows our 4500 lb boat just fine with lots of power.”

Most boats don’t have much wind resistance.

Mitch’s point about TV wheelbase is a good one.

A travel trailer will cause a LOT of HP needed vs a boat or equal smaller frontal area trailer. Me running down the road at 15K with my equipment trailer. about 70 sqft of frontal area, I need 105HP to go 60 on a level. Change that up to my old TT with 90 sqft, I need 135HP. With ET and my bobcat at 18000 lbs total, I need 115hp at 60. Now to blow you away some more, my Navistar at 26000 lbs and 70 sqft, also need 135HP. So that extra frontal area is equal to 11000 lbs of trailer weight, due to the wind drag!
TO make a LONG story short, the OP would be better power wise, gear wise etc with the new rig, as it has 50 or so more hp, torque, 6 forward gears starting with a 4.10 in first vs 3.08.
Also, at elevation, as noted in colorado at 8-10000', you are down in either case some 30% of sea level HP. Only way to fix or help this is more HP at sea level motor, ie a 6.0 or bigger higher HP motor, or a super/turbo charger, then you have sea level HP at 10,000 ft or there about, then you start to lose it as non inducted motors at 3% per 1000' elevation gain.

marty

blofgren wrote:

Thom02099 wrote:

travelnman wrote:
Anyone tow with a Tahoe vs Suburban? Considering buying a 2014 Tahoe in beautiful shape just like granny used to drive. Wonder if the shorter wheel base will give me trouble with sway. With the suburban I have none at all. The suburban has the 3.73 axel with the 5.3 engine and handles the job but could use a little more power which the Tahoe has.
It also has the 3.42 axel, 5.3 engine, newer six speed transmission. My suburban has the older four speed trany. The TT is a Keystone Spingdale 2008 coming in at 6,200 dry. Both vehicles have all the heavy duty cooling, larger radiators, etc. Any experience with a Tahoe towing would be helpful before I spend my life savings on one.

Not quite the same as what you're looking at, but here's a real world perspective. I have a 2003 Tahoe (all the tow package add ons) that I used to tow a 2007 Keystone Outback 25RSS which weighed in at ~6000lbs (scale weight) with everything on board including water. Slightly lighter weight trailer than what you're considering, weight limit on the Tahoe is 7400lbs and the GCWR was around 13600 IIRC, and I was at 11,800lbs scale weight with everything on board in the Tahoe, sometimes including an 80lb fur friend.

Anyway, the combo was fine...for flat lands. towing in the mountains of Colorado, it would go, but it would be slow. I'm talking 25MPH slow in 2nd gear on a grade similar to the Ike Gauntlet. And on most concrete interstates, there was a lot of porpoising, probably due to the shorter wheelbase. No problem at all with sway, with a good WDH setup, which I have.

Granted, the newer Tahoes have a higher weight capacity, but it's also a heavier vehicle than my '03, and the trailer you're considering is also heavier. If you're never going to tow in mountains, it's a fine combo if you stay off concrete road surfaces.

The Tahoe is a fine vehicle and I still have it. Just don't use it for towing. If you've got a Suburban, you'll appreciate the longer wheelbase and hopefully greater payload capacity. MY solution was to go to a 2007 GMC Sierra Classic 3500 HD dually and a slightly heavier trailer.

I'm a bit surprised to read this as our 2001 Yukon 4x4 with the 5.3L and 3.73 gears tows our 4500 lb boat just fine with lots of power. I'm wondering if the airflow effects on the travel trailer was causing the big difference because I sure wouldn't have guessed that 1500 lbs would make that much of a difference.

The Ike Gauntlet gains 2000 feet in elevation at just over 8 miles and has a maximum of 7% grade. Given that and the trailer frontal area, I'm sure the combo is what caused the Tahoe to struggle. One particular road I travel, the South St. Vrain Canyon, has a similar elevation gain for where I go, with some 10-12% grades. The Tahoe did not like this road at all. The Sierra is "meh" towing it.