Anyone with experience towing with a Suburban

[andrewwm]

Hi, I’d like to hear from people who have experience towing a larger travel trailer with a Suburban. I have a Suburban 1500 5.3L. I want to buy the largest travel trailer my suburban can safely tow. This will be my first travel trailer. I have towed many small trailers and cars on trailers. It will be me my wife and two small children on the trip. We would like as big as we can for space as it will be long trip visiting several towns for weeks at a time.

I’m not so concerned about weigh but I am concerned about length and sway as I’m currently considering a 25 foot outback weighing about 4,500lbs unladen and another 29 foot travel trailer weighing 5,500lbs unladen. If you can give advice from experience on length and sway that would be really appreciated. All advice from experience is appreciated but I’d also really like to hear from those who have towed with a suburban.

Below is an explanation why I’m not as concerned about weights – basically GCWR is probably my limiting factor and I plan to keep within my weight ratings.

Weights – I’ve checked the ratings on my Suburban. From the manual and after checking my gear ratio it has a 7,500lbs max trailer weight and 13,000lbs max GCWR. I had checked on websites such as Edmunds which stated my Suburban would weigh about 5,000lbs. Fortunately, I weighed it with a full tank of gas and nothing else in it but me. The actual weight with me was 5,760lbs (I’m about 200lbs). So before I even add gear to the Suburban/trailer and passengers the max weight of my trailer is limited by the GCWR to 7240lbs.
My rear axle is rated to 4000lbs with tires rated to 2400lbs each. When I weighed it my rear axle had 2760lbs on it. The manual states a maximum tongue weight of 1,200lbs which gives me a trailer weight assuming 15% tongue load of 1200/0.15=8000lbs. So if I don’t put too much weight in the suburban it looks like tongue weight is not my limiting factor. It looks like my GCWR will be.

Thanks

[Vintage465]

I pulled a 25ft. Nomad bunk house trailer all over the United States with a 1999 4x4 1500 Suburban that had a 5.7 and tow package. That trailer was around 6500 pounds and we had a good weight distribution hitch and a friction sway control. We never once had a sway issue and pulled at what ever speed the state we were traveling in allowed. I also pulled the same trailer with 1983 6.2 liter 1500 4x4 and a 1985 6.2 liter 4x4. Always hitched up right and loaded correctly. It's real important to set things up right and drive with-in the rigs ability.

[DC8Captain]

I had a Suburban 1500 with a 5.3L towing a 28' trailer that grossed out at about 7600lbs including tongue weight. I would normally tow with the trailer weighing about 6,000 plus the tongue weight at about 650. I didn't have any issues with sway or power on a level hwy but I live in CO so I rarely encounter straight and level roads. The 5.3L motor was pretty gutless on hills at altitude. I ended up finding a used Suburban 2500 with a 8.1L engine. Things are a lot better now for Colorado towing.

[Prowler_guy]

We've been towing alot with this setup (and no sway control or sway problems). Keep it to 6000lbs and 25' and you should be fine. Could use more power but otherwise it is great. Biggest thing that helped was changing the tires from P rated to 8ply LT's.

1984 Prowler 28st (25' box) Trailer is right around 5300lbs with fresh water tank filled (50gallons) and our bikes and gear for a family of 5. The WDH was given to me by my dad and is about 35 years old. It is a fixed head and the bars are on the second chain link to get the front end back down (the snap up brackets slide a bit on tight turns). 2005 Tahoe, 5.3l, 3.73 ratio diffs, 4x4, Nivomat self leveling rear shocks, transmission built for towing, Toyo Open Country A/T II 8ply LTs, 240,000kms.

[andrewwm]

I can now answer my original question having had my travel trailer for a year and I'm posting this information in case anyone who is interested in towing a large travel trailer with a Suburban comes across this thread.

Myself and my family have driven over 8,000 towing miles in the last year. We went to the East coast and back over 4 months plus some other trips. The only repairs on the Suburban were the fuel pump and an a/c belt with tensioner. Other than that I just changed the oil as indicated. The Suburban is the one listed previously and now has over 260,000 miles.

The Suburban is fine for my 29 foot Extreme Sportsmaster. I did and continue to pay careful attention to weight. It handles very well and I have no concerns and had Zero incidents. I don't drive if wind gust are over 25 mph, and think about not driving if they are over 20 mph. I do use a weight distributing hitch and 800lb bars. I occasionally weigh the rig. I have one friction sway control bar.

We can bring all the gear we need for the family, but we have to leave some items behind we would like as that would put us overweight. Also we drive with empty tanks where possible.

The power from the Suburban was fine everywhere with a coupe of exceptions. By fine I mean I could do the speed limit whenever I wanted. Exceptions were crossing the Sierra Nevada's near Donner Pass. At that point there are so many slow moving trucks it doesn't matter. It did become a hassle in Wyoming. There are lots of roads at high elevations on the route I drove with curves so you slow down and have to pick up speed again with hills and really I would have liked something with more power. I had to pull over a few times to let people pass. So if you're regularly at high altitude I would get a more powerful rig.

I also drove on snow for 4 hours. I never wanted to drive on snow but WYDOT's traffic conditions report was wrong. Took it slow and no incidents.

The rear suspension is now sagging a bit when I hook the trailer so I'm about to get that looked into.

Overall the 5.3L 1500 Suburban is great at low elevations with the 29 foot trailer, but a 2500 would mean that I could take more stuff.

[BurbMan]

Good job going to the scale and those weights look good! You are within all your ratings but running at the max.

As I said previously, I would strongly recommend a transmission temp gauge so you can keep an eye on temps... If you don't want to have a gauge installed, you can buy an inexpensive bluetooth diagnostic sender like this OBD Link MX Bluetooth. It plugs into the OBD-II port and you can monitor temps via an app on your cell phone or tablet.

Or you can swap out the gauge cluster with one for a 2500 burb or truck, your truck is already wired for a sender and the 2500 cluster gives you the OEM gauge, plug n play.

I would also recommend a Mag-Hytec extra capacity cover for the rear axle, the added capacity helps keep the temps down.

Happy camping!

[intheburbs]

Your weights look good. Nice job. Might try going an extra link on your weight bars.

I probably logged ~10,000 miles on my 01 half-ton Burb with almost the same exact load. Never got 9-10 though; more like 7-8.

If you do some long drives in the summer, keep an eye on the temp of the rear axle. I was dumb and just used my hand. If I could hold it on the rear axle for a few seconds, I knew it was good. A cheap infrared thermometer would be cheap insurance.

Have fun making memories!

[midas1]

Andrew,

Here is my experience with a 2001 GMC Yukon 5.3L. Living in North Reno I have to travel up and down large hills in order to get home. When I say large, we are talking about 2500 to 3000 feet in elevation change.

The problem I was having when towing was in the summer; if the gas tank had less then 1/4 tank I would burn the pump up climbing the hill. I also made the mistake of not turning the AC off once and fired the compressor.

So in the end, the 5.3L will tow it but when it heats up outside be careful.

[andrewwm]

I checked the weights and they are high. I checked them fully loaded with everything we want to bring including gas (also a lot of stuff we didn't need), but before my wife and two small children got in. Who all together are well under 200lbs.

Front Axle - 3120, Max - 3600
Rear Axle - 3860, Max - 4000
Suburban Total - 6980, Max 7200
Trailer axles - 5760
Total weight of rig - 12740, Max GCWR 13000

So yes the weighs are high, but we did have everything in there including food etc.

I also weighted the trailer empty. It is 600lb heavier than the unladen weight recorded on the sticker inside. I don't know why. There are two propane tanks (one empty), two batteries and a spare wheel. But I dont' feel that accounts for 600lbs. Nothing came out any of the water tanks (it was winterized at the time it was weighed empty). I'm curious to know where this extra weight came from.

I also got 9-10 MPG on that trip.

[intheburbs]

Did you weigh yourself on the scales? Keep an eye on that rear axle.

[andrewwm]

I just towed the travel trailer from Idaho to California, 836 miles in total including crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains. The trailer and Suburban were loaded with us and all our gear. It did just fine. No issues, no trailer sway and had sufficient power.

It changed down gears going up the mountains and I came down in second. I only traveled at 55mph going up the mountains and could have gone faster but 55mph is the limit in California towing a trailer. Traveled faster through Nevada.

I reckon the k2500 would be superior. The k1500 I have has plenty of power for what I want to do however if I wanted to drive a lot faster out of state I would like a better suspension.

As the first RV I've owned, so far I really like it. Planning to take out for a long weekend this month.

Thanks again for all the advice.

[befu]

OK, that pick of the flipped 3/4 ton burb makes me add my own experience. I have owned 4 suburbans, currently own a 99 K1500 and two 2004 - k2500 with the 8.1L. I like it so much, I bought a second one and yes I drive three suburbans, I love global warming but that is for a different thread.

My 3/4 ton burbs pull our 31dbts just fine. (36' overall and weighs in about 10,000 lbs loaded) Went out west past Yellowstone last summer and it did really well. had to slow down on some hills in Montana, but that is to be expected at 17,000 lbs total. I have never towed the TT with the 1/2 ton nor do I want to.

I also own a 272 LS Formula offshore boat and it weighs 8,000 to 8,500 with some fuel and a steel trailer. I often tow that locally in Indiana with the 99 1/2 ton burb with the old 5.7L in it. It does fine with the boat, but you can really feel it back there. Power is OK on the motor as the local roads are only 55 and flat, but the suspension is where it is lacking. And tonque weight as it is just a plain hitch. The boat is much more aerodynamic than the trailer, so that is not so much an issue. I did lose a trailer tire on the boat at 55 mph last summer. Barely noticed it except the vibration and I saw it disintegrate in the mirror. No problem slowing down with the 1/2 ton burb and pulling off the road.

Now I put that same 8500 lbs behind the k2500 burb and it is night and day. That is why I bought the second one. The 1500 will tow the 8500 lb boat, but not nearly as well as the 2500. It is not just the pulling power of the 8.1L, it is the suspension and tires themselves. It feels and controls completely different.

How a 2500 suburban flipped that easily? We do not know all the information, how it was loaded, was it worn out, bad ball joints, who knows. It might have been the truck but it was not because of the truck design.

Tow with your 1500, but if you can upgrade to a 2500, I highly recommend it. It is much better control and suited to getting you there safely.

Just my experience, worth twice what you paid for it!

Good luck.

[PAThwacker]

Backup up tip with burbs. Pull past site turn sub to right begin backing up. Use drivers side mirror and focus on the trailer wheels.

[APT]

Congrats!

Tire pressure should be at the max pressure as listed on the tires themselves. The higher the pressure the higher the load it is designed to carry.

[rrev]

I have a little trick for you for the backing part. Instead of putting your hand at 12 o'clock, put it at 6 o'clock. That way when you turn right, the trailer goes right and so on. Also, smaller movement in the steering wheel. Everything is magnified with the trailer. It takes practice plus some trailers just back easier than others.