Anyone with experience towing with a Suburban
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. ...
Forum Discussion
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.
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.
