Best future tow vehicle

Op said "other than a pickup truck". I'm in the same boat. Yeah, they tow better but overall a SUV is a much better all around vehicle for me. We have a similar sized trailer (17' though) we tow with an inline 6 cylinder envoy. Is it the best tow vehicle? Maybe not. But we've towed that little trailer all over the place and never had a problem. It has plenty of hp and torque. I get 12.5 mph towing and 20 mph not towing on the highway at 75 mph. I'll live with that.

I tow a similar trailer with a Tacoma v6 -- great mileage when not towing. On the LA freeways, I often get 22.5 mpg. But for a paper route, with a lot of stop and go, 16 mpg is more likely.

rexlion wrote:
... A Chevy Traverse should perform similarly, too.

I second that.

My Traverse was towing about 700lbs more than your trailer did fine even in the hills here in New England. Mine had about 1500lbs of available payload which would give you plenty of overhead for tongue weight and supplies.

My first trailer was about that weight. I towed it with a 4.8 liter V8 half ton. It did okay, but I always wished for a more "relaxed" tow. I wouldn't be comfortable with a NA 6 cyl. For that trailer.

Skip right to the Ram 2500. That way you don't need to upgrade when you get a larger trailer.

I towed a KZ Escape 14RB for 4 summers with my 2008 Toyota Highlander. 5000 lb tow rating. 270 HP/ 240 tq versus your Venture's 185/210. It had plenty of power for 60-62 mph towing everywhere but in the Rockies, where a long grade at high altitude (which cuts HP due to thinner air) made it struggle some. A Chevy Traverse should perform similarly, too.

The 2007/08 Jeep Grand Cherokees are available with a Mercedes diesel in them, same V6 diesel motor the Mercedes ML's that Westend suggested above have, should cost a bit less than the actual Mercedes SUVs, while still a pretty nice/fancy ride. If I recall they are rated to tow something along the lines of 7500lbs, and have a decent carrying capacity too (around 1300lbs), should pull a trailer like yours with ease, and get you decent mileage doing so, I hear they get about 25mpg hwy empty, and I would bet about 15mpg towing a trailer like yours.

Our Jeep Liberty has a VM-Motori motor, which while reliable, is hard to get parts for locally, most have to be ordered, and then finding a shop who knows how to work on it is a bit of a pain, thus our main reason for upgrading. The Mercedes has a bigger presence here in the USA, that motor is used in all the Sprinter vans/RVs and Merc's passenger vehicles, so parts and skilled shops are a lot easier to find.

Suburban would make a nice tow vehicle and if you want to upgrade trailers you will already have a decent tow vehicle.

Add to the fact there are lots of them around and get decent mileage.

Another positive is the comfort factor on a long trip.

You could keep the van to deliver out of and use burb for towing.

Another six cylinder from that era will be about the same as what you have.

VentureVan wrote:
Is a V8 a necessity or would a straight six like in the Trailblazer be good

How about the TrailBlazer with the V8 'hint hint'

You already have a V6 now. Any other naturally aspirated V6 will perform about the same until you get to a lot more transmission gears. In that era, Hemi Durango is my recommendation. Can you stretch to a Flex Ecoboost?