Towing with a Tahoe

[travelnman]

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.

[travelnman]

Thanks for those replies to Suburban vs Tahoe. Some of you talked about porposing or I call it a pogo stick ride. Very familiar with that but only in Wisconsin around Madison. It is not tolerable makes you dizzy sick leaving a evening of oamping the worst ever. I suppse the tahoe would be the same or worse for this again due to wheel base. I have been hashing this over for a year or two, enjoy the Tahoes length which fits my garage pickups don't. Your answers convinced me to stay with a suburban maybe even jump to the 6.3liter. Good luck this summer should be interesting with everyone suspecting everyone else of having the bug and wearing those masks. Taking the RV thru the drive thru could prove to be interesting since we can not go in. Dennis

[Stephen_W]

This 27' Wildwood is a rear kitchen floorplan, with a front bedroom, so it certainly could be heavier in the back. Refer is mounted against the back wall and it is a mid bath.

Another factor we could not eliminate causing the sway was if the Tahoe's tires had really flexible sidewalls. Wheels and tires are 20" OEM stock size, all we did was inflate the tires to max tire mfg psi., with no improvement.

The coil spring factor is a interesting possibility. That Tahoe really rode well with no trailer.

[Stephen_W]

This 27' Wildwood is a rear kitchen floorplan, with a front bedroom, so it certainly could be heavier in the back. Refer is mounted against the back wall and it is a mid bath.

Another factor we could not eliminate causing the sway was if the Tahoe's tires had really flexible sidewalls. Wheels and tires are 20" OEM stock size, all we did was inflate the tires to max tire mfg psi., with no improvement.

[ACZL]

MY BIL bought a TT late last year which I posted/asked pretty much the same question considering the TT is in low 30' range. Have to go back to Sept or so to find my thread ("Would you....").

[ktosv]

bikendan wrote:

blofgren wrote:
Would the coil spring suspension on the Tahoe possibly make it handle worse than the leaf springs on the 1/2 ton pickup? I do notice our Yukon is a bit "squishy" at times because of the soft suspension designed for the good ride. Ours has the Autoride as well which likely doesn't help much lol.

Not aware that Tahoes have coil springs. Thought they had leaf springs.

blt2ski wrote:
I have yet to see a Tahoe with coils on rear.

The GM full size SUV's have been running coil springs on the rear since the 2000MY.

blofgren, hard to answer your question. How was the spring designed? A big huge thick wire that makes one coil to carry half of the rated axle rating? One big thick leaf with super stiff material? Or was it multiple leafs with a less stiff material?

In my opinion, the GM SUV's will handle the weight they are rated for. Ride quality will start to degrade considerably the more you exceed those weights.

[blt2ski]

I have yet to see a Tahoe with coils on rear.

[bikendan]

blofgren wrote:
Would the coil spring suspension on the Tahoe possibly make it handle worse than the leaf springs on the 1/2 ton pickup? I do notice our Yukon is a bit "squishy" at times because of the soft suspension designed for the good ride. Ours has the Autoride as well which likely doesn't help much lol.

Not aware that Tahoes have coil springs. Thought they had leaf springs.

[blofgren]

Would the coil spring suspension on the Tahoe possibly make it handle worse than the leaf springs on the 1/2 ton pickup? I do notice our Yukon is a bit "squishy" at times because of the soft suspension designed for the good ride. Ours has the Autoride as well which likely doesn't help much lol.

[Grit_dog]

Another thing I thought, which would be exaggerated by a short wheelbase is even with decent tongue weight, if the trailer axles are maybe a bit forward of ideal location and there is a high concentration of weight at the far rear end of the trailer, it will act like a pendulum.

Assuming trailer same and only the rigs changed, icbw and the wheelbase may have had more effect, but it shouldn't have been night and day between a 1/2 ton pickup with slightly longer wheelbase.

[Stephen_W]

Grit Dog, good observation on the tongue weight. My neighbor never weighed the tongue on the Wildwood, but we did tow it with a 2000 1/2 ton Silverado 4x4 with a 5.3 + towing package and there was no sway. My apologies for not remembering that we tried a 1\2 ton PU with much better results than the Tahoe. This happened 3 years ago. He bought the diesel because they may go with a 5th wheel someday.

[Grit_dog]

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.

[ksss]

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.

[Stephen_W]

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.

[Curly2001]

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