Towing with a 5.3 Tahoe

Second question for the group. How much do you guys tow with your 5.3 equipped Tahoe? We are looking to purchase, but need it to be able to tow a 3 horse aluminum trailer. To me, it should be fine, as I have towed this trailer with my company supplied F150 with the ecoboost. The Tahoe should be a much heavier vehicle I would think? Any example, pictures, etc appreciated!


Thanks!

REPO said:

Second question for the group. How much do you guys tow with your 5.3 equipped Tahoe? We are looking to purchase, but need it to be able to tow a 3 horse aluminum trailer. To me, it should be fine, as I have towed this trailer with my company supplied F150 with the ecoboost. The Tahoe should be a much heavier vehicle I would think? Any example, pictures, etc appreciated!


Thanks!

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What's a 3 horse trailer weigh empty? How long is it? How big are the horses? 600-800 pounds each?

Most folks I know use HD Pickups for that. A few use Suburbans or 1500s with maximum tow packages but they are usually towing a double or a double with a small bunkhouse.

swathdiver said:

What's a 3 horse trailer weigh empty? How long is it? How big are the horses? 600-800 pounds each?

Most folks I know use HD Pickups for that. A few use Suburbans or 1500s with maximum tow packages but they are usually towing a double or a double with a small bunkhouse.

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I checked the capacity on the Tahoe, and it seems to vary slightly depending on which web site you check, but it seems to be around 8600 punds. The trailer weighs around 3500 pounds, and a couple horses is around 2000 pounds. This appears to be inline with what it can handle.
However, I have had several other trucks in my past, with varying towing capacities. I have found that some of my previous vehicles may be rated for a certain amount of weight, but after towing with them, there is no way in hell that I would tow the maximum that they state.
An example of this was the 2022 F-150 I just got rid of. That truck shouldn't tow anything, lol. To me it just felt like the trailer was pushing it around, but was well under the capacity of the truck. That is what I am wondering about the Tahoe. To me I would like to think that the heavier body would almost help with towing, compared to a half ton.
Just looking for honest reviews from those who have pulled a holiday trailer, etc.

5-6K shouldn't be a problem, especially if you use a weight distribution hitch when running on the highway. The short wheelbase of the Tahoe does not tow loads as well that have a high sail area, like a travel trailer compared with the Suburban.

Surprised nobody has chimed in yet, there are lots of guys on here who tow with K2 Tahoes. Might just have to search to seek them out.

If you have not bought a Tahoe yet, consider the Suburban/Yukon XL.

@PG01

I've trailered my Camaro (3900lbs) on a heavy uhaul trailer (~2100lbs) many times for many thousands of miles. You definitely know it's there around town and on grades (up and down), but cruising on the highway its fine.
The 5.3 does just fine for me the times I have to trailer it, like once a year. But if my primary use of the vehicle was towing then I'd get something that would do the job better.
3/4 ton chevy pickup or even a TRX (if I had a spare 100k) would do much much better.

Jeff_ said:

I've trailered my Camaro (3900lbs) on a heavy uhaul trailer (~2100lbs) many times for many thousands of miles. You definitely know it's there around town and on grades (up and down), but cruising on the highway its fine.
The 5.3 does just fine for me the times I have to trailer it, like once a year. But if my primary use of the vehicle was towing then I'd get something that would do the job better.
3/4 ton chevy pickup or even a TRX (if I had a spare 100k) would do much much better.

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TRX is only rated at 8100 lbs. A Hemi R/T Durango with Tow n Go is rated at 8700.......

i have a 2005 Tahoe 5.3 2wd, approx 150k at the time of the described event. I towed my 83 300SD on a tandem axle car hauler from Austin to Dallas, it wasn't my trailer so i dont know the exact weight but guessing 5300-5800lbs combined. I had the car positioned on the trailer to distribute the weight properly (no weight distributing hitch), and used tow/haul and "3" the entire way home (you do not want to pull in D with these transmissions). The truck did the job, the engine is strong enough, but there was no doubt something really heavy was back there the entire time. Driving in "3" made my mpg's pretty poor, but a tank of gas is much cheaper than a trans rebuild. The drive down (unloaded) felt like i was driving a paint mixer the whole way. The ride home (loaded) was much smoother. Just my .02, but i would not purchase my Tahoe to pull that type of load on a regular basis.

Conversely, this summer i purchased an 01 Chevy 3500 4x4 with 8.1 and pulled the aforementioned Tahoe back from San Antonio to Dallas on the same trailer. I didn't even know it was back there.....

if you're going to tow the trailer/horses on a somewhat frequent basis, i'd consider a 3/4 at least.

I would do the moog heavy duty spring upgrade and sumospring bumpstops. Makes a world of difference

REPO said:

Second question for the group. How much do you guys tow with your 5.3 equipped Tahoe? We are looking to purchase, but need it to be able to tow a 3 horse aluminum trailer. To me, it should be fine, as I have towed this trailer with my company supplied F150 with the ecoboost. The Tahoe should be a much heavier vehicle I would think? Any example, pictures, etc appreciated!


Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hi There,


We tow a 28 Ft Travel Trailer which weighs about 7,500# on the road with our gear. 2022 Tahoe LT 5.3 with Max Trailer package with no issues. Previously had a 2015 Tahoe with same package which we towed same trailer. Trailer has about 35,000 miles on it all behind these 2 units across Canada and the US.

George

If I were you, I would look for a good sized transmission cooler. If yours comes with one, take a look at it. It’s probably one of the tiny ones. Add another one, other wise your transmission will get too hot and be no good. I had a Yukon Denali with the 6.2, but when I looked at the transmission oil cooler, even though it had the tow package, it was a tiny one. Once I added a bigger one, my temperature went from 220 to 190 hauling a travel trailer.