Recommendations on Travel Trailer Weight?

[Paul Brambilla]

Hello,
I'm in the market for a travel trailer and I'm curious what others here think about the ideal weight for my
07 Yukon Denali rated for 7900 lbs. Unfortunately, it's not the XL so I'm stuck with a short wheel base.

Obviously I want to stay well beneath that number to make sure I have room for a decent payload. I don't plan on loading the TT with more than 500 pounds but I still want to make sure the GVWR on the trailer is around 7000 JUST to be on the safe side. I should also mention we are located in the pacific northwest so mountain passes will be rare, but inevitable.

The trailer my wife wants is 5300 dry and I'm a little uncomfortable with that weight. I'm trying to convince her that we need to stay beneath 5000.

Am I in the right ballpark? Would a 5300 lb trailer loaded to 6500 be a terrible idea? It seems there are several ultra light weight trailers out there with aluminum frames that could work ok. Here are a few on my list. Wife prefers the heaviest ones, I prefer the lightest!

Keystone Passport 2400BH: 4730 dry / 6700 GVWR
Coachman Apex 288BHS: 4880 dry / 7000 GVWR
Keystone Passport 2670BHWE: 5270 dry / 7000 GVWR
Cherokee Grey Wolf 26DBH: 5783 dry / 7725 GVWR

 

[Jason_S]

I've put ~7K behind a '07 5.3L tahoe and pulled it through the mountains of WV, with out issue. Just don't get in a hurry or try to win any races. It was only an 18ft car trailer and once out of the mountains/hills I had little issue keeping it at 65-70.

I would be ok hooking any of those four options to a Tahoe or Denali. A brake controller and a weight dist. hitch would make the load feel a bit better also.

Interestingly, going up to the Denali XL won't get you much, if any, more towing capacity. And going to a 2500 only gets you about another 2k. I am referring to the 4wd/awd variants. I would have to look back to be certain, but I thought that the 7900 towing capacity was for the 2wd version of the Tahoe/Yukon and the 4wd/awd version was around 7700 or so.

 

[Paul Brambilla]

Thanks for the reply. I guess you're probably right that technically I could pull any one of those, but I also know that a 116" wheel base could be tricky with sway if I'm pulling a 30' sail behind me. I guess this is just one of those things you don't know until you actually get out there and try it. Worse case scenario, I guess I could always step up to a Hensly hitch if I find myself struggling.

 

[W8TVI]

I can't give any input on towing weight, but back when my parents were using the '91 1500 Suburban to tow a '29 TT, we found that adding an air deflector on the roof of the truck saved us about 3-4 MPG when towing the trailer (went from getting about 8 mpg to about 12 or 13 MPG).

I don't know how much a difference it would make with a newer truck like yours, but it will help some.
We also found that a load leveling hitch coupled with anti-sway bars make a huge difference in the way the truck-trailer combo handled when getting passed by semi-trucks.

 

[M3kanic]

I have towed a 35 (tongue to bumber) TT with my 02 suburban 1500 4wd. It has e fans, cai, exhuast, and BB tune. The trailer was about 6500 dry and about 8k with water and fully loaded. Don't forget about the weight you put in the vehicle as well like kids and dogs. I didn't really have a problem until I hit hills then I had to remember to take my time. It also has a large trans cooler on it. I also used load distribution hitch, anti sway, brake controller, and have airlift helper bags under it. With all of that on flat highway I could not tell the trailer was behind me.

We bought a 2010 Yukon XL Denali to start towing with but lost the trailer before I could.

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