Towing

[TowGMC]

If he was going to drag 9K with a Tahoe I hope he had good tranny insurance.

More insurance than that. At 9,000 lbs he'll be close to 20% over the tow rating of the Tahoe, more than half a ton over. In otherwords, very illegal. If it was to go 20 miles I'd do it. But for any distance on interstate highways I caution against it. heaven forbid there's an accident, the insurance company is going to see the loaded trailer grossly exceeded the tow rating of the Tahoe and most likely deny any claims.

And keep in mind there's the tow rating, and the GCVW rating which is the combined weight of the towed trailer plus the weight of anything in the Tahoe.

I've towed 60,000-70,000 miles and have never exceeded the tow rating of the tow vehicle because it's illegal and because of the liability in the event of an accident. Can it do it? Maybe. Should you? Absolutely not.

 

[aflumb]

We'll I haven't even started to pack. We will be leaving after Xmas. As for the load. I don't think I'll be in the 9k range. More in the 7k range if that. But the trailer and truck weighed 10k today. That was an empty trailer. So we will see what the weight will be in a couple weeks

 

[Calicajun]

Good luck with your trip out west. You never said which towing package you have on your Tahoe. If you have no factory installed trans cooler then you only have a tow rating of 5,500 lbs and are running a 3:08 rear end.

I bought a 2013 Tahoe LT that came with the 3:08 rear end (bought it used, dealer lied to us) it did tow our 28 foot travel trailer up a 3,200 foot climb pretty well staying at speeds of 50 to 55 miles per hour. The trans without a cooler, temp did get up to 210 degrees, travel at night. After adding a after market trans cooler the trans temp only made it up to 172 degrees. I did find that adding air bags to the rear springs a must in order to keep the Tahoe stabile in the turns. Our Tahoe has had the rear in changed to a 3:42 ratio and can't say if the is any noticeable difference in towing. The manual says there is only a 500 pound difference in towing between 3:08 to 3:42 gear ratio.

Again good luck and keep us posted on how you do on your trip.

 

[aflumb]

yea the dealer lied to me also about the towing package. i have the trailering package. but i did add the trans cooler. most of my trip will be on flat interstate. im going to take 10 till i hit 40 in OK. not many hills that way. im also not going to be in any hurry.

as far as the tow rating its 8500lbs with just the hitch. and supposedly 10K with WD hitch. but i dont think ill be near 7k

 

[Gzes]

Yea as stated gotta be careful when hauling weight wise. I do sometimes overweight but go through less traffic areas and I know the risk. Last time tho was at 11k with my trailer and a load of shingles to dump, time before it was around 13,500ish when I had to haul my first load of shingles to dump. It's not hard to drive an overweight vehicle the problem lies in the brakes aswell as the frame in general. Seen a 1/2 ton be overweight out in the country with pot holes and ruts and the frame bent because of all the weight

 

[aflumb]

Well I figured I would add a pic.

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---------- Post added at 09:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 PM ----------

I had to do a panoramic pic

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[Dave01]

Wow, that's like towing your garage along behind you. Get done for the day and just unhitch, open the door, and drive in the back for the night.

It looks like every time you came down a hill to a stop sign or out of a sloping driveway you'd bottom out the back end as you come out onto the flat. Has to take some advance planning to not scrape the back end fairly often.

 

[aflumb]

Actually it has slider in the back for that. But so far leaving from my back yard; which has a pretty good drop. It hasn't scraped.

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[aflumb]

move is done

ok so i figured i would go ahead and do the update.

so the truck and trailer loaded weighed in at 16.5K. with that being said; i know the safety part of the whole towing that much weight and what not. but it had to be done and was.

now my opinion is if you have a vehicle that can tow a "set" weight and you tow that weight it doesn't mean it the best idea to try it.
now prior to this whole trip there was alot of "safety" decisions i had to make. one was the route i would travel. i tried to pick the way with the least amount of hills or what not. on top of that was the idea to avoid ice/snow at all cost. well as anyone who lives in the South East will tell you this week was not a good week weather wise. but i lucked out and didnt see any snow/ice on the roads at all

now before leaving and knowing what i was under taking some safety items for the truck had to be taken care of. well i got my P3 brake controller, WD hitch with sway control, and helper bags, and trans cooler. my trailer is a v-nose with 15' radial tires with 5500lb torsion axles and of course electric brakes.

well now to the trip. i averaged around 7.5mpg the whole way. from Sumter SC to Meridian MS was pure hell. my trans temps were always around 180-200. now we only drove 584 miles the first day. the next day was heaven. there was hardly any wind and i would catch my self forgetting i was even pulling the trailer. i was just amazing how well the trailer handled on decently flat roads with hardly any wind. we ended up making it to Santa Rosa NM. the last day was as bad as the first cause we starting hitting the mountains in NM. it wasn't to bad but just made for a slow drive.

no if i ever had to do it over again i would have let the Gov move me. but it was a learning exp. also i now know that whenever a big rig is passing you be prepared for you trailer to get sucked towards the big rig.

Also the biggest part to this is paying attention. not once were we ever in a hurry. i never pushed the truck. i just let it do its thing and found all the sweet spots. it amazes me how the 5.3 with the 3.08 gears did. yea it was a lil more work than it had to be but it did ok. it wasnt something i would lose my head over. the only thing now is im wondering if i should get the trans serviced? ill look at the fluid tom.


oh and thank god im back in Vegas

 

[Dave01]

Glad the trip went so well, no problems or breakdowns. You obviously know what you are doing and how to stay safe.

I have to say I'm surprised you could tow 10,000 lbs. with those 3.08 gears and not struggle the whole way. As for the 5.3, I know I've read some criticism of it, not enough power, need the 6.2, etc. but I've been impressed with it. For a relatively small engine I think it has respectable power and tows very predictably.