anyone towing with an 8.1 suburban 2500?

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scale obsession

scale obsession

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Jun 3, 2018
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Hey guys! After our first trip, pulling my rockwood 2509s  with my 2016 silverado 1500(5.3, 3.42 gears) I'm not happy with my towing situation. Never had a lack of power, but I felt like the wind pushed me around a lot. Would a heavier tow vehicle help with this? I have the opportunity to purchase a 2004 suburban 2500 8.1 auto. Would this be a more planted rig than my current setup ? Any thoughts or insight would be great! Thank you.
 
Are you using a weight distribution / Anti sway on your hitch?

We are pulling a similar sized trailer and have no problems with the wind.
 
Yes, equilizer 4 point WD and sway. E rated tires. Wind wasn?t bad day one of our trip but coming home, the semi blasts were terrible. Not uncontrollable by any means but it sure wore me out.
 
OK just a little guessing, I throw a lot of stuff at the wall...And you let me know if anything sticks :D

Is the WD set up correctly? Not enough weight on the bars makes it almost worthless and too much weight can make the back end of the truck act fishy.

Are the tire inflated to the needed pressure. 

Is the trailer loaded in a balanced fashion. (My wife decided that we needed almost 300 pounds of food and drinks and insisted on storing it all on one side of the trailer...Yeah..I ended up moving most of it.)

Are you exceeding your weight capacity on the truck or the trailer or worse both.?

OK that's all I can think of now let's see if anything sticks
 
You should take the trailer to a scale and weigh it fully loaded. The tongue weight should be between 9% and 15% of the trailer weight. I's easy to weigh the tongue by using a standard bathroom scale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMoLA44lcgU
 
Yes, a 2500 Suburban with 8.1 would be a whole lot more stable.  I have a 05, YukonXL 1500 4wd, 5.3, and it is fairly solid pulling my 20' TT, but wind is wind, only answer is to slow down.  I'm considering a 2500 Sierra with the 6.2 gasser.  I might upgrade my TT in the next few years though.  Do make sure your WDH is setup correct, you will miss the creature comforts going from a 2016 to a 2004.
 
I?m a few hundred LBs under the GVWR of the truck. Hitch is what I assume to be properly setup. Trailer is nice and level. It?s running 1000lb bars I believe. Running tire pressure at 65 in the rear. I kept my speed at 62.
 
Curious what you think your loaded weight is of your trailer? Looking online, your dry weight is 5300#, lets say you are 6500# loaded, You start off with a decent tongue weight at 700#, but if you put all that estimated 1300 cargo weight in the extreme rear of the trailer, it will play into your towing experience. I'm interested in your predicament, I plan to go to a 25-27 ft trailer, and you certainly are leaning me away from a GM 1500.  I'm usually the first one to beat up on guys for pulling too much with a 1500, but it just seems that you are well within guidelines and should not be having such unpleasant wind issues.  One other question, on your truck, the sticker in the driver door, what does it say your 'carry capacity' is?  And what (if any) extras do you carry in the truck?
 
The truck just doesn?t feel planted. It feels like it?s a constant battle. Plenty of power, it just feels like the suspension is too soft. I?ll check the door, to verify but I believe it?s 1625. Myself , my wife and our 5 year old, is about all that goes in the truck. I did have a cooler in the bed and a few lawn chairs.
 
As Spencer said, you may lose a lot of modern touches going 12 years older.  With that said, you ARE moving from a ? ton chassis to a ? ton chassis, which will definitely be heavier and  more capable tow vehicle.

If you can cut it financially, buy this as an additional vehicle for the purpose of pulling the camper.  Advantages include keeping miles off the older truck, making it last longer and enjoying the modern conveniences in your daily driver.  It is also VERY comforting to have alternate transportation when a battery is dead or a car is in the shop.
 
I have the previous generation Suburban as my tow vehicle, C2500 with the 7.4L. For its age and vintage, it pulls my 32' trailer with relative ease and little sway. I use a WDH system with the spring bar / chain setup and friction type anti-sway (also older design) that both help, as well as Airlift airbags on the rear suspension of the Suburban that stabilize the ride even more. Any 3/4 ton vehicle will be more stable than its 1/2 ton counterpart. Not only are the engine/transmission combo's bigger and stronger, but it also has beefier suspension, brakes, tires, and engine cooling systems. All of those factors will improve your towing situation. The 8.1L Suburban you are considering (assuming it has the 4:10 gears... RPO code GT5 on the sticker inside the glovebox) has a 12,000# towing rating.

That said, in general towing a large trailer DOES take more "work" from the driver than driving a car. There is more to think about, more to watch, new feelings and sway, etc. that really tire you out quicker. Part of what you may be experiencing is, well... inexperience. You're brain and body will get more used to the feel of pulling the trailer after a few more trips, so you might want to give that a try (and make sure your hitch etc. is properly adjusted) before dropping money on a different tow vehicle.
 
Do you have light truck (LT) tires or passenger tires (P)?  I am guessing LT if you are running 65 psi. My LT tires have a max pressure of 85 lbs and I keep them at 78 psi on the rear and 60 psi on the front (cold). The numbers are my own magic. Others will suggest using the weight and information/tables from the tire manufacturer for proper pressure which I support as good advice - I have not weighed and checked the inflation guides myself. Maybe I should. I also feel my new tires (Goodyear) are not as stable (though satisfactory) as the previous set (Michelin). I noticed the difference when that was the only change I made.


I would try a higher pressure that is close to the max pressure on the tire sidewall.
 
scale obsession said:
I?m a few hundred LBs under the GVWR of the truck. Hitch is what I assume to be properly setup. Trailer is nice and level. It?s running 1000lb bars I believe. Running tire pressure at 65 in the rear. I kept my speed at 62.
Click to expand...

First I will say that if you want the Suburban, Then go for it it's a good truck and it should have no trouble with the trailer.

But that said,

Your current truck should have no problem with the trailer either. The trailer being level is good but that's just half the problem. I will throw a few things out there and maybe I hit on something.

1 The WD hitch is very important. You should take the time to double check it's settings. On mine you measure the height of the truck at the front and back tires. Then hook you hook the trailer to the truck and check the measurements  again. On my set up I have less than a 1/4 inch difference. (You will have to check your directions for the correct recommended difference)
If your off by to much your anti sway is either not working or way to tight. (I'm thinking not working)

2 Your bars rated at a 1000 pounds may be to much. I'm running 800 pound bars.

3 How did you arrive at the rear PSI of 65? And what are you running in the front?
 
I swapped over to LT tires, prepping for tow duty. The 65 PSI was recommended by an old timer at the tire shop. Max pressure is 80 on the tires. I just took his word for it. This whole thing may just be a tire pressure issue, now that I'm thinking about it. As for hitch setup, the dealer set it up. I know it sure makes a lot of noise on sharp turns( which i assumed is because its working?) I never thought about it potentially being too tight, or the bars being the wrong weight. One thing I do know, is that when the road gets choppy the 1500 feels like its just wallowing under its weight.

side note- most of my towing in my work life is done with either a 2008 f350 with a 6.4 or a 2018 GMC 2500HD 6.0. So my feelings of the soft suspension may be skewed due to being used to towing with a larger TV.
 
I don't think you needed the LT tires but you have them so ...It is what it is. I went out and checked my tires and they are standard duty, What ever that means? And I run them at 35 PSI.

I would consider changing the tire pressure but I really don't know the best pressure to recommend.

The noise from the bars is normal but it could be too tight. If it lifting the rear of the truck it could be the cause of the wallowing.

We did a cross country trip and ran into steady winds of 30 MPH (with gusts a lot higher at times) The truck and the trailer worked as one unit. I was VERY PLEASED. So I think yours can handle your trailer you just have to fine tune things.
I did set up my own WD hitch on both my trailers Then first one I didn't like the way it handled the trailer so I had to do a complete reset on the hitch. (Not fun, One of the bolts that was torqued to 300 FT. LB did not want to let go so I had to cut it off..But glad I did,). The 2nd one was a lot easier because I had a better understanding of what I expected from the hitch.
 
scale obsession said:
As for hitch setup, the dealer set it up.
Click to expand...

Might be the problem.

Measure the front height of the truck, then drop the trailer on the ball.  Measure again to see how much it raised.  Connect the bars and adjust them so that the front drops about half of what it raised.
 
All good advise above.  You might be biased with HD work trucks, your WDH set-up might need tweaking.  Find a video on youtube and double check how to set-up your particular WDH.  If they started off setting the ball too high (or too low) and correct the issue with the bars, that could have bad effects.  Personally, I think you are ok with 1000# bars, and your payload and what you carry in your truck are fine too.  You might run the rear tires a bit closer to max pressure while towing.  Your truck should be capable, but that Suburban would pull like a dream in comparison.  As having an older 05 YukonXL, 150,000 miles, my concern starts to be, she's getting old, AC, Trans, etc are getting near their end of life expectancy, and are pricey fixes.  I hate for you to pass on a good deal with the Burb, hate for you to give up your newer luxuries, keep us posted on your decisions and progress :)).  I like grashley's idea, have them both if you can store them and have the $  . 
 
scale obsession said:
I swapped over to LT tires, prepping for tow duty. The 65 PSI was recommended by an old timer at the tire shop.
Click to expand...

That's nice of him to offer his opinion, but accurate advice would have been to base your tire pressure on the weight of your overall hauling load. Not just pick some arbitrary number, which definitely affects your ride quality (whether in a positive or negative way).

Most of the downward force (tongue weight) of your trailer is riding on the rear axle (even with WDH engaged), so in theory the rear tires should be pressured up MORE than the front tires. If the fronts are overinflated for the load, that will certainly make the whole experience imbalanced.

Per door stickers, my Suburban's LT tires are kept at 35 front / 50 rear for regular driving (which I follow) and 45 front / 80 rear is recommended for heavy towing. After a few trips at 45f/80r, I found the ride to be way too harsh. Taking into account the scale-verified axle weights and tongue weight with my WDH engaged, I settled on 43f/73r and that (with the addition of the airbags) makes for a pretty smooth towing experience. Here's my discussion on that topic from a few years ago.
 
Good advice above, especially Gizmo's and Scott's.  The Suburban's extra weight and heavy duty chassis would surely be a plus, but your Silverado should be doing the job nicely. You need to forget any assumptions about proper set-up and tire pressure (both truck & trailer) and gather some facts.
 
I will do some investigating this weekend. I will check out hitch install and, hit the scales if they are open! My truck did the job, and wasn't white knuckled by any means. I just felt like the handling wasn't what it should have been. I will get you guys numbers and report back. Thank you all!


On another note, The 1500 isn't my daily driver, and its not my only driver. I have a jeep wrangler that I use to run around town.
 
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