2003 Yukon XL Towing Capacity

[NCMODELA]

Hi guys, I am new here. I have a 03 yukon xl with a 8400 lb towing capacity. 3.73 gear, brake controller and weight distributing hitch and equilizer bars. I was going to purchase a 2008 keystone sprinter 28 BHHS with a dry weight of 6600 lbs.

My question is not so much will the car pull it, I know it will. But is this a safe weight, i will be doing alot of NC mountain towing, I am not looking to go fast but I don't want to have the pedal to the floor and be doing 30 mph. The weight is within the 75-80% tow weight but you guys know how this will acutally pull. I pulled a 3500-4000lb car and trailer back from chicago through the mountains without the wd hitch and honetsly i couldn't even tell it was back there. It ran 55 without hesitation. But this is heavier and a box.

Thank you in advance.
Bill

[NCMODELA]

Alright guys, thank you for helping me, we purchased our TT today, It is a 2011 keystone summerland, 2670BH. Dry weight 5680, 2003 yukon xl weighed on scale loaded 5900. Estimated tounge weight at 6680-7600lbs (GVWR), at 10-12% 700-900 lbs, 150lbs for reciever put me right around my GVWR of 7000lbs. I think we will do alright with this setup. I am so glad i did my homework and didn't by the junk of you can tow up to 20%, I would have been way over.

I now have to figure out what stabilizer bar to by, I already have a 14,000lb max wdh from reese. Either dual cam or equalizer, have not figured it out yet.
I will let you guys know how this tows.

[lanerd]

The trouble with dealers is that they will tell you what you want to hear and what will convince you to buy their product in spite of what is best for you. Towing capacities are derived by the mfg with a trailer that has wheels at the corners and very little if no tongue weight and especially one that is not a huge sail sticking up 8 feet!

You are very smart in doing your research and talking to those who have been there, done that. Learn from their mistakes.

Good luck

Ron

[NCMODELA]

Thank you for the help everyone. It is not so much that they showed me some overweight trailers it is that they were using a totally different calculation. I think teh 5600lb one they showed me will be okay. I still have to bring the truck to the scales. I went to 2 camping worlds in north carolina and rv outlet in danville virginia and they all told me the same thing. I was also interested in hearing from some who tow with suburbans to see what they tow.

[Chuck_Gail]

Ask Chevy. I THINK your tongue weight spec is 840# ON THE VEHICLE. You want 13% or more of the LOADED TT weight on the tongue. Thus the max LOADED weight is 6461#. Most folks add about 1000# of stuff over the UVW. If you do, you need a UVW (dry weight) of 5461#.

As I said, ask Chevy. They have a book that lists VEHICLE, not receiver, tongue weight specs. Receiver, hopefully, is always rated higher than the vehicle itself.

[LakeN]

You may want to ask here for reliable dealerships in your area.......if most of the units seem too heavy, you could consider a hybrid if you're trying to accommodate kids. They are lighter.

[RinconVTR]

The book and any stated tongue weight will vary when you are loaded.

And your set up is fine for all your intentions, but you may very well have the pedal floored going up steep grades, running high rpms, to hold a decent speed.

Gas engines need to rev to make power, and no matter what gas engine and travel trailer configuration one has, this holds true.

Typically I have found those who claim to be underpowered while pulling with decent gas engines going up steep grades are too easy on the gas pedal for fear they are hurting the engine. That is not reality.

Finally...don't use GVWR! This is simply the max the trailer can carry, and should not be what you ever end up with in reality, to constantly travel with.

Estimate what you want to add to the camper and add it to the from dry weight or better yet the "unloaded weight". Typically 500-1000lbs roughly, are good number. In my case, I typically only added 300lbs of stuff, this year I'm up to 500 with 4 bikes and a single rack. Everyone loads theirs differently.

[NCMODELA]

Thanks for the help, one salesman told me this was fine, one said i could go to 7500lbs and the one i really trusted said i would be pushing it.

With that being said I just found a 2011 Summerland 26BHS with a dryweight of 5680lbs and 645 published tounge weight, 924 calculated off of GVWR at 12%.

Why is there such a difference between the two tounge weights? Is the first one calculated off of the dry weight?

We were also looking at a jayco jayflight 29X BHS. It was 5600 lbs dry.

[downtheroad]

You are being wise...doing this kind of research BEFORE you buy.

The published weight is the "dry" weight of the trailer. No options, no gear, nothing in the holding tanks. No one camps in an empty trailer.

Find the GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) of the trailer. Multiply that by 13%. This will give you a rough tongue weight.

I'll add---be careful when the salesman tells you that, "You can pull it no problem."

As I posted earlier, I suspect that you are going to be close or over weight when you load up and hitch up your Yukon with this trailer....trip ready.

[eric_james]

I would shop dry camper weights no more than 6000 lbs. I wouldn't recommend being over 6500 lbs loaded for flat land towing. Mountain much less. Look for 5000-5500 lbs and be happier.

[NCMODELA]

So the payload max is 1677 lbs, GVWR is 7000. I will bring it by the sales tomorrow and see. Two questions, first how close can i go to the payload and be ok? Second, is the published tounge weight of the trailer not reliable? The people at camping world never said anything about this. My hitch on the back says 600lb max without wdh and 1500 with wdh. If I have a wdh does that take any weight off of the hitch?

Thanks
bill

[lanerd]

I agree... forget the towing capacity and concentrate on the SUV's payload capacity as that will be your limiting factor. ANYTHING you put in or on the SUV will have to be subtracted from the payload rating. Once you have that weight figured out, the tongue weight of the trailer can NOT exceed that remaining payload capacity.

The best way to figure the tongue weight (other than getting it actually weighed) is to take the GVWR of the trailer and multiply it by at least 12%. For example... if the trailer's gross weight is say 8000 lbs, then the tongue weight will be around 960 lbs. If your SUV has a 1500 lb payload capacity and you put another 500 lbs of people, equipment, other stuff....you've just maxed out the payload capacity of the SUV.

Hope this helps

Ron

[3_0charlie]

Don't forget the RGAWR, the Yukon Xl (basically a Suburban 1500) has a low rating (~4200#); with that estimated TW at over 1000#, I'd be careful with receiver max. weight + the truck's payload taking a serious hit (as explained by the previous reply).

[downtheroad]

Welcome to the Forum...
Very rough answer coming from very few details...
It will probably pull it, but in the mountains you will be running high rpm's.

Bigger issue is PAYLOAD. Rough guess that you will have over 1000 lbs of tongue weight when fully loaded..What you are quoting is a dry weight which is meaningless.

The trailer is a bunk house? If so, that means kids and all their stuff loaded into the Yukon and trailer.

Check the PAYLOAD for the Yukon and don't forget the 1000+ lbs of tongue weight.

Best advice: load up the Yukon with everyone and whatever gear you will put in it and weigh it. Then add in the trailer tongue weight and see if you have enough payload left.