Anyone towing heavy with the 6.0L?

Have you towed it yet?

I think it all depends on your personal requirements for performance/safety. My 98 Explorer 5.0 AWD was rated for 6600# and I towed my 25' boat/trailer for a few seasons until I scaled it at 8,000#'s and still tow it now with my 06 Explorer 4.6 4wd that is approaching 100K miles. When I bought my travel trailer I wasn't sure which vehicle to get so I towed it home from the dealer (40 miles) completely empty figuring it weighs just a little more than my boat and I made it but I realized then that I needed a truly heavy duty truck. The tongue weigh had the rear sagging severely and the wind drag had the electronically control (adaptive learning) trans shifting funny for a few days. The drag at expressway speeds is intense compared to the sleek boat. The last variable is the difference between flat lands and hills. I have pulled this trailer to FL and back a few times with an Excursion v-10 w/4.30 gearing through the mountains (scaled both at 17,300 lbs loaded) and also locally with E350 van V-10 3.73 geared and 99 Suburban 2500 7.4L and 96 GMC 3500 7.4L CC DRW, I can notice differences between the towing power with the gears.

No questions are stupid

Yeah I had the Equalizer hitch (better brand) set up by the dealer which does a lot of campers, trailers and fifth wheels but the rear sagged REALLY low! As a matter of fact before I really understood the trailer loading the Excursion rear was sagging enough to change the aim of the headlights. In my trailer a lot of the storage space is up front under the bunk so loading there really adds to the already heavy tongue weight. The tongue weights of campers are more than vehicle trailers and boats it more like 15% instead of 10%. On my barely weighing 9000 trailer that worked up to more than 1200 pounds when loaded hence the Excurions sagged. I have since learned to distribute some of the heaviest items all the way to the rear of the 31' which acts like a leverage and takes some of the weight off of the tongue.

I want to be clear I have no doubt the Suburban will indeed pull that trailer. It just depends on how fast you want to accelerate and whether you mainly do flat land towing or across the hills. Check out Rv.net for a wealth of info and vehicle information under the thread Tow Vehicles.

Good Luck

On the RV forums most tell me the Suburban 2500 with the 6.0L isn't enough, but if a driver has patience and doesn't mind the rev's going higher where the engine makes it torque it is doable.

Crawdaddy said:

I honestly cannot say that I've ever hooked my camper up to the suburban. As of now, I'm just going off of specs to tell me what it can handle, and comparisons to similar vehicles that are rated to tow those kinds of weights. If it isn't capable of towing my camper.....I don't know what I'm going to do. But, I have total faith in that it's gonna drag the camper around with little issue.

Stupid question, but were you using a weight distributing hitch when you bought the camper? That'll make a huge difference in how the truck's stance sits and how it handles on the road.

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