SWHouston

Wow jj, so many of us deal well with the upper weights you mentioned.


You mentioned an installed hitch, so, your vehicle did not have the Towing Package installed originally ?
iow: was there any towing equipment with the original build ?


Is your complaint mainly based on "lack of Power" or "handling" ?


Many find that higher air pressure in both your ride and the TT, offers better control.
I suggest that you find the MCIP (Maximum Cold Inflation Pressure for both,
and adjust those pressures to within 2 lbs of the maximum stated.
You can find the MCIP stamped on the sidewalls of the tires.

73shark

Was the tongue weight 10% of the trailer weight? I think I would have gone back to the dealer to find out why it wouldn't tow the trailer that was within the specs.

intheburbs

I'd be curious to see the numbers on the original 28' trailer. What was the tongue weight? Was it windy? What were the weather conditions? Lots of factors influence the amount of trailer sway.

The RV companies have been introducing a lot of new "half-ton towable" trailers, ostensibly to open up new markets for them. If my trailer had excessive sway, the first thing I would want to do is INCREASE the weight on the trailer tongue. If I was using WD bars, I'd reduce by a link or two. Also, when packing my gear into the trailer, I'd make sure I put at least some of my stuff all the way forward, again to add weight on the tongue.

Separately, you really need to be careful about buying a trailer based on a vehicle's "tow rating." The Suburban's weak point is its rear axle weight rating. You're going to exceed that number long before you get anywhere near the "tow rating." And if you exceed that number....well, ask my why my '01 Suburban is on rear axle #4. Also, a loaded (meaning highly optioned-out) Suburban has a surprisingly low payload rating.. This is from a 2015 LTZ I found online:


So you have 1410 pounds of payload. Let's do some math using your first trailer:

Trailer tongue weight (13% of 6100) = 793 lbs
Trailer hitch weight (weight bars, hitch) = 50 lbs

That's 843 lbs. Subtract that from 1410, and you're left with 567 lbs of payload for your passengers and gear. I hope your family is really short and skinny. My family of five, including my fat butt and three normal-weight but tall teenagers, weighs over 900 lbs. And I'm sure that 6100 lbs is the dry weight, not the loaded weight, so your tongue weight is likely larger, meaning you have even less left for passengers and gear.

Lastly, if I were you, I'd look seriously at the Hensley or ProPride hitches. It's not just a marketing gimmick - they do eliminate trailer sway. They're not cheap, but compared to the cost/value of your truck, your trailer, and your family's lives, they're bargains.

This is the main reason I upgraded to a Suburban 2500. My payload is 2088 lbs, and my rear axle rating is 1300 lbs higher than the 2015 half-ton. I pulled this behemoth (35', 8600 lbs) with no weight distribution and no sway control on a 1,000-mile trip around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. One of the easiest and most pleasant towing trips I've ever had.



And my weigh slips - fully loaded with the family, with and without the trailer attached. Empty curb weight of the truck is 6500:


And through the magic of math, if you look at the weight on the four wheels of the truck and subtract...

(3220+5620)-7720 = 1120 lbs trailer tongue weight
16340-7720 = 8620 (the actual weight of the loaded trailer
1120/8620 = 0.12993 or 12.993% trailer tongue weight as a percentage of trailer weight.
Therefore, I'm balanced well, and should have minimal sway.
Again, finding the right trailer/tow vehicle combination is a lot more than just asking, "What's the tow rating of my truck?"

Familytruckster

I recently traded in my 2006 Tahoe Z71 for a 2015 Suburban LTZ. I used the Tahoe to pull my 23 foot camper and 23 foot snowmobile trailer for the last 4 years. Never had a problem with sway I could drive as fast as I wanted, in control and zero sway. I have a WD hitch only. The new Suburban has the towing package from the factory. I had my camper dealer set up the hitch with me since I needed to have a lower drop shank. The next week I left for South Dakota with the family... The trailer sway was awful I had to stay around 65 mph to keep it in a manageable rhythm. I had stopped on the way to discuss the problem with a RV park. The only advice was that tire side walls could be the issue and should check into tire ratings. I have also recently pulled my empty snowmobile trailer, again noticed significant trailer sway, when compared to the older Tahoe it was nonexistent. I am trying to figure out what is the different between the new suburban and older Tahoe. I will say the Tahoe had tires with a higher weight rating than the tires on the Suburban, I am thinking of replacing them with the same tires I had on the Tahoe. I noticed that others have noticed this with there newer vehicles and wondering if anyone has figured out what the problem is.

jjmill22

I totally agree with you.... I still haven't found a solution to towing our trailer except not to go far and not to go fast (55/60 mph) as I have mentioned before, i have a 2015 Suburban LTZ with 275/55/20 Continental Cross Contact tire. Being 20 inch rims, the tires are somewhat a lower profile and I believe it would be hard to find a more aggressive tire load/sidewall rating while still fitting the 20 inch rims and fitting under the somewhat low stance of the 4x4 Suburban. If anyone has any suggestions on what tires within this range works well I would greatly appreciate the feedback. Thanks for sharing!!