Towing with a Suburban

[Mark from the Fort]

Will I have any problems towing a small Ferguson 35 (3,000 lbs) with a Chevy Suburban?
It has a 350 with towing package.
I do not have any literature with the truck.
My trailor is a dual axle rated at 7,000 lbs. Trailer weight is 1,000lbs. So I am looking at 4,000-4,500 lbs total.
The truck is a 2 wheel drive.
I do not have the electric brakes hooked up yet to the suburban.
Thanks, Mark

 

[Anonymous-0]

No problem. distribute the load evenly. Drive slower than normal.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Yeah, gas mileage. I have pulled my M at 6500 pounds with a 2 wheel drive Suburban with no trouble at all except mileage. 7000 pound trailer is what I used too.

 

[old]

Pulling it no problem, BUT do hook up the brake control before you do because pulling isn't going to be a problem but stopping will be. Shoot I pulled a NH 460 MOCO behind my 1991 Geo tracker and it pulled it just fine but stopping it was another story. I never got going any faster then 45 and made sure I left about 500 foot extra between me and any thing else in front of me even if I had to slow down to 15MPH.
Hobby farm

 

[Mark from the Fort]

Do you have electic brakes on your trailer?
Did you hook the power unit up yourself?
My wifes trailblazer came with a Reese hitch and the larger round receptical for trailers with electric brakes.
My suburban is a '93 and only has the old "flat" 4 prong hookup.
I have a power unit, but am not real confident in my electical abilities.
Thanks for the reply (EVERYONE)_

 

[Anonymous-0]

Nope, my trailer doesn't have any brakes at all. It is tricky trying to stop at once. I recommend that you fix the brakes or proceed with great care and awareness.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Mark; by all means get the brakes hooked up on the trailer. Both axles. If you get in an accident your fault or not and they find no brakes on the trailer you've got trouble, big time liability. 30 yrs of 18 wheeling and I've seen it all. Not bragging, just the facts. LE

 

[Allan in NE]

Mark,

4,000 lbs isn't much weight and chances are, you'll probably be just fine.

However, I can tell you that I used to overhaul GM's automatic transmissions for a living and I wouldn't even tow a row boat with that outfit without first having the external GM transmission cooler mounted out front.

That transmission just cannot stand the heat. GM's "Tow Package" is nothing more than a wiring loom from the fire wall to the back bumper and does absolutely nothing to improve the cooling.

In addition, GM tells you not to tow in overdrive. Okay fine. But in fact, this actually adds to the problem because of the extra heat generated in that torque converter.

From the factory, they just simply are not engineered to tow. Put the external cooler on and at least you have a fighting chance.

Just trying to help,

Allan

 

[Anonymous-0]

Mark, I too second what Allan said about "heat" and "GM trannys" Go get the biggest Aux-Tranny cooler you can get! Put it on and you should help reduce any problems. On My wifes old 87 Suburban I added a very large cooler + cut it loose from the Factory radiator cooler. Got an additiona 100K miles out of it before It had to be worked on. This ol girl was doing 140 miles/day, 5 days a week during the school year, taking our son to private Christian school 35 miles away. To and from, twice a day!
As Allan said reduce the heat that is the key plus don't pull in OD. Good Luck!
Later,
John A.

 

[centralilbaler]

I hope you dont have trouble pulling that tractor. Hook the brakes up and you should be fine towing that trailer

 

[Anonymous-0]

I tow a load that size with my Ford Expedition with no problems, you should be fine. I have pulled it without the breaks hooked up and did ok, but be safe and use the breaks. As careful as you are some idiot will pull out in front of you. I have had it happen to me many times those breaks are a life saver in that type of situation.

 

[Anonymous-0]

You should be able to do the job. Make sure your trailer brakes are working properly. I used our diesel excursion to haul a jd d, and jd an from Colorado to North Carolina last summer with a triple axle trailer with no problems.

 

[Ryne]

We pull our tandem axle trailer and race car behind our Yukon and that combination weighs around 5200, with the 350 V-8 and trailer brakes its not a problem but definitely get your trailer brakes hooked up and even without our air stabilizers the vehicle overloads dont touch Good Luck with your haulin.
Ryne

 

[dave guest]

You better have automatic trans. Probably no sweat. If heats up, make sure airconditioning is off and maybe turn on heater temporarily. Hills could give you a workout.

 

[48C-MAN]

I tow well over 8500 lbs with my Toyota Tundra on a regular basis on a 9000 lb trailer with no problems at all. I have a Prodigy brake unit, works great and no goofy adjustments to make.

 

[JOHN DEERE 70]

I also noticed on my suburban(454, 2500 series) when going up hills with a heavy load (200 bales,14 round bales) it would start heating up.Found it will not down shift by itself all the way . I had to manuely down shift and it would not heat up.