Pulling with a Yukon

[Craig M]

Am working on a 1995 2 door diesel Yukon. Hope to get her running in a few months. Will have an almost new motor from a 1995 3/4 ton Suburban. I know the motor will have the power to pull most trailers. But how bad will the short wheelbase affect towing. Have a 30 foot car hauling trailer (3 axle) and am thinking of getting travel trailer. Anyone do much towing with these short wheel base Yukon/Tahoe/Blazers?

[HowieE]

With a tri axle and a cam sway control weight distributing hitch you should have no trouble. My brother in law has pulled with Broncos for 25 years and he only has a 2 axles trailer. Just makes sure who ever sets up your hitch gets some weight on the trucks front axle. A good ratio is to measure the height of the front and rear fenders without the trailer and with the trailer. The front fender should come down about 60% of what the rear fender comes down. If the rear drops 1/2 in the front should drop about 3/8 in. If you notice the front of the truck seams light try loading the front axle a bit more. This will depend on how your truck is sprong but don't let that front end run light.

[Craig M]

Thanks Howie

Have pulled the 3 axle with my Suburban (diesel of course) and a 1/2 ton Ford extended cab with short bed (Company gas vehicle, not mine). Neither has the weight distributing hitch, just the 2" receiver hitch. With just the trailer rear end does not go down to much. With a vehicle on the trailer rear end can go down from 1 to 3 inches depending on location of the vehicle on the trailer. Usually try to put most of the weight over the 3 axles and just get the minimum to the pulling vehicle. Have not had a problem with light front end on either of these vehicles. The Yukon being lighter and shorter wheelbase of course compounds the light front end issue.

[HowieE]

My original discription assumed your trailer had reasonable tounge weight. What ever you do don't load the trailer so the tounge is light. Set up a bathroom scale and a beam so that the trailer, tounge, while loaded rests at a point 4 foot from the scale and 1 foot from a support at the other end this will give you 4 to 1 ratio, the scale supporting 1/5 of the total weight. Note the weight of the beam and subtract that from the final weight. If the scale shows 150 lbs your trailer tounge weight is 750 lbs and so on.

[Jim H.]

I used to tow with Bronco's, my last was a 1990. The hitch is very important. I pull some heavy trailers (6000# Skid Steer on 2000# trailer) with both the Suburban and the Dually without an equalizer hitch and have had no issues, of course I only tow it 60 miles. However I once pulled a 7000# trailer with the Bronco and no equalizer and it was a handfull. At that time the speed limit was 65, which was fine as that was as fast as I could go and maintain reasonable control. Most of the time I was at 60.

[moondoggie]

Good Day!

Ditto the tongue load: I've heard 10 - 12% of total trailer weight. It becomes less important as the trailer gets more axles, but it's still important. You really haven't lived until you've pulled a single axle trailer with a light tongue load

[Craig M]

I have experiences similar to what Jim has. 5,000# to 6,000# on the trailer with no problem pulling wiht normal vehicles and no equalizing hitch. Trailer is semi custom (front hitch is adjustble to tow with many vehicle (including by 56 Mack) so normal equilizing stuff will not fit on it. On other 2 axle trailer know what happens if front load is to light, trailer shimmies like a horse. Had to reload a tow grader once because of that.

[tanker]

Craig, I go along with Howie on the dual-cam weight distributing/sway control. You may be fine most times, but if you ever get into crosswinds, or try to make an evasive manuver because of a bad situation on the highway, you may be in big trouble. The Yukon will pull it, but the short wheelbase is not good when things get bad. The above will help keep your rig straight, both side to side, and up and down. smile.gif

[Inspector]

Craig:
I'm with Howie and Tom on this one. Don't take a chance with past history. You have done ok to this point but if things really get out of shape you will wish you had the right equipment set up properly. No substitute for safty. Takes the edge off the nerves too.
Denny