Towing with a half-ton truck...

[aaytay]

I didn't put this in the "trailering our cubs" section because I am hoping to keep it a seperate and continuing thread of it's own as a reference for others.

I'm looking for opinions on towing a relatively heavy load (#5000-6000) with a half-ton truck.

Having recently gone from a 3/4 ton Suburban to a 1/2 ton Suburban, the mileage and ride quality is LIGHT YEARS ahead of what it was, but my 18' car-hauler trailer (loaded with a couple of GTs of course) really puts a "squat" to this newer ride.

I'm looking for some thoughts from anyone here who has dealt with this in the past. The way I see it, there are three options: 1)Supplemental airbags on the rear axle ($90), 2) A load-distributing hitch ($200), or 3) a HUGE bunch of helium balloons tied to the tongue of the trailer. (priceless!)

Any serious thoughts entertained......

 

[lbuttke]

Not sure on the rear springs, but did you go from leaf springs on the 3/4 T to coil springs on the 1/2 T burban?

Coil springs flex more and give a softer/smoother ride than leafs, they aslo squat more under the same load even if both are rated for the same tonage.

 

[jbaker]

Art
I have been toying with the thought of replacing the leaf springs in my 1/2 ton silverado with 3/4 springs which would help the sqauting when I load her up with wood, but I still have the 1/2 ton rear axel overloaded so I would have to deal with that.

So I think I will wait for something to bend or brake and then cross that road

probaly not the option you want

 

[dross]

Art, Air bags can be moved from truck to truck but it's a lot easier to move a wieght distribution hitch from one truck to anouther.
You ever get any real numbers for what the wieghts are? The hitch has the ability to put some of that wieght on the front wheels

 

[kmcconaughey]

Lonny, I'll answer that for Art, yes his old 3/4t had leafs and his new 1/2t has coils.

Art, the load-distribution hitches really helped out on my parent's various tow vehicles when they hauled horses. Same when we had the 4 place enclosed snowmobile trailer many years ago. Really helped level them out and helped prevent sway.

Under edit: The distribution hitch might still be at the farm. I'll have to check. If it is you could give it a try to see how it works for your setup. Actually my dad may have had two of them, one for the old horse trailer and one for the new horse trailer.

 

[mfrade]

My 2 cents Art. I would go with the LD Hitch and if / when your close to replacing the tires, step up the load (ply) rating. The "stiffer" sidewalls really take alot of the sway out of the ride when towing. HTH..

 

[dtanner]

Home of the Plow Special

I can give you something to think about on towing and drive ability. As you might know I have a 95 dodge Ram diesel truck 2500 and I tow a fifth wheel camper that has a gvw of 10,500 lbs.You would hate helper springs because when you hit a bump and the spring comes in contact with the helper you will feel the toss ahead in the cab. I removed the helpers and added Firestone air bags with the air compressor with inside cab controller.I run 10 lbs with an empty bed and 40 lbs of air with my fiver connected in tow.I hope you have a good brake controller for your electric brakes on your trailer for towing that much weight (you should have if you don`t now ). I have Maxbreake and they are the best controller now on the market. I can come to a full stop and I don`t even get any pin slop, the truck and trailer brakes are matched that much. The guy that sold me my truck had bought an 8' sand & salt spreader for the Ram and now has a 3500 Ram Diesel 4 door with a 6' bed, as you can imagine when he filled the spreader his truck would go nose high . when some of the sand and salt was spread the truck would bounce off the helper springs. It rode horrible and he was not happy.so when he saw how my truck worked with the bags he and I removed his helper springs and added the air bags with the under hood compressor.Now he can look at the gauge in his cab and add air to lift the truck when the spreader is loaded. He is happy now because when he first fills the spreader hopper he can add the correct amount of air to level his truck and have the best ride possible.No more does he find his head lights in the trees.

Maxbreak is around $350.00 http://www.maxbrake.com/

firestone air bags http://www.firestoneindustrial.com/riderite/

It will cost you some $$ but you will have a safer drive when towing.

My .02

 

[pbell]

Art,
Start with a weight/load distribution hitch (WD) and then go from there if necessary. The "squat" will go away when equalizer bars of the WD hitch are adjusted correctly. I pull a 22' Corn-Pro utility trailer (3500lb empty, about 7500 to 8000lb loaded) with a 3/4 ton long bed extended cab, and have always used a WD hitch. With the trailer loaded, the ride is as good or better as it is with just the empty truck, but with an empty trailer and without the equalizer bars of the WD hitch, it is a pretty rough ride. I have used the WD hitch on 1/2ton pickups, 3/4 ton conversion van and 4 or 5 different 3/4 ton pickups and 2 or 3 different trailers, and would not want to pull a loaded trailer without it.

 

[wcompton]

Art-
I'd go with the load distributing hitch as others have suggested. Adding spring capacity doesn't equate to axle capacity; don't chance burning up a set of bearings or snapping an axle.

 

[aaytay]

Wow, thanks for all of the thoughts so far.

Don-
Yes, I have a GREAT brake-controller. It's a Teconsha P3. One of the best on the market without having to tap into the truck's hyd brake system.

The one you mention is also a great controller.

I'm probably going to look into finding an equilizer hitch and see what that does for the situation. (I may have to take a trip to Kraig's farm!)

It's great to hear all of the real-world experience with this. I really appreciated it.

Thanks!

 

[lhinds]

Art I would go with weight dist. hitch and a extra sway bar. You will handle that trailer with all ease.

 

[dtanner]

Art

I HAD one of those brake controllers! Came down the mountain with my fifth wheel camper with a 90 deg 5 mile an hr right turn at the bottom.No brakes on the fifth wheel ,the brake controller would not work. I had to install new rotors and rebuild all my brakes on my truck. That cost me some $$ and was a scary ride. I will never run those cheap junk again.

Air bags are better than the weight dis hitch because you will be able to load your truck safely
and not drop the rear end. 1/2 tons are more of a car than a truck now. they are not built to tow . If you plane to tow 5000 lbs you should have E rated tires also.

I have the air bags and E rated tires because of that one trip down the mountain. Safety first !!!

Have a look here for some good info on towing
http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/towing-and-hauling-rv-f95.html

 

[dfrisk]

ART - Unless you count the couple millon miles I drove semi's, I don't really have that much towing experience with light trucks, mostly my F250 4X4. Since I ordered it out special I got the added rear over-load (helper) springs from the factory and the camper/towing pkg, truck was already wired for the brake controller. I've towed to many PD's, took SON to/from school down in Lafyette, IN, hauled DAD's '51 FARMALL M home from ILL, towed cars on tandem trailers, etc.

I have the Prodigy brake controller, comparable to your P3, even grossing over 17,000# with the M in tow I had excellent brakes on a rented 12,500# cap trailer. I pulled a 6' X 12' enclosed U-Haul trailer a week ago and I HATE them, heavy built trailers, but they all have surge brakes, and they pull harder than HECK. I averaged 13.8 MPG over a 400+ mile trip down & back to get the M, and only averaged about 12.1 MPG towing the U-haul with the 982 in it a week ago. Only other difference was the route I took, to get the M I ran I-39 down to I-80 then west, fairly flat ground. Week ago I ran Rt 151 to Dubuque then Rt 61 south to Davenport, many more hills, but also 7000# less weight!

When I first loaded the M & loader years ago I drove the bucket all the way up to the front bulkhead and chained it down. I towed about 4-5 miles to my Brother-in-law's farm. I was WAY too heavy on the hitch of the trailer. SON & I moved the tractor back about FOUR Inches, chained it down again. Next morning we went to town on our way home and weighed the truck & trailer, "axled everything out", weighed frt axle of truck, both axles of truck, both axles of truck with trailer attached, then the whole truck/trailer & load. Even though I was about 1400# over what the truck was rated to carry I was not over-loaded on any axles, tires, the truck, the hitch, or the trailer capacity. It towed great, I had about 10-12% of the trailer weight on the hitch, exactly what is recommended.

I towed a bit with my SWB reg cab F150 4X4, it also had ALL the H-D springs, shocks, sway bars, rear over-loads, etc since I ordered it out too. I pulled a 12 or 14 ft tandem axle trailer with it only about 6 miles to move into our house back around 1991. Some of the loads were up in the 4000-5000# range, both my #72 & 129 CC's, bunch of shop tools, etc, plus the load with all our appliances, fridge, freezer, washer, drier, etc. Even though the truck was only rated for 5000# trailer weight, had the 300-6 & creeper low 4-spd it handled the weight fine. Not sure how it would have cruised @ 65 MPH on the interstate but on our blacktop county roads it did fine. The 300-6 has a great durability reputation but even the EFI motors were NO power-house!

I'd start with Kraig's folk's Weight Distribution hitch, and air bags. For most places you'll be towing your brake controller should be fine as long as you have decent brakes on your trailer.

DON't skimp on any of the components like the receiver, drawbar, etc. I installed a Putnam XLD 15,000# receiver on my truck before I towed the M. I bought a solid forged steel drawbar w/2-5/16" ball to pull that trailer, plus the Prodigy.

With the smaller truck, with lighter rated axles & tires you'll have to be more careful on weight distribution, the adjustibility of the W/D hitch will help with that, let you transfer weight off the rear truck axle to the frt axle. You'll have plenty of HP to pull the weight, might not hurt to add an extra trans cooler if your Suburban doesn't have a H-D one.

Couple of the trailers I've pulled, even the tandem axle trailer I hauled our '88 Mustang on one morning I didn't have working trailer brakes, up to around 3500-4000# gross trailer weight I don't really get that "puckering sensation" when I step on the brake and get no sense of slowing with my F250, and IMO, the brakes on my F250 are nothing special.

On another forum I lurk on sometimes I read a post yesterday about "1/2-T towable RV trailers", they had 1500+# tongue weights and weighed 10,000# trailer weight. You only want to tow half that weight. With proper equipment it should be easy.

 

[mfrade]

Just a word about air bags. I have seen first hand, 2 trucks with cracked frames right alongside the airbag mount. The first was a Ford E350 van that was owned by a local electrician. The second was a maintenance business that used a short bed Chevy 1/2 ton P.U., both of these companies used the bags 24 / seven, as the trucks were always loaded. The load points (body mounts) were not in line (actually quite a distance away) and the frames were not boxed and this caused the frames to flex right at the airbag mount. I think that if they had been mounted closer to the crossmember or had a piece of metal been added to form a box and share the load and minimize the flexing, it would of been different. but the constant twisting along that length shortened the life of the metal. The OEM didn't engineer the frame for load transfer at the point where guys are installing these. You'll need to consider this load and the way it's handled in the frame.

I am NOT saying airbags are bad! I am sharing with you 2 situations I have seen firsthand and ask you to consider the info when you make your decision(s).

 

[dtanner]

Mike & Denny

I drove big gear years ago and **** happens along the way. I hate that pucker feeling (unsafe ) towing. When I chose to stop I want to know what I can do.A weight hitch is good ,but not the best way to tow.I used a sway brake between my 24' trailer and my Jeep years ago. Firestone now builds a inside coil air bag that I hear works some nice with the compressor installed. I will travel accost Canada as soon as next year . I will be set up correctly to haul 10,500 lb with my truck.

I love Maxbreak because it works so nice,I can slid the lever over to gust have some trailer breaks or push the break and stop as quick as I want by pushing harder on the stop petal lol. To be safe you have to have your trailer and it`s breaks set up so even on a turn you can dump the breaks and be safe.

 

[dross]

Denny mentioned surge brakes. I used a U-haul car trailer years ago and didn't get to the top of a wet grass hill. When that thing started to slide back down the hill I realized 2 things, one was how hard you can pucker when you try and the other was how usless surge brakes can be.

 

[pbell]

Art,
I don't know what year model Suburban you have, or if it is equiped with the factory trailering package, but a 2012 1/2 ton 'burban is rated to tow 8,100 lbs (2WD) or 8,000lbs (4WD), so it is more than able to tow the amount of weight you listed, and does not need air bags if the proper hitch is used and the trailer is loaded correctly and with tongue weight of 10 to 15% of the total loaded trailer weight. Air bags will only raise the rear of the vehicle, or increase the load that can be carried in the vehicle, often to more than what the axle is rated for. A weight distribution hitch will help transfer the tongue weight to all axles of the trailer and the tow vehicle, and stop the pitch/roll/bounce between the trailer and the tow vehicle. If the trailer is loaded correctly, with the correct tongue weight, and a weight distribution hitch rated for the towed weight, you should not need air bags or more springs. Most of this info on towing was extracted from 2012 Chevy Tahoe/Suburban and 2012 Chevy 1/2ton Silverado specification and sales brochure's, and should apply to the current 2009-2012 series of vehicles.

 

[aaytay]

Don-
I don't know what experience you've had, but so far this brake controller has been great.

Paul-
Thanks for the info. It's a 2011 Suburban 1500. (5.3 liter, 320hp, 3.42 axle, 6-speed transmission w/tranny cooler.) The tow-ratings you posted are in line with what I have read about this truck as well.

See a pic of it HERE.

Based on the discussion I've seen so far, I think I'm going to start out with the weight-distributing hitch and take it from there. If it still needs airbags, I may add them as well, but it sounds like the hitch should take care of it.

 

[dross]

Art, pull that trailer with your jeep.

 

[aaytay]

Dave-
I tried that once... just to move it around the yard. I had one cub on it at the time, and it squished the rear springs down so hard, even the bump-stops were bulging!