Big Family - Trade Tahoe for Suburban?

[Meccanoble]

I feel your pain. All that invested in the Tahoe you dont want to start over but besides the programming, many of it can be transferred. I think the suburban looks good but was worried about parking. Family of 4 does not require suburban but all the extra stuff does. There are plenty of options for subs to fit behind tahoe but tend to be more custom and limited than Suburban. If all that extra stuff bothers you, would be good idea to go bigger but I would really look at all alternatives first. Family of 4 means you can permanently take those 3rd rows out right?

 

[07Burb]

Anyone else laugh with the title stating "big family..." but only has two kids?

Anyway, get the burb or XL. You won't regret it. MUCH more room, drive is nice and smooth, and you'll just be much more comfortable. Also, they didn't just add 20 inches to the back. The whole wheel base is longer so they did spread it out through the whole vehicle contrary to what you originally stated. Once you get into a burb/xl/esv you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner with all the stuff you have to carry around.

 

[GTNator]

So all you kid haulers, now that you have experience with your Suburbans, would you recommend getting second row captain seats or the bench for a family of 5?? Assume there are two grandparents (from out of town) that come along for a ride about twice a year.


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[intheburbs]

So all you kid haulers, now that you have experience with your Suburbans, would you recommend getting second row captain seats or the bench for a family of 5?? Assume there are two grandparents (from out of town) that come along for a ride about twice a year.


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My '01 Suburban had the middle row bench. My '08 has the captain's chairs. In fact, the '08 had the Escalade third row seats, so my payload sticker shows it as a 6-passenger vehicle. I bought a standard third row to at least have 7.

The trucks worked for us at the kids' various ages. When I had the '01, the kids were happy (and small enough) to just roll over the seatback of the middle row to get into the third row. Usually my daughter camped out back there for road trips, with the boys in the middle row. Now that the kids are older, they prefer the captains chairs and the arm rests, and my daughter (now 19) likes being able to just walk between the seats to get in the rear.

One other nice thing about the captains chairs - the middle third row passenger can stretch their legs out between the captains chairs for virtually unlimited legroom.

And I would say the captains chairs make it easier to get in/out of the third row.

 

[S33k3r]

So all you kid haulers, now that you have experience with your Suburbans, would you recommend getting second row captain seats or the bench for a family of 5?? Assume there are two grandparents (from out of town) that come along for a ride about twice a year.


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Depending on the size of the kids, I'd still go with the captain's chairs.

My wife chose a year older Tahoe with highet mileage over a Yukon Denali because the Tahoe had captain's chairs and the Denali had a split bench -- and I tried to sway her to the Denali.

I think she was right.

 

[bowtiefreak]

Had a two door Tahoe, still have it but needed more room. We bought an older suburban and then upgraded that to the Yukon XL, no regrets at all

 

[BigDaddy13440]

My husband is 6'3" 300lb body builder, so he almost counts for 2 lol And I'm the grocery getter.

View attachment 183515

Just think, your family could be like mine....

Me: 6'7, 335 lbs
Wife: 5'6, 175 lbs
Son: 6'3, 370 lbs (almost 16, still growing!)
Daughter: 6', 170 lbs (just turned 14, still growing!)

I actually had to make brackets to move the REAR seats back 2 1/2" more so that Colossus and Gulliver (my "pet" names for the kids!) have enough room in the back seats of my '04 Yukon XL. Thankfully, the second row seats in the XL sit in front of the ledge, and not halfway on like the shorter Yukon/Tahoe. I'm debating on if I can move the seats even further back, I might be able to get another 1 1/2" of leg room - if I do that, I'll either have to give up the third row completely, or cut some mounting brackets out at the local junkyard, and cut/reposition/weld them in further back in the cargo area, Right now, only midgets would fit in the third row....

 

[BigDaddy13440]

Anyone else laugh with the title stating "big family..." but only has two kids?

Not me... see previous post.

For the four of us, it's a Half-Ton-O-Fun....

 

[07Burb]

So all you kid haulers, now that you have experience with your Suburbans, would you recommend getting second row captain seats or the bench for a family of 5?? Assume there are two grandparents (from out of town) that come along for a ride about twice a year.


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I enjoy our captain chairs cuz the older ones can go to the third and buckle themselves without crawling over seats or folding seats down

 

[S33k3r]

Just think, your family could be like mine....

Me: 6'7, 335 lbs
Wife: 5'6, 175 lbs
Son: 6'3, 370 lbs (almost 16, still growing!)
Daughter: 6', 170 lbs (just turned 14, still growing!)

I actually had to make brackets to move the REAR seats back 2 1/2" more so that Colossus and Gulliver (my "pet" names for the kids!) have enough room in the back seats of my '04 Yukon XL. Thankfully, the second row seats in the XL sit in front of the ledge, and not halfway on like the shorter Yukon/Tahoe. I'm debating on if I can move the seats even further back, I might be able to get another 1 1/2" of leg room - if I do that, I'll either have to give up the third row completely, or cut some mounting brackets out at the local junkyard, and cut/reposition/weld them in further back in the cargo area, Right now, only midgets would fit in the third row....

Take out or fold down the middle row seats. That should give them the leg room they need.