Chevrolet Suburban 3500 Questions

[Bigburb3500]

The Chevrolet towing document I referenced - gave a GCWR for the 2017 Suburban as being 14,000 pounds. Your 3500 Suburban has a GVWR of 11,000 pounds - ergo ..... what's leftover from that 14,000 lb GCWR - is 3000 pounds - which is how you end up with the 3000 pound FACTORY tow rating for your 3500.

Basically it sounds like GM punted on coming up with an actual tow rating for the 3500 Suburban - likely because whatever spec came down from .gov for what they needed out of a Suburban that can be up-armored - had no requirements for an actual tow rating. So - as 15Burban said: they likely didn't bother running the tow rating tests and since the "regular" Suburban is already certified to have the 14,000 lb GCWR - and the 3500 Suburban has a rated 11,000 lb GVWR - you've got 3000 pounds of extra capacity to do something with - so they just throw that under tow rating.

Honestly I think people are taking the factory ratings on the 3500 too "seriously". Like I said before - look at the components used in the truck and look at what they're rated for in other trucks the very same components get used in - by going thru that you can come up with a realistic rating of what the 3500 is going to be capable of towing.

For example: (from the GM brochure for 2010 Silverado)
L96 6.0L engine with 4.10 gearing in a 2010 Silverado 3500HD SRW Crew Cab 2WD with 8ft box: Max trailer weight 12,200 lbs

2003 Suburban with the 8.1L gas V8 and a 4.10 rear end ratio tow rating is 12,000 pounds.

Now you've got a FACTORY rated tow rating on the exact same drivetrain that is your truck of 12,200 pounds , and a FACTORY tow rating for pretty much the exact same frame that is in your truck of 12,000 pounds - ergo - your truck should have a realistic tow capability of right around 12,000 pounds.

Thank you for rewriting this, I TOTALLY understand how you are looking at it now. For some reason it did not “click” the first time I read it.
Cheers!

 

[Bigburb3500]

What do you plan on towing? Sorry if I missed it. Also some hitches have a higher rating when using a weight distribution hitch. Just a quick look on etrailer the first replacement hitch for my truck says 10k max but also 12k max with a weight distribution hitch.

Not sure if I specified or not but eventually planning on getting another boat and want to be able to throw it on a trailer and not pay wetslip fees all year when I’m not even at the boat. I can also haul-out and do maintenance a lot more easily and cost effectively.

The hitch has a max tongue weight of 1000lbs listed so I will want get a more robust one closer to 15klbs.

 

[calsdad]

Not sure if I specified or not but eventually planning on getting another boat and want to be able to throw it on a trailer and not pay wetslip fees all year when I’m not even at the boat. I can also haul-out and do maintenance a lot more easily and cost effectively.

The hitch has a max tongue weight of 1000lbs listed so I will want get a more robust one closer to 15klbs.

When I get a chance I will post pics of the hitch I made for my Yukon XL using the center section from a B&W hitch meant for a Silverado 2500/3500. From B&W the rating was for 16,000 lb trailer weight and I think the tongue weight was 1600 pounds.

 

[Geotrash]

Thank you for starting this thread. My wife and I are looking at heavier campers so I'm also now looking at the Suburban 3500HD. I'm curious about your perceptions of what it's like to drive. How are the ride and handling? Also, it looks like yours is an LT, yes? If so, where did you find it? All I can find are LS's currently.

Also, I think the towing capacity analysis that you and the others here have done is spot on. Another reference point: The Chevy Express 3500 van has the same drivetrain but a 10K towing capacity - likely because of the larger box area that they assumed will be filled with stuff. 12K for your Suburban is a safe estimate, in my opinion.

 

[Bigburb3500]

Thank you for starting this thread. My wife and I are looking at heavier campers so I'm also now looking at the Suburban 3500HD. I'm curious about your perceptions of what it's like to drive. How are the ride and handling? Also, it looks like yours is an LT, yes? If so, where did you find it? All I can find are LS's currently.

Also, I think the towing capacity analysis that you and the others here have done is spot on. Another reference point: The Chevy Express 3500 van has the same drivetrain but a 10K towing capacity - likely because of the larger box area that they assumed will be filled with stuff. 12K for your Suburban is a safe estimate, in my opinion.

If you are looking for a magic carpet ride, this is not it. We were cross shopping current-gen Yukon XL, Wagoneer L, and Expedition Platinum. This rides like a 3500 pickup, it bounces and jounces over bumps but all in all I’m very pleased with the ride and performance. It got my wife’s stamp of approval and she drives a Lexus so call that a huge win. Otherwise everything inside the truck is Suburban. It’s awesome and 10/10 would recommend.

On a Wed I was on a local dealership site and saw Suburban 3500 in there filter box and thought they made an error, and learned these things exist. Thursday I did a national search on AutoTrader and my LT was listed that day… dealership was an hr away and I knew a few ppl there. Told them I was coming Saturday morning for it. Rest is history. I have not seen any other LT’s come up for sale since.

The truck has a 10k class IV receiver rated at 10k lbs so that is the max for now, but based on everything I have lined up with the 3500 SRW pickup I think this has a max closer to 13-14klbs with correct weight distribution hitch and a class V receiver. Not sure I want to tow that much but I think it’s in the realm of “reality.”

Good luck on your search but we needed the space for dog, kid, and road tripping room. Towing is just a MAJOR bonus, if you are planning for towing heavy kinda regularly, you may want to look for a gas dually?

 

[Bigburb3500]

Thank you for starting this thread. My wife and I are looking at heavier campers so I'm also now looking at the Suburban 3500HD. I'm curious about your perceptions of what it's like to drive. How are the ride and handling? Also, it looks like yours is an LT, yes? If so, where did you find it? All I can find are LS's currently.

Also, I think the towing capacity analysis that you and the others here have done is spot on. Another reference point: The Chevy Express 3500 van has the same drivetrain but a 10K towing capacity - likely because of the larger box area that they assumed will be filled with stuff. 12K for your Suburban is a safe estimate, in my opinion.

You had me thinking again about this topic and a little more digging lead me to another forum and this provided link for 2019 vehicles.

Site Maintenance

If you go down to page 11 showing max towing for several different models, I think this is the “closest” published figure I have found showing the max towing of a 3500 Suburban. Look at the line for 6.0 Vortec, 3500 CrewCab + shortbox (this is the same chassis length I believe) and has a 13k max towing. Right in line where I think we have come to general consensus of max towing ability for the Suburban 3500.

Could you get away with 14k… probably for a short, around town scoot, but I do not think I want to be towing 13-15klbs long distance without a dually. I’m wimpy and have not guts or glory lol.

 

[strutaeng]

Yeah, I was going to mention the only other comparable vehicle out there with many passenger seats are the ancient and ugly full sized Express Vans. We have a 2020 3500 standard wheelbase passenger version as a family hauler. Has the same L96/6L90. Rear leaf springs with the 14 bolt. I believe they max out at like 9500 lb towing. With a GVWR of like 9600 lbs. Payload is some insanely high number (like 3,500 passenger/4,000 lbs for the cargo for the 3500 IIRC). I think what controls on those are the GCWR. I've come to actually like ours. The turning radius is better compared to the trucks. They do sit very tall. Prices are pretty good also. We bought ours in 2022 for $34k with only 5,000 miles.

The newer ones came out with the 6.6 L8T (kept the 6 speed), although published towing numbers remained identical.

 

[Bigburb3500]

Yeah, I was going to mention the only other comparable vehicle out there with many passenger seats are the ancient and ugly full sized Express Vans. We have a 2020 3500 standard wheelbase passenger version as a family hauler. Has the same L96/6L90. Rear leaf springs with the 14 bolt. I believe they max out at like 9500 lb towing. With a GVWR of like 9600 lbs. Payload is some insanely high number (like 3,500 passenger/4,000 lbs for the cargo for the 3500 IIRC). I think what controls on those are the GCWR. I've come to actually like ours. The turning radius is better compared to the trucks. They do sit very tall. Prices are pretty good also. We bought ours in 2022 for $34k with only 5,000 miles.

The newer ones came out with the 6.6 L8T (kept the 6 speed), although published towing numbers remained identical.

With what you are stating with the GVWR of 9600, my Suburban has an 11k lbs GVWR so let extrapolate a LITTLE and we can close in on the 12k towing rating. The Suburban also has a 4200 (if I remember off the top of my head) payload so these trucks are highly similar.

I was actually looking at the vans for a hot minute but the 4x4 is a requirement for us and it was hard to find one that was not a utility van with creature comforts in a reasonable price range. I feel I purchased my Suburban for a very fair price.

 

[Geotrash]

You had me thinking again about this topic and a little more digging lead me to another forum and this provided link for 2019 vehicles.

Site Maintenance

If you go down to page 11 showing max towing for several different models, I think this is the “closest” published figure I have found showing the max towing of a 3500 Suburban. Look at the line for 6.0 Vortec, 3500 CrewCab + shortbox (this is the same chassis length I believe) and has a 13k max towing. Right in line where I think we have come to general consensus of max towing ability for the Suburban 3500.

Could you get away with 14k… probably for a short, around town scoot, but I do not think I want to be towing 13-15klbs long distance without a dually. I’m wimpy and have not guts or glory lol.

I think your analysis is correct. And I would be completely comfortable towing 12,000 pounds with a 3500 Suburban.

That said, I just drove 400 miles today with a 7500 pound camper behind our modified 6.2 L Yukon XL. I have about 460 hp and torque on tap, and we were driving over top of the Appalachians in West Virginia. Still came up short on power. With the 3500, it would be even worse. Makes me think diesel is probably the way to go for heavy loads.

 

[Bigburb3500]

I think your analysis is correct. And I would be completely comfortable towing 12,000 pounds with a 3500 Suburban.

That said, I just drove 400 miles today with a 7500 pound camper behind our modified 6.2 L Yukon XL. I have about 460 hp and torque on tap, and we were driving over top of the Appalachians in West Virginia. Still came up short on power. With the 3500, it would be even worse. Makes me think diesel is probably the way to go for heavy loads.

Whoa. If 460 hp/ftlbs is not enough… you may need to look at the new 1000ftlb diesel trucks. Haha
Earlier in the tread I mentioned my dad tows his boat thru WV with his 5.7 Hemi 2500 and that is somewhere in the 5500-6500lb range. He says you know the engine is working but it’s not stressed. He can pass and accelerate going uphill, it just needs a little planning.

If $$$ was no object I would love to convert this 3500 Sub to one of the Duraburbs! That might rank as a top 3 contender for Perfect Vehicle Award. But alas, money is a finite resource.

 

[Marky Dissod]

... just drove 400 miles today with a 7500 pound camper behind our modified 6.2L Yukon XL.
I have about 460 hp and torque on tap, and we were driving over top of the Appalachians in West Virginia.
Still came up short on power. With the 3500, it would be even worse.
Makes me think diesel is probably the way to go for heavy loads.

What's your axle gear?

 

[Geotrash]

Whoa. If 460 hp/ftlbs is not enough… you may need to look at the new 1000ftlb diesel trucks. Haha
Earlier in the tread I mentioned my dad tows his boat thru WV with his 5.7 Hemi 2500 and that is somewhere in the 5500-6500lb range. He says you know the engine is working but it’s not stressed. He can pass and accelerate going uphill, it just needs a little planning.

If $$$ was no object I would love to convert this 3500 Sub to one of the Duraburbs! That might rank as a top 3 contender for Perfect Vehicle Award. But alas, money is a finite resource.

That is generally my towing experience as well, with the 6.2. I can usually accelerate uphill to pass, if needed, if I don’t mind winding it out. Where I was struggling was on a 9% grade trying to hold 55. I could do it but I didn’t want to wind it out that hard, so I held 45.

The duramax conversions are amazing, and I would buy one if I could justify the expense. A bigger camper might be just the justification I need

 

[strutaeng]

@Geotrash was it you that mentioned in another thread towing should be done near/at peak TQ RPM? (I may be confusing you.) I was going to reply to that comment someone posted, but really wasn't sure and I chatted with my buddy about it. Again, if that wasn't you, I apologize.

So after looking at TQ/HP curves for some of the common engines on these full sized vehicles, I believe it should be somewhere between peak TQ (3500 rpm-ish) and peak HP. Perhaps peak TQ to get going, but to get the most juice of the engine and during highway speeds to maintain speed, closer to peak HP. I know on the LS engines, that pushes you like in the 5,500 RPM range. But I think that's typical of most has engines. I think it boils down to the TQ vs. HP argument, that's were my buddy and I wound up, lol.

The reason with the diesels tow so nice is that peak TQ and peak HP RPMs are very close, and obviously more slower revving than a gas engine. I want to say something like 1800 RPM and 3,000 RPM? And of course, the huge TQ numbers.

 

[gtrslngrchris]

I don't really have anything useful to add but I'll chime in to say that even with cracked up pipes giving me a pretty solid exhaust side boost leak my LB7 Duramax just laughs off towing my drift car compared to the 6.2 in the Denali. It's not even close.

 

[BacDoc]

As someone who’s been towing boats on trailers for years, I have learned by listening to some smart trailer people and found with experience they are usually right about
“Max towing”. Couple important points:

Trailer balance, tires and tire pressure, axle ratio, the hitch and how it’s mounted can all affect the performance.

The “Max” towing weight is only a limit number that includes the total weight of trailer, cargo and everything that goes on the hitch. This max is for level roads, normal driving and braking.

You never ever want to tow the “Max” as your regular routine. It’s more of a limit. If you’re maxed out then your tires brakes and suspension are at the limit and these components will fail at that limit.

If your route involves significant elevation, speed or distance you should take a percentage off max. Example is if you are going up/down steep grades that percentage should be proportional to the gradient. My 2024 Tahoe 6.2l RWD has something around 8k max, if I was towing in mountains I would never tow over 7k and I would be closer to 6k lbs for peace of mind.

If you’re driving high speed for long distances you should consider braking distance at speed. If max is 10k lbs and you want to go 70+mph you don’t want to tow 10k!

Safety, wear and tear on tow vehicle and ease of mind are the key factors. From my experience, 70% to 80% of max rating is a good recommendation for the “Max” weight you want to work with for safety and health of the tow vehicle. Conservative values are wise choices. Choose wisely!

 

[Bigburb3500]

I don't really have anything useful to add but I'll chime in to say that even with cracked up pipes giving me a pretty solid exhaust side boost leak my LB7 Duramax just laughs off towing my drift car compared to the 6.2 in the Denali. It's not even close.

Geez man, this was a Suburban 3500 GASSER thread and now we wound up talking about diesels and how great they are… you’re gonna cost me more money now because I have to diesel swap and join the Duramax forum!

Will anyone contribute to a Go-Fund me?

 

[strutaeng]

Geez man, this was a Suburban 3500 GASSER thread and now we wound up talking about diesels and how great they are… you’re gonna cost me more money now because I have to diesel swap and join the Duramax forum!

Will anyone contribute to a Go-Fund me?

Yeah. No kidding. It's like comparing apples to oranges...

There's plenty of 6.0/4L80e or 6.0/6L90e in the motorhome RV world in the GCWR of like 20,000 lbs range. Those guys aren't winning races, but they are getting to their destinations safe and sound... nothing wrong with the gas drivetrains.

 

[Bigburb3500]

As someone who’s been towing boats on trailers for years, I have learned by listening to some smart trailer people and found with experience they are usually right about
“Max towing”. Couple important points:

Trailer balance, tires and tire pressure, axle ratio, the hitch and how it’s mounted can all affect the performance.

The “Max” towing weight is only a limit number that includes the total weight of trailer, cargo and everything that goes on the hitch. This max is for level roads, normal driving and braking.

You never ever want to tow the “Max” as your regular routine. It’s more of a limit. If you’re maxed out then your tires brakes and suspension are at the limit and these components will fail at that limit.

If your route involves significant elevation, speed or distance you should take a percentage off max. Example is if you are going up/down steep grades that percentage should be proportional to the gradient. My 2024 Tahoe 6.2l RWD has something around 8k max, if I was towing in mountains I would never tow over 7k and I would be closer to 6k lbs for peace of mind.

If you’re driving high speed for long distances you should consider braking distance at speed. If max is 10k lbs and you want to go 70+mph you don’t want to tow 10k!

Safety, wear and tear on tow vehicle and ease of mind are the key factors. From my experience, 70% to 80% of max rating is a good recommendation for the “Max” weight you want to work with for safety and health of the tow vehicle. Conservative values are wise choices. Choose wisely!

You are very correct. I told my dad the same thing - that’s how he ended up with a 3/4 ton to tow a 6-7k lbs boat. He’s in that 70-80% capacity range and gives him safe margins while traveling with it.

My use is planning to be a bit different. I will not be traveling with my planned boat purchase. I just don’t want to pay wetslip fees and be able to haul it out for the winter of low use times. Keep it in dry dock and be able to do maintenance. Furtherest it MIGHT go is 2hr but that might be 1 time ever other yr.
Glad you brought up the safety and vehicle component issue.

 

[Geotrash]

@Geotrash was it you that mentioned in another thread towing should be done near/at peak TQ RPM? (I may be confusing you.) I was going to reply to that comment someone posted, but really wasn't sure and I chatted with my buddy about it. Again, if that wasn't you, I apologize.

No need to apologize. But yes, I have had conversations about that topic and I know others here have spoken about it too. I don't think I would have said "should" about towing near/at peak TQ/RPM, because there are many factors that play into it. I think it's safe to do so, such as when pulling up a long grade trying to keep up with traffic, but equally important to me are considerations for which path through the transmission is strongest (e.g. the 4th gear path is stronger than the 5th gear path, according to nick transmissions). And, while the LS engines seem quite happy winding out to higher RPMs all day long, I spend most of my time when towing well below the peak power band because I don't need the extra power unless I'm climbing a hill.

Today, we pulled our camper 7 hours home from West Virginia through the mountains of southern PA, Maryland and Virginia, with many 8-9% hill climbs. I spent most of my time in 4th at 2800 rpm, with occasional downshifts to 3rd and 3800-4000 RPMs when needed to keep up with traffic at 65 or so up the steeper grades. It seems perfectly happy there, staying nice and cool. On the outbound trip, we encountered one super steep hill on a 2-lane road where I had to downshift to 2nd to hold 35-40, but that's all.

Edit: I should add that by "nice and cool", what I mean is that my temp gauge stays in the center 99% of the time, except for 2 or 3 times climbing steep, very long (many miles long) grades when the gauge would briefly climb to the 3/4 mark before coming back down, even if I was still climbing. Yes, I know how this gauge is calibrated and that it's only a relative reference. Also, the transmission temp held 187-190 for most of the drive, but would hit 205 by the time I crested a long hill, then quickly cool down on the descent. The only exception was on that one climb where I had to hold 2nd for a couple of miles of steep climbing where the transmission hit 217º, briefly at the top. This, with an aftermarket Derale cooler mounted below the front bumper and behind the lower grille.

 

[swathdiver]

Hello All,

I recently purchased a 2018 Suburban 3500 and have no clue what I’m dealing with here. I am dangerous enough but as I go through the truck there are a lot of oddities I need help with figuring out.

1) The tow capacity is listed at 3000lbs. This is a non-armored unit and shows a payload capacity of 4700lb. It has the additional cooling capacity with trans and oil coolers and has a class V hitch rated at 10k lbs (factory). What is the actual towing capacity (safely) of this truck?

2) I have looked all over this forum and found all the how-to guides for adding auto-dimming mirrors but this truck seems to have the older model mirrors with just the blindspot built in. The truck does have an interior dimming mirror. Does the internet believe this will support a conversion to DL3 mirrors?

3) I would love vented front seats… has anyone integrated an Escalade interior into a Suburban/Yukon? Or is it better to just grab a set of Denali seats? My truck has memory, power, and heated seats so would all I need is the new seats and the button with the vent feature?

Thank you all and I look forward to any and all information you can provide.

I remember Eric at Duraburb saying that those were not made to tow but to carry a lot of weight (armor). Give him a call and check out his youtube channel.