Towing impressions: 2008 Chevy Tahoe

[WRXtranceformed]

Long winded story, but it's slow here on Monday morning.

So my buddy (the one selling the Ducati with the hot chick on it) let me borrow his '08 Tahoe LTZ with all the options except for navi I think. I towed a UHAUL 6'x12' trailer up and back. First, here's the story of my debacle with UHAUL.

I set up a reservation for Friday afternoon, it gets transferred to another location further away from me because somebody screwed up the reservation which honestly didn't bother me that much. I make it out to this ghetto place in SC and sign all of my paperwork. I was told by UHAUL that somebody there would help me hook up the trailer and check all of the connections for me since I've never hooked up a trailer solo (it's really easy and I feel comfortable doing it now after my friend showed me, but I didn't feel comfortable driving 1000 miles on my first solo attempt).

The kid at the counter laughs at me and tells me no when I ask him if anyone will help me. SO, I drive all the way back to my house, scoop my friend who has towed a lot of stuff and bring him back with me. We get the trailer hooked up and notice that the brake lights / turn signals dont work on it. I then notice that the wiring harness is completely frayed, the wires are bare and exposed, and the ground is ripped off. Of course the UHAUL place is closed, so I spend the next hour on the phone until I finally reach a regional manager. He gets me another trailer and takes off a day's worth of charges for having to deal with that. What a disaster.

On to the truck! On the way up to VA I left the towing mode off because I really wasnt' pulling that much weight, and turned it on for the drive back down. Power wise the truck didn't skip a beat. Torque delivery was a little lacking if you needed to pass but it was towing a full load up the mountain on 77 no problems. Seat comfort I would give a 7 out of 10...the leather seats were comfy and adjustable but they didn't quite give me enough support for a long lumbering drive.

The only big problem with that vehicle was IMO the suspension and stock tires. I always stayed right at the speed limit or just under it because you can obviously feel the trailer start to sway when it's windy or at certain speeds. However that thing just FLOATED from side to side. I was white knuckled on the steering wheel on several occasions when big trucks would speed by me. VERY stressful drive. I told my friend when I got home that I would seriously consider stiffening / lowering the suspension and getting a better tire setup to avoid the body roll if he's going to be towing a boat with it.

So overall I'd give it a 6 out of 10 for towing just because of the stuff mentioned above. For a gas engined truck though, it did not lack power like I expected with a full load on the trailer.

[ScottyB]

i feel your pain with Uhaul. their trailers are hurting and their trucks are worse. i only go through Budget anymore.

[Steve85]

Did it have "Autoride"? It's an adjustable shock that is tied to ride height sensors that are supposed to sense load and respond accordingly.

For whatever reason some float like you described and others work well. We had an '03 Suburban w/out it and it towed quite well. I'm sure the wheelbase as compared to the Tahoe helped.

[WRXtranceformed]

Yeah I'm pretty sure it does have Autoride. I feel like a wider wheelbase, even if it was marginally wider, would have helped a lot. I personally can't stand driving on tires with soft sidewalls anyway and the problems I have with them were magnified by 10 while I was towing.