Pulling a trailer
 

I'm taking the wife, kids and girlfriend (ok, maybe the GF stays back) on a trip across the US this August. Now we are entertaining the idea of pulling a toyhauler. Something like a 23' camper/toyhauler. I see they weigh in around 4,500# and can hold our three dirt bikes, plus food and luggage.
I have read the Tahoe is rated at 6,200# towing capacity, with a 1,500# tongue weight.
What do you think? We are planning to go rt66, so this will be 100+ degrees all the time.
I drove the Tahoe, when one day old, from Vegas to San Diego. It was 115 degrees in the shade (and there was no shade). There was a truck rolled over at 5,000' on I-15 and I had to sit in bumper-to-bumper for four hours climbing the mountain. The Tahoe never went past the center (12:00 position) of the temp gauge and the A/C was on high the whole time.
Lots of those crappy little prius-of-sh**s were all over the side of the road at 3,000'.
I just wonder if it could do the same thing, loaded with seven of us and a trailer (well, six of us, at least).

The option is a small trailer with just the bikes and gear and then stay in hotels.

this should be no problem at all
 

this is the exact reason this LARGE hybrid was built. It is designed for those of us who believe we should do what we can to help the environment but at the same time need a vehicle that can be used for something other than driving to the grocery store.

Re: Pulling a trailer
 

I bet you'll be fine. Prior to much of the anti-american vehicle rambling that goes on "in general" or the waste of money the large hybrids are, they serve a good purpose. I would be curious to hear how your journey goes. I put 22 gallons of gas in our Dodge yesturday and saw my wife drove it 395 miles! I had to call and ask her how she did it. It was easy she said. All she did was add 10 bucks worth of gas without reseting the trip meter. Still contemplating the Silverado Hybrid myself. We'll see.

Brilliant MPG fixer!
 

Brilliant! I swear that is what the EPA did on the first gen hybrids to get the MPG scores so high!

Re: Pulling a trailer
 

I can get the sticker rating with wife and kids in the civic, but if I fill the trunk and put 4 150 pound people in it, the best it will do is low 40s. Turn on the AC with 4 adults and not only will the civic drop into the low 30s, it wont be able to get out of its own way!

Re: Pulling a trailer
 

I use to work for GM as a test engineer, and actually ran trailer towing tests in the Southwest, including Death Valley in the middle of summer. We saw ambient temperatures over 110 degrees. We would run a fully loaded vehicle (with sand bags for cargo and people), plus full trailer loading. A/C was on full blast. We would pull steep grades for miles at these temperatures at the posted speed limit (usually 65). GM has very rigorous standards, and after seeing what the vehicles could do, I never turn off the A/C in hot weather anymore on grades (at least not with a GM car or truck).

I wouldn't even think twice about what you are doing. Just be sure you are not overloading the truck with gear, so that it is exceeding the "Combined Gross Vehicle Weight" rating, which is the weight of the truck with passengers and cargo, plus the weight of the loaded trailer. You may want to weigh your trailer to be sure it really weighs loaded what you think it does.

Also top off your fluids (coolant, engine oil, transmission oil, axle oil) before you leave, and check them periodically during the trip (especially coolant, and engine oil). Don't overfill. Use a coolant mixture to top that off, rather than just water, which will dilute it. Also make sure no leaves or debris have built up on the radiator, or coolers, blocking air flow. Your front chin air dam needs to be in good shape, too. There is a transmission oil temperature readout on the info center, that you can keep an eye on, along with your coolant temperature guage, although, everything should be fine.

Keep in mind, too, that just because the coolant or tranmission temperature rises going up a grade in hot weather, doesn't mean the vehicle is overheating. It has to heat up some, just to shed heat. Unless the needle is at the top of the coolant temperature gauge, there is no need to worry on a well maintained vehicle, with a proper coolant to water mixture.

I hope that helps, and have a good trip!

Michael