Tow pig options. SUV or Truck?

My current tow pig is on the fritz again. It's almost 25 years old a this point and is getting to be pretty long in the tooth. In contemplating my next tow pig I'm trying to decide on what my best option is going to be in the compromise game that is buying used. I would like to be under $7500 and 10 years old and capable of towing my wood deck trailer and about 3500lbs of car and gear. I think the trailer weights around 1200lbs or so, I can't remember.

Contemplating going SUV this time instead of an extended cab truck. Some pro's I'm thinking are

• SUV's tend to be cheaper than trucks around here
• Enclosed cargo area so I don't have to worry about my stuff getting soaked or stolen.
• Shorter overall vehicle length, easier to maneuver in a tight spot.
• SUV's tend to ride and drive more "car like" which would be a nice change as I hate driving my truck on a daily basis.

The Cons are,

• Enclosed Cargo area, dirty leaky things not easily contained, and unable to fit stuff taller than roof and odd sized building stuff like sheetrock or plywood.

One of the high contenders on my list is the Jeep Grand Cherokee, looks like it has a 7200lbs towing capacity in the 4WD model with the V8.

Anyone here recently had to make this decision and what swayed you one way or the other?

Only thing I can add is that you are likely underestimating the weight of your current trailer by a LARGE margin. 

I'd go SUV all the way. For what you need to tow, just about any mid-size SUV will do it. So, JCG, Exploder, 4Runner, Trailblazer, Pilot, heck, even some crossovers like the Acadia and Flex can tow enough to get that done, they'll be even more carlike and get better mileage, too. Plus, the world is full of cars like this that have never hauled more than 5 kids to soccer practice, so while they may have a ton of miles on them, they haven't been abused, per se.

If you don't plan to grow much in towing needs, either will work.  If you want room to grow, then I'd lean towards a 3/4 ton+ truck with a full 8 foot bed (for best compatibility with gooseneck trailers).  

Truck. The longer the better. While I know that most large SUV's CAN tow the weight, there is something about worry free comfort of a long wheelbase. 3/4T? Unless you're going enclosed or 5th wheel I don't see the need. Anything built in the lat 10 years can easily pull 7k lbs. 

YMMV. IANAL. ISIAHIE.

An Expedition EL can swallow a 4x8 sheet, with the seats folded flat. I don't know about a Suburban, though. 

Suburban can swallow a 4x8 sheet as well, done it myself.

Trucks do tow better, wheelbase is your friend. My Suburban has the same wheelbase as a standard cab longbed truck (130ish inches), well at least the same as the 1979 GMC I had before it. Towed a 28ft enclosed trailer with the GMC, Suburban and 2500HD crew cab, CC towed the best. Shorter trucks/suvs are a bit easier to back a trailer up with.

No way your trailer weighs 1200lbs.  My all aluminum open featherlite weighs that.  I'd wager yours is at least 2000lbs.

That being said, my old cayenne turbo (7700lb rated) towed like a dream.  My GX470 (6500lb rated) not nearly as well as the cayenne.

Given your trailer weight and load, I'd go with a 3/4 ton Suburban or a Sequioa...

Gonna recommend the 2006 Suburban 2500 with the 8.1 liter. Tows up to 12,000 lbs with ease. Swallows 4x8 sheets of building materials. easy to tow a car trailer or larger enclosed trailer. Gets barely any worse fuel mileage than the 6.0 but much more capable even if you don't use that capability often.

Going on 3 years of use with mine towing large (35 foot, 9400lbs) travel trailers all over the east coast. Stability is not an issue, but fits in "normal" parking spaces.

How important is 4wd to you? Full size cargo vans can tow almost as well as a full size pickup and offer tons of secure inside storage space. Plus they can be found for much less than a full size truck.

SUV, no question. Being able to securely lock up your gear is a huge plus. I've used both, and dislike pickups in general for racecar towing, if only because things are a pain to get to in the bed vs. side doors/hatch of a SUV.  And hell, we carry muddy as hell rally tires around. BUt that's what roof racks and trailers are for...

btw, I would take a Toyota SUV 10 times out of 10 vs. a Grand Cherokee....YMMV.

irish44j said:

SUV, no question. Being able to securely lock up your gear is a huge plus. I've used both, and dislike pickups in general for racecar towing, if only because things are a pain to get to in the bed vs. side doors/hatch of a SUV.  And hell, we carry muddy as hell rally tires around. BUt that's what roof racks and trailers are for...

So it's a pain to get tires into a truck bed, but it's easy to put them on a roof rack?  I'm not sure that follows. :)

codrus said:

irish44j said:

SUV, no question. Being able to securely lock up your gear is a huge plus. I've used both, and dislike pickups in general for racecar towing, if only because things are a pain to get to in the bed vs. side doors/hatch of a SUV.  And hell, we carry muddy as hell rally tires around. BUt that's what roof racks and trailers are for...

 

So it's a pain to get tires into a truck bed, but it's easy to put them on a roof rack?  I'm not sure that follows. :)

 

Point taken.....but we carry them on the trailer, typically. I think the tires on the roof is a rally-only thing, really. In rally you can't take the trailer to service so we usually throw a couple on the roof since they are little 14" (so yes, it's pretty easy lol),. This would not be an issue for a track car since the trailer is there in the paddock with you. Also not an issue putting the tires in the vehicle - the roof is for when the tires are covered with mud (again, not a track vehicle issue)....

Because pickups (especially modern "tall" ones) are hard to access the bed from the side, you end up having to climb over crap to get anything. I love having the big side doors to access stuff from 3 places, rather than having a mess that's hard to get to, especially if you have a cap (to actually keep stuff secure at the hotel overnight...)

docwyte said:

No way your trailer weighs 1200lbs.  My all aluminum open featherlite weighs that.  I'd wager yours is at least 2000lbs.

That being said, my old cayenne turbo (7700lb rated) towed like a dream.  My GX470 (6500lb rated) not nearly as well as the cayenne.

Given your trailer weight and load, I'd go with a 3/4 ton Suburban or a Sequioa...

Even if he's off by 800 lbs on the trailer weight, he's still under 5k total. I'm assuming the car is the Daytona Coupe, which can't weigh more than about 2500 lbs. 3/4 ton is big-time overkill for that weight. Yes, it'll be a bit more stable, but IMO not worth it for the fuel mileage penalty.

Tom_Spangler said:

docwyte said:

No way your trailer weighs 1200lbs.  My all aluminum open featherlite weighs that.  I'd wager yours is at least 2000lbs.

That being said, my old cayenne turbo (7700lb rated) towed like a dream.  My GX470 (6500lb rated) not nearly as well as the cayenne.

Given your trailer weight and load, I'd go with a 3/4 ton Suburban or a Sequioa...

Even if he's off by 800 lbs on the trailer weight, he's still under 5k total. I'm assuming the car is the Daytona Coupe, which can't weigh more than about 2500 lbs. 3/4 ton is big-time overkill for that weight. Yes, it'll be a bit more stable, but IMO not worth it for the fuel mileage penalty.

This - my open-deck trailer is over 1600lbs, and it's not even a dovetail. 1200 is aluminum trailer territory.

We routinely tow 5000 or so (trailer+car+gear) with the Sequoia and it's rock solid. 3/4 ton is better if you are towing a big enclosed trailer where stability is more of an issue, IMO. For a sub-3k car on an open trailer, any 1/2-ton chassis should have no issues in general.

docwyte said:

No way your trailer weighs 1200lbs.  My all aluminum open featherlite weighs that.  I'd wager yours is at least 2000lbs.

That being said, my old cayenne turbo (7700lb rated) towed like a dream.  My GX470 (6500lb rated) not nearly as well as the cayenne.

Given your trailer weight and load, I'd go with a 3/4 ton Suburban or a Sequioa...

You're probably right. Thinking back It might be closer to 2200lbs. I bought some race scales recently, so as soon as I pull the Hornet off of it, I'll verify.

It's funny you mention the Cayanne, because it has popped up in my searches fairly often. I know it's mostly a VAG product underneath, so how was your ownership experience? I'm seeing these things with on CL for cheap with decent mileage. I also see some that have 200K plus miles, so I would think they are pretty decent at holding themselves together.

I started looking at crew cab trucks and wound up buying a station wagon (that's what the title says, but I guess it's an SUV really).

Most of what I do with the car isn't towing or hauling things, so I shopped for the primary use and decided to compromise on the capabilities of the edge case.  I can't haul dirty stuff or sheets of plywood or drywall, but I can hook up the trailer and do those things.  Daily driving and moving the family around is way better than it would be with a truck and the tools and things that I might haul inside are protected from theft and weather.  Also, 20ish mpg around town and 18ish when towing, so that's nice.  I've never really felt that the shorter wheelbase is a problem.  It's plenty stable when towing and the shorter wheelbase is nice for maneuvering.

So as for what I'll be towing, mainly the Daytona, but it could be the Corvette or any other CL junk I find. So lets say 5000 to 5500lbs trailer weight total, plus my gear and any extras.

I did find an interesting option. Looks like it was only made a couple years which is bad for parts, but good for depreciation. The Kia Borrega. 7500lbs towing capacity with the 4.6 V8 motor. It has third row seating I wouldn't use, but it means more cargo area inside, and they are dirt cheap on CL. It's looking like a good contender. The long term review on MotorTrends site seems unremarkable for it.

4WD is one of those things I waffle back and forth on. I can probably count on one hand how many times I have used 4WD and only really once to get myself out of a low traction situation in sand, in Florida, where I no longer live. But the time I did need it, I really needed it. So, do you take the hit on mileage and err on the side of caution? Or hope for the best and save the money?

In reply to wae :

Yeah we went the CC shortbed 2wd. Smallest V8, highway gears, seats 6 legally (7 if you need for the drive from Tucson to Phoenix), 24 highway (on real gas, has dropped to high 22's), 18 around town, 15 towing 5k lbs. AMAZING seats. Seriously... this truck has made the 30 hours one way to Tucson 3 times and every time it's never tiring. Cheap maintenance, parts available EVERYWHERE. easy to work on. low on consumables. 

The downside is it is long. 19.5' long to be exact. Won't fit into a lot of newer "garages". Makes it a little hard to park in tight parking spaces but you start to compensate and adjust. 

We bought it new in 06 and plan on having it another 10-15 years if the body/frame hold out. Honestly, we have no idea what we'll do if something catasrophic happens to this one. There's nothing we like better and the new ones are just... ugh. 

Trucks seem to hold their value better than large SUVs, and lockable bed covers exist for a reason.

t25torx said:

 

You're probably right. Thinking back It might be closer to 2200lbs. I bought some race scales recently, so as soon as I pull the Hornet off of it, I'll verify.

It's funny you mention the Cayanne, because it has popped up in my searches fairly often. I know it's mostly a VAG product underneath, so how was your ownership experience? I'm seeing these things with on CL for cheap with decent mileage. I also see some that have 200K plus miles, so I would think they are pretty decent at holding themselves together.

Generally it was a solid truck. I did just normal maintenance on it for ~3 years, I bought it with 109k miles and took it to 140k miles.  It always had an appetite for oil, burning about 1 quart every 1200 miles.  Then, suddenly, it started to burn a quart every 500 miles.  That wasn't good and it was determined that something expensive was wrong, expensive to the point it didn't make sense to fix it.

I was quite unhappy about that, as I loved the truck and wasn't ready to replace it $$ wise.  So I'd say be extremely careful picking one of these up used with 100k+ miles on them.  It's hard to tell how much oil consumption they have until you own it and if the oil control rings are bad, or a cylinder wall is scored, or the turbo oil seals are bad, you're going to be very unhappy.  To fix any of those is financially unfeasible given the cost of the truck.  Cheaper to throw it away and buy another one.

Honestly I'd buy a Sequoia.  If a 3/4 ton Suburban is cheaper, than buy that.  You totally don't need a 3/4 ton chassis to tow what you have, but if the dollars work out, I'd much rather have a 3/4 ton than a 1/2 ton.  Like I said, my GX470 gets the job done, but it's merely adequate.  I wouldn't want to tow with it any real distance.

I did the 3/4 ton Suburban tow pig thing for a few years but missed having a truck! I now have a 1/2 ton Silverado 4.8 for tow/haul duty  and it is so much more useful. I've taken 3 trips to discard tree branches/yard waste this spring and it's so much more convenient than loading a trailer.

I regularly haul dirt bikes and was using a hitch hauler on the suburban. 1 bike limit without hooking up a trailer. Now I can load up to 3 bikes to go riding.