Series8217 wrote:Not enough towing capacity :-/ericjon262 wrote:how about Suburbans or Excursions? both available 2wd/4wd, diesel, gas, Suburbans came with manuals in the past if you dig that, a conversion wouldn't be hard either. and a 3/4 ton will tow pretty well too.
leaves money in the budget for custom stuff too...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GMC-Suburban-25 ... ars_Trucks
If I were going the suburban route though, I would try and find a mint 73-91, they're tougher, already have a solid front axle, and look way better.
If It's going to tow less than 10,000 pounds, I don't see any better choice than a Cayenne. A Cayenne will tow 7700 and meets all other requirements. Alternative choices will need to be able to make up for the lack of luxury and handling by allowing me to tow two cars
EDIT: Didn't realize the Excursions came with the 7.3L Diesel. Apparently they have an 10,000 lb towing capacity in that configuration. Interesting idea. How do they do off road? Besides the major loss in functionality compared to a cargo van body, they do have a 2,000 lb lower GCWR, but that may still be OK.
Something like this right? http://www.carsforsale.com/used-cars-fo ... -225722425
Suburbans are 1/2 & 3/4 ton trucks. I *thought* they had plenty of towing capacity... the 2WD ones have a 10.5" 4 bolt with full floating axles available, but that may be with a specific towing package. I *thought* the 4WD ones would be similar. GM never built Duramax Suburbans due again to the size of the Allison.
I helped ALLTRBO move from OK to MD using my dad's '90 Suburban. We pulled a U-haul car trailer with '96 Talon packed with stuff and there was a bunch of stuff in the truck as well. We guesstimated we were grossing 12.5k, which is towing about 6500 lbs. I don't remember what the GCWR for the truck is right off, though.
Excursions are 1 ton trucks (as Eric said, based on the F-350 chassis) and are available with all powertrains you can find under an F350. Yes, they do have 7.3 Powerstrokes, Dana 60 fronts and either D60 or 14 bolt rear ends.
My private security detail in Iraq used armored Land Cruisers and Excursions. They said that the armored Excursions weighed 14,000 lbs. That obviously has nothing to do with the towing or GVW ratings, but is interesting trivia. The trucks are tough.
I never understood why the company that did the armor conversions didn't do vans (Or maybe they did, but the security operators liked the SUV's better...?)... When you have to triage a guy with multiple bullet wounds inside the vehicle while the driver's high-tailing it out of the ambush zone, you want as much space to work in as possible. Due to better packaging, a big van has about the same footprint in traffic as an Excursion, but a lot more interior space.