Brainstorming Tahoe Z71 vs Suburban Help!

Thinking about getting a Used SUV. Need help with choosing between what would best suit my needs. Situation is I drive around 20 miles per day. I would be towing a 2008 MasterCraft X45. My tow to the lake is around 3 miles that includes going up a pretty steep 700 yard hill on the way back to warehouse. I currently have a 2002 Toyota Tundra that I have had for 10 years. Love the truck but my kids are getting to be to big for the small backseat. So what I want is a SUV capable of pulling the boat but also nice for driving everyday around the city. I am not a huge car guy so I don't know all the details on motors or towing capacity of the Tahoe or Suburban. Any other suggestions are welcome just know that I'm pretty set on an SUV (need a change from truck for a while). Hopefully people with experience with either of these SUV will chime in. Thanks

which ever one you go with you NEED to get in a Z71. I had an 07 Tahoe Z71 that towed great, kept it till 33k miles and sold it to buy a new one, went with a 2010 tahoe without the Z71 package and the transmission gets very hot and you feel the boat back there for sure. The shocks on the Z71 are much firmer which didn't bounce the rig around as much and the transmission is geared differently which keeps the tranny cool. You can get a suburban in a Z71 as well. hope that helps.

6500 lb boat & trailer. Plus gas, gear & people.

Tahoe maxes out at 8400 lbs. with their heavy duty tow package.

Suburban maxes out at almost 10k lbs if your into their 3/4 ton.

Pretty clear choice to me.

Both will tow extremely well, the tahoe will be better in city driving because its tighter turning radius, there is alot of room in a tahoe, there is a ton of room in a suburban.

I have a 99 Yukon and love it. tows great, big and roomy and comfy.

I think you're looking for a Tahoe or Yukon.

I have a 2004 Z71 Tahoe and pull an 06 Supra 21v. Still pulls pretty good with 167k on it. Made plenty of trips with 4-6 adults inside and all our stuff for the weekend in the boat.

I have an 07 Tahoe Z71 That I use to pull a Wakesetter VLX and it does great pulling my boat. You should be fine and you will love going from a truck to a SUV

My criteria would be big block manual trans and 3/4 ton or 1 ton. I'm a Ford guy so don't know all about Chevy trucks, but one thing is for certain I'd never do another small block for towing and i wouldn't touch an automatic for towing.

Nissan Armada / Infiniti QX56 are worth a look. Pretty cheap used and tow well.

Those are much lighter boats. Should be fine mostly unloaded, but loaded up its gonna max out a Tahoe with people, coolers, gas & gear.

Thanks for all the replys. I know these will not be great tow vehicles but I only tow it 3 miles to lake and 3 miles back. I am more concerned with the everyday driving aspect but with the capabilities to tow the boat also. My friend/boat partner (I know people hate this but it works great for us) has a new 2500 diesel in case we tow it anywhere long distance. I think the Tahoe Z71 might be the ticket. Thanks for the assistance.

Was waiting for someone to catch on that you're only towing the boat 3 miles....but noone did.
Not sure what the question is. First, towing ability is a moot point given the distance you tow. I could drag an X45 3mi with my old CJ-5. A new Tahoe/Sub will tow it great.
Second, they're the same vehicles, but one's a foot longer than the other. They will ride, drive and tow essentially the same. Longer wheelbase on the 'burb will be slightly more stable towing, but not enough to really matter, and it will have a bit larger turning radius and hold a few more bags from Costco in back.
If you have to parallel park alot, get the Tahoe. If you do alot of camping, get the 'burban.

sounds like a you need a newer quad cab Tundra....Tahoe will let you down.

Originally Posted by factorykitted

sounds like a you need a newer quad cab Tundra....Tahoe will let you down.

Based off the Dodge vs Toyota thread, them Tundras are the best thing since beer in a can!

I've got an '08 Yukon Denali. I tow an Axis A22 with it. Kindof like a Tahoe with the big motor option. No, it's not an X45, but I think either the burban or the tahoe would do fine if they have the big motor. Gas will suck though. I towed my boat 12 hours last month with my Denali. Got a whopping 8mph the whole way.

how many miles do you two vs. drive without towing? If you are doing it wuth a small pickup today, the Tahoe would seem like a massive upgrade for the kids. The burb has large space for longer trips, which the tahoe doesn't. I had both (2007 denali XL and 2000 Tahoe). The denali had massive power to tow, but i liked how i could fit the tahoe into a parking space without much effort. everyday driving the tahoe wins. I sold the 07 denali and still drive (and sometimes tow) with the tahoe. 2000 with 97K, bought new and never a single issue with it. I'm keeping her until she dies, best damn purchase I've ever made.

agree with chattwake - either will do. to me its a matter of what you want more - the tow ride or the ride you'll take to the store and drive around all of the time. i had 07 denail xl, got 8 to 9 MPG, the Tahoe with the 300hp 5.3 gets around 12. i'd go with the tahoe simply becusae you'll be doing a lot more parking spot driving vs. towing. good luck.

if yo looking at the 07+ Z71 dont' rule out the escalde or EXT IMO. Not much more $$ in the used market. Escalde tows great. AS far as gas mileage...al these big SUVs get farily bad mileage towing.....the difference between 8 mpg and 12 is negligible.

Originally Posted by acurtis_ttu

AS far as gas mileage...al these big SUVs get farily bad mileage towing.....the difference between 8 mpg and 12 is negligible.

Very wrong. Do some math, a 1 MPG difference on a sub 10 MPG vehicle is a relatively huge dollar savings per mile compared to a 1 MPG increase on a 15+ MPG vehicle, or a 20+ MPG vehicle. over 25-30 MPG another MPG is hardly worth mentioning. The worse the mileage, the more you save from every small increase in efficiency. The greater the MPG, the lesser the savings from increasing MPG.

Personally I would argue a .5 MPG difference in the 8-12 MPG range is quite significant. Personally my old lifted big block truck tows on the highway at ~10.8 MPG The .8 is quite significant at these MPG levels, especially considering the cost to tow 1000 miles round trip as I recently did on vacation. The dollar savings from 10 MPG to 10.8 MPG is $27.78 at 3.75/gal. Actual savings on my trip were larger as I fueled up once in Mass on the way north and paid around $4.10/gal and on the return I got stuck fueling in CT and paid $4.60/gal. Either way $27.78 isn't a huge amount, but I believe it is a significant amount, particularly if driving a lot of miles. To quantify $27.78 in tangible and relevant terms, it will run my boat for 1.5-2 hours of typical riding assuming 6 GPH straight 21 MPH with and factoring for some amount of idling and such while changing riders.

For example, assuming fuel cost of $3.75/gal, here is a chart of the dollars per mile at each MPG and the cost for a short tow. I used 6 MPG as that is the OP's round trip, and 16 miles as that is my round trip.

MPG $/mile $/6 miles $/16 miles
1 $3.75 $22.50 $60.00
2 $1.88 $11.25 $30.00
3 $1.25 $7.50 $20.00
4 $0.94 $5.63 $15.00
5 $0.75 $4.50 $12.00
6 $0.63 $3.75 $10.00
7 $0.54 $3.21 $8.57
8 $0.47 $2.81 $7.50
9 $0.42 $2.50 $6.67
10 $0.38 $2.25 $6.00
11 $0.34 $2.05 $5.45
12 $0.31 $1.88 $5.00
13 $0.29 $1.73 $4.62
14 $0.27 $1.61 $4.29
15 $0.25 $1.50 $4.00
16 $0.23 $1.41 $3.75
17 $0.22 $1.32 $3.53
18 $0.21 $1.25 $3.33
19 $0.20 $1.18 $3.16
20 $0.19 $1.13 $3.00
21 $0.18 $1.07 $2.86
22 $0.17 $1.02 $2.73
23 $0.16 $0.98 $2.61
24 $0.16 $0.94 $2.50
25 $0.15 $0.90 $2.40
26 $0.14 $0.87 $2.31
27 $0.14 $0.83 $2.22
28 $0.13 $0.80 $2.14
29 $0.13 $0.78 $2.07
30 $0.13 $0.75 $2.00
31 $0.12 $0.73 $1.94
32 $0.12 $0.70 $1.88
33 $0.11 $0.68 $1.82
34 $0.11 $0.66 $1.76
35 $0.11 $0.64 $1.71
36 $0.10 $0.63 $1.67
37 $0.10 $0.61 $1.62
38 $0.10 $0.59 $1.58
39 $0.10 $0.58 $1.54
40 $0.09 $0.56 $1.50

Yeah I know gas will suck with a SUV but like I mentioned I only drive about 20 miles per day. When I tow it's 6 miles total trip. I think the Tahoe Z71 is what I should look at. The kids would have much more room and I could still tow the boat. Gas is not a worry since I only live 3 miles from my restaurant. Thanks for the first hand experience help!

Originally Posted by Thrall

Second, they're the same vehicles, but one's a foot longer than the other. They will ride, drive and tow essentially the same. Longer wheelbase on the 'burb will be slightly more stable towing, but not enough to really matter, and it will have a bit larger turning radius and hold a few more bags from Costco in back.
If you have to parallel park alot, get the Tahoe. If you do alot of camping, get the 'burban.

I know we're not talking about Porkman's options any more........

I thought this was pretty funny. On paper it sounds good. But the 20" in difference in the two rigs length amounts to about 2' more turning radius with the Suburban.

But I can still turn my Avalanche around in a 2 lane road without any problem. And it parks in the same space a Tahoe does all day long.

Now parallel parking is another story..... still tough to see the back end of any of them from the driver's seat. I suppose the Tahoe fits in some that the Suburban doesn't. But I'm still parking in the same places as they are.

i have on 09 enzo 23 and tow it with an 07 tahoe, 4sp tranny with 100k i tow from pgh pa to cheat lake wv every weekend about 100 miles with 4 adults totally loaded. Its ok, i never have a heat problem. it has the 5.3 motor, you have to know when to catch the rpm's to keep it out of 2nd gear so 3 to 3500rpm and it will motor hills at 60mph. Everything in pa is a hill so i watch my tranny temp, its usually around 205 i would say try and keep the a/c off. The enzo with trailer loaded is around 7k. I have had many different tow rides. I am in sales and drive 5k a month and i average 19's on the highway and 16's in the city. If you puppy it around 60 65 mph you can get 21 or 22 out or it. hope this helps. Oh it has the tow package, not sure on the gearing, i think 3.73's

My neighbor has an '05 Tahoe Z71 and I have an '03 Suburban. Both have the same 5.3L engines and tow package (transmission cooler, 3.73 gear). The Z71 has a nicer exterior package (roof rack, step bar, etc.). My Suburban also has the roof rack and the side step but just not as fancy. Interior between the two is identical.

If your kids are getting older and you are considering having lots of gear or some friends to come along, consider getting one with a third bench. My neighbor's Tahoe Z71 also has a 3rd row but there's not much room to carry any gear, etc. Our Suburban has the 3rd row seat plus a cave behind it for gears, etc.

I get 16.5 MPG on average for combined city/hwy driving at 65 MPH. I can get up to 17.5 MPG on the highway driving at 70 MPH. I drive 40 miles Mon/Wed/Fri and 70 miles every Tue & Thu. so the mileage is pretty accurate.

My neighbor and I just came back from our annual camping trip, towing our boats 150 miles each way. I averaged 13.5 MPG going and 12.5 MPG coming home. My neighbor averaged the same (lighter vehicle but heavier boat).

Whatever you decide to get, consider adding air bags in the rear (less than $100 if you install it at home) . It makes a world of difference. I installed it on my Suburban and it took about 3 hrs from start to finish. I installed the valve at the tow hitch to make it easier to fill.

Good luck with your decision, we love our Suburban, especially my kids - watching movies on the 12" screen!!!

Thanks for the write up! That was exactly what I was looking for.

My neighbor and I just came back from our annual camping trip, towing our boats 150 miles each way. I averaged 13.5 MPG going and 12.5 MPG coming home. My neighbor averaged the same (lighter vehicle but heavier boat).

13.5 mpg towing? is your boat smaller than 19ft? i can't imagine getting anywhere near that towing with a 5.3L. My 5.3L z71 gets 8-9 mpg towing my SANTE 230.