> Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 12:56:24 EST
> From: Snapspinnr@aol.com
> Subject: Tow vehicle Question
>
> I am thinking about buying a used 2500 suburban for use as a tow vehicle.
>
> The only thing that worries me is gas milage. Either my wife or I will
have to drive it daily and if the mileage is really low it will be a bad
move. The truck we are looking at a 454.
>
> Anyone out there have any idea what the gas milage for this setup would
be? If you have any other insight on this vehicle I would like to hear that
as well.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Shawn
>
> ------------------------------
Shawn,
Just one opinion here, but I would personally skip the whole suburban idea.
They are just large bricks with not enough horsepower to tow what you really
want without single digit mileage. I would recommend you locate a used
diesel (not gm unless its a duramax) and go this way. My Ford PSD is a 4x4
CC and weighs in at 7400 lbs. During the week we drive about 22 miles each
way to work 5-6 days a week at about 65-70 most days depending on traffic.
It gets between 16.8-19.2 depending on how I am driving. On the weekends, it
either has a 20ft bass boat behind it, which you can forget is back there,
and it gets the same mpg. If we are towing the car, then the car is 3400
lbs. with misc. gear and is sitting in a 28ft tri axle trailer. fully loaded
we are 17.5k lbs. rolling down the highway and we get between 12-14mpg.
Dodge Cummings will do the same but with a slightly lighter weight limit.
Nothing beats a turbo charged innercooled diesel for torque, power, and
mileage. Nothing. My trailer is a tag trailer and has all the aerodynamics
of a brick. Check around on ebay, carsoup.com and autotrader see what you
can find with under 75k miles on it. They are coming down in price and will
still have higher resale then that burban when you have 150k miles on em. I
just rolled over 12k and the motor is just starting to break in. I should
start seeing over 20mpg once I get fully broken in and keep it under 70 on
the highway. Just my two cents worth here. It takes about 70k miles to break
even on the price difference on a new truck, but its only about 30k miles on
a used one before you are in the same price range and operating cost. Run
the numbers for your self and check it.
Later,
Paul
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