Pull a Safari with an EnvoyXL?

[NoHurry]

Hey guys. I'm new here and looking to buy a vintage Safari. What do you'all use to pull your Safari's? Would a six-cylinder front wheel drive EnvoyXL be able to hang in there? The specs say that max trailer weight for towing is around 5000, and the Safari is just under 4000, for the most part. I also have an F250, we just can't fit our three little ones in it. We would have to take separate vehicles, which would be a drag. I'm north of St. Louis if anyone has any leads on a mid-70s safari. Thanks

[Friday]

With a good WD hitch it would do fine, but check the weights carefully because a bare trailer at 4,000 can easily hit 5,000 loaded, and you need to look at the max gross vehicle combined weight to see if you'll have any capacity left for people and stuff in your SUV.

Front driver's don't typically make the best handling tow vehicles, which is why you will want a weight distributing hitch which will get more weight on the front axle. Also, make sure the Envoy can actually accept a WD hitch... you might need to do some reenforcing to make it work.

[mutcth]

The Envoy isn't front-wheel-drive. It's rear-wheel or all-wheel-drive, same as the Chevy Trailblazer.

GMC's front-wheel-drive (or all-wheel-drive) SUVs are the three-row Acadia or smaller Terrain.

Tom

[MaxTow]

Payload and Axle loading is usually more of a limiting factor than published tow capacity. Add the weight of all the people and gear plus the hitch and tongue weight and make sure you are under the payload/axle weight ratings.

A quick google search returned multiple payload ratings for the Envoy. Either the web has it wrong () or there are different ratings for different models.

Remember - your little ones grow up fast - I'm assuming you will want to use the vehicle for a number of years, so use their weight in a few years time for the calculation.

[toastie]

My Trailblazer 4x4 handled my 17’ 1965 Caravel perfectly, however when I pulled my 1955 22’ Safari on a very nice day, sunny, no winds with sway bars was not happy at all. Sold the Trailblazer the next day and bought a crew cab GMC pickup (longer wheelbase) and you don’t even no the Safari is behind you, a difference between night and day.

toastie

[NoHurry]

Originally Posted by mutcth

The Envoy isn't front-wheel-drive. It's rear-wheel or all-wheel-drive, same as the Chevy Trailblazer.

GMC's front-wheel-drive (or all-wheel-drive) SUVs are the three-row Acadia or smaller Terrain.

Tom

Yes, thank you, Rear WD on the Envoy. It would seem that if we do find the Airstream that we are hoping for, a crew cab should be in our future if we want to go any kind of distance at all. This would also open up our search to the bigger campers as well.