Towing with a 3/4 Suburban?

[Beatrice]

Hi everyone,

My fiance and I are going to hit the road in our 73 Argosy 26-footer. We have a 3/4 ton 88 Suburban, and are trying to figure out the best hitch, sway bar, brake systems. We would appreciate any words of wisdom--we would like to err on the side of caution!

This looks like a great forum!

Thanks,

Beatrice

[thenewkid64]

Welcome to the forum!

There has been much discussion on the brake controllers.

The Prodigy seems to get the highest marks. Seach on brake controllers and you will find a bunch of threads.

You will need a WD (Weight distrubiting) hitch. There are many brands. With a 26 footer and a 3/4 ton suburban a standard Reese WD hitch would work.

Sway control can be a function of the hitch or you can go to a friction type. With the size trailer you have I would think that the integrated type would be fine and one less thing to worry about.
This would be a Reese WD with the Dual cam sway control.

dual cam sway control

WD base hitch assembly

[John]

Another control that's been enjoyed by it's users is Jordan brake controller.

[mtlagger]

I'm not to sure if you have gotten all the info that you needed on hitches. But if not here you go....I use a hitch called Equailzer manufactured by Lindon Hitches. It does both jobs of WD and sway control in one unit. It uses the friction from the bars on saddles to control sway...so there is no need for additional sway devices. I have been using this hitch setup for almost 10 years now with no troubles.

[overlander64]

Greetings Beatrice!

Welcome to the Forums and the world of Vintage Airstream/Argosy ownership!

I have towed my '64 Overlander all over the country with my '99 GMC K2500 Suburban, and am confident that you will like your combination of 26' Argosy/C-K 2500 Suburban (my Suburban currently has nearly 119,000 miles over half of which have been towing either the Overlander or Minuet). I suspect that the loaded weight of you Argosy will likely approach 6,000 pounds as my '26 Airstream Overlander when loaded is within close proximity to that weight with a tongue weight of about 725 to 750 pounds depending upon how the coach is loaded.

I have utilized the Reese Straight-Line hitch (it includes the Dual Cam Sway Control System) with 800 pound weight distribution bars since 1995. While there are many similar systems produced by other manufacturers, I have been very well satified with this arrangment. The one thing to keep in mind if you choose to go with the Reese Dual Cam system is that it is sensitive to having weight distribution bars that are very close in rating to the actual tongue weight of the trailer - - I have found this especially true when towing with my K2500 Suburban.

I currently use a Tekonsha Voyager Brake Controller on the Suburban, but would probably switch to the Prodigy if I were reconfiguring the system today. On my Cadillac, I utilize the same hitch system, but utilize a Hayes-Lemmerz MicroControl HD Plus controller with remote control - - I am very satisfied with this inertia type controller, but it is not a widely respected controller as is the Prodigy.

You can find more information about brake controllers from:

Hayes-Lemmerz MicroControl HD Plus

Tekonsha Brake Controllers

Good luck with your Argosy/Suburban combination!

Kevin

[Beatrice]

Thanks so much for your great responses. This is a really big help to us!

What a great forum,

Beatrice

[wahoonc]

I have used Reese hitches in the past, this time around I decided to try the Equalizer www.equalizerhitch.com I have very pleased with the performance of it. I also use the Prodigy. You would be hard pressed to get me to use anything else. It was a major improvement over all the others I have had over the years.

Aaron