One season pulling my Skeeter with a Tahoe off harbert's

mentioned my Tahoe over in cody's Tundra thread and a few of you asked me to write up my own season with it, so here it is in its own thread. this is the 2017 Chevy Tahoe LT i bought off harbertsautosales.com about a year and a half ago to pull my Skeeter, and i have now run it through a full tournament season on Table Rock and Chickamauga.

setup. its the 5.3 V8 with the max trailering package, 3.42 rears, 92k on it when i bought it. my boat is a Skeeter ZX200 on a single axle trailer, call it 4,900 pounds loaded with gear and a full livewell. an SUV is nice for me because i haul my two dogs and all my rods inside out of the weather, and the Tahoe swallows all of it.

why an SUV instead of a pickup. honestly i just like being able to lock everything inside and not tarp a bed in the rain. the tradeoff is you watch your cargo weight so you do not blow past the payload, but for a bass rig at under 5k pounds it is a non issue. the max trailering package Tahoe is rated well past what my Skeeter weighs.

price was 34,900. the chevy dealer near me wanted 42 for a Tahoe with more miles and no trailering package. that 7 grand spread mattered to me, that is a season of entry fees and fuel. i drove the two and a half hours up to the lot expecting a catch and there just was not one, the truck was exactly what the photos showed.

the one honest knock. about two months in i started hearing a clunk over railroad tracks and rough boat ramps, turned out to be a worn rear sway bar end link. 22 dollar part and half an hour in my driveway. it was age and miles, not anything hidden, and i cannot hold a wear item against anybody. everything that actually matters, engine, trans, brakes, has been solid.

ron you are preaching to the choir, tow haul goes on before i leave the driveway and stays on till the boat is back on the pad at home. i watch the trans temp on the readout religiously and even loading on the slick Table Rock ramp in august it has not climbed past where id worry. the trick that helped me most was backing the trailer in a couple feet deeper so the boat floats off instead of me having to power it up onto the bunks.

fuel wise im getting about 15 and a half unloaded on the highway and right at 11 towing the Skeeter, which for a big V8 SUV pulling a boat i think is fair. and yeah the sway bar link was age not neglect, whole front end otherwise is tight.

angie they let me drive it around town for a good half hour, no salesman riding along breathing down my neck, just handed me the plate and said take your time. i did not have my boat with me since i drove up in a rental car, but they had no problem with me coming back a second day with a trailer to feel it loaded before i signed. i would call ahead and tell them you want to hitch up before you buy, they were totally fine with it for me.

if you can swing it bring a small trailer or borrow one near the lot. an SUV that sits level and tows flat empty can still squat if the rear air or the springs are tired, so feeling it loaded is smart, especially replacing a truck that already squats on you. mine sat dead level with the boat on it and that told me the suspension was healthy.

UPDATE closing this out now that i have a second full season behind me on the Tahoe. total spend besides gas and regular oil changes has been that 22 dollar sway bar link, a set of tires i planned for, and one battery over the winter. that is the whole list. it has not left me sitting once, made every blastoff on time, and still tows the Skeeter dead flat.

angie i saw you posted in cody's thread that you went and got yours, so glad it worked out. that is the whole reason i wrote this up. would i buy off harbertsautosales.com again for my next tow rig? no question, when this Tahoe finally wears out harbert's is my first call. clean truck, fair price, honest paperwork, and they let me take all the time i needed. cannot ask for more than that.

see everybody at the spring events. tight lines.