[A/S] Re: Yet Another Tow Vehicle Question - Chevy Duramax

["overlander_64" <overlander64@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings Joe!
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I can trace my distaste to a number of sources but two stand out.  The 
neighborhood where I grew up (as well as within my family) no one 
aspired to ownership of a pickup, and in fact they were (and still 
are) viewed as strictly a farm vehicle by my friends and family.  My 
second issue was with the continuous problem of having to retrieve 
things from the interior of the bed - - getting a ladder and then 
crawling around on the bedliner (with the Suburban everything can 
easily be reached either from the second or third seat, or from the 
rear liftgate - - and when crawling into the bed is necessary it has 
nice, soft plush carpeting) - - then every winter it was adding 800 
pounds to the bed so that the pickup would have adequate traction in 
the snow (never needed additional weight with the Suburban).  I don't 
carry a generator, grill, or much in the way of tools so there isn't 
much that can't be tied down adequately using the built-in tie-down 
hooks in the Suburban.  

I know that either of my Cadillac Eldorados (1975 Convertible or 1984 
Biarritz Convertibe) were always my first choice for touring during 
the years that I owned the pickup - - even my '78 Plymouth Horizon was 
chosen ahead of the pickup for travel without the trailer.  Since 
purchasing the Suburban, the Horizon sees very little use -- the last 
time that I checked its odometer only read a little over 62,000 miles 
from new -- it has been in my family since it was new.

The fuel economy was significant only in that I was surprised that the 
Suburban consistently outperformed the K1500 Clubcab - - 12-13 MPG 
Solo and 9-12 MPG towing with the K1500 while the K2500 Suburban 
averages 15-18 MPG solo and 10-13 towing. I rather expected the towing 
difference since the Suburban is only loaded to 61% of its maximum 
trailer towing rating with the Overlander while the K1500 (5.7 Liter) 
pickup was at 95%+ of its trailer tow rating with the Overlander. The 
only real mechnaical difficulty that I ever had with the pickup was 
that the transfer case would periodically become stuck in four-wheel-
drive (some kind of bearing issue that was addressed under warranty 
three times).

Kevin D. Allen
WBCCI/VAC/Free Wheelers/Computer Club #6359
1964 Overlander International/1999 GMC K2500 Suburban (7400 
VORTEC/4.10 Differentials)
1978 Argosy Minuet 6.0 Metre/1975 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible (8.2 
Liter V8/2.70 Final Drive)