Chevy Tahoe and Suburban Towing Capacity by Year and Engine

What a Tahoe or Suburban can tow, 2016 to 2026

Find your model year below. Each figure is the highest conventional rating Chevrolet published that year, which in every year is a two-wheel-drive SUV with the 5.3L V8; four-wheel drive is rated lower.

The 2016 to 2020 rows come from each year's Tahoe and Suburban owner's manual, for example the 2018 manual; those charts label rows by wheelbase rather than by model name and name no trailering package. The 2022 to 2026 rows come from Chevrolet's trailering guide for that year, from the 2022 guide through the 2026 guide. No Chevrolet document giving the 2021 ratings was found; the 2021 manual prints no chart and sends owners to Chevrolet's online tow rating guide. One more thing about the drop from 8,600 lb: through 2020 Chevrolet worked the rating out with only the driver aboard, and from 2021 with a driver and a front passenger, so part of the change is the method, not a weaker SUV.

Can it pull a camper with the family aboard?

The tow rating already assumes two people in the front seats at 150 lb each. Everyone else, their luggage and the camper's tongue weight come out of payload, and payload is what usually runs out first in a seven or eight seat SUV.

Chevrolet's conventional tongue weight guidance for these models is 10% to 15% of the loaded trailer weight, up to 1,250 lb, and at the maximum trailer weight the tongue weight is capped at 10%. A 6,000 lb camper therefore puts roughly 600 to 900 lb on the hitch before a single passenger climbs in.

No 2026 payload figure appears in the Chevrolet documents found. The 2025 model-year release gives maximums of 1,834 lb for a two-wheel-drive 5.3L Tahoe and 1,750 lb for the equivalent Suburban, and labels them for comparison only. Use the number on your own SUV instead.

Which 2026 Tahoe and Suburban tow the most

All three engines land within 400 lb of each other once the Max Trailering Package is fitted. These are the two-wheel-drive figures with that package, the highest Chevrolet publishes for each combination.

Figures from the 2026 Chevrolet Trailering Guide. The four-wheel-drive versions are rated lower: 8,200 lb for the 5.3L Tahoe and 8,000 lb for the 5.3L Suburban. Chevrolet's own trailering guide page carries every engine, drivetrain and package row.

Drop the package and the 5.3L Tahoe is rated 7,900 lb in two-wheel drive and 7,700 lb in four-wheel drive. Every Tahoe and Suburban still gets a standard Heavy-Duty Trailering Package, which Chevrolet says adds an auxiliary external transmission fluid cooler and an engine oil cooler.

Tahoe or Suburban for towing?

Chevrolet prints both models in one table, on one axle ratio and with the same combined weight rating on every row, and in each engine and drivetrain row the Suburban figure is lower than the Tahoe's. The guide gives no reason for the gap.

The mechanism is in Chevrolet's own definition: the rating is the combined weight rating minus the SUV's curb weight. Chevrolet lists the 2026 Tahoe at 5,509 to 5,882 lb and the Suburban at 5,680 to 6,053 lb. If you are still deciding between body styles, the published ratings for other SUVs that can tow a travel trailer sit on a separate page.

Does it have the Max Trailering Package?

Chevrolet describes the package only as offering increased towing capability over the standard trailering package, and offers it on the Suburban, the Tahoe and on the Silverado 1500. It does not publish the 2026 contents list.

The 2026 table does separate the two builds by combined weight rating: 14,000 lb without the package and 14,500 lb with it on the gasoline V8s. That combined rating is one of the figures printed on your door-jamb label.

Hitch, trailer brakes and weight distribution

Two Chevrolet documents set the weight distribution trigger differently for the current generation. The trailering guide says a weight-carrying hitch tops out at a 5,000 lb trailer with 600 lb on the tongue, and that a weight-distributing hitch and sway control are required above 600 lb of tongue weight; the owner's manual sets the requirement at trailer weights over 6,000 lb. For a given camper, whichever limit you reach first is the one that applies.

The other published limits for a 2026 Tahoe or Suburban:

• Tongue weight 10% to 15% of the loaded trailer weight, up to 1,250 lb, and never enough to push the SUV past its rear axle rating or its gross vehicle weight rating.
• Trailer brakes required above a 2,000 lb trailer weight, with brakes on each axle, and state rules on top of that.
• A frame-mounted weight-distributing hitch and sway control of the proper size where one is required.
• A step-bumper hitch good for no more than 5,000 lb of total trailer weight, so a camper near the SUV's rating belongs on the frame-mounted receiver.

Owners of 2016 to 2020 models work to different caps: those manuals allow 600 lb of tongue weight with a weight-carrying hitch and 1,000 lb with a weight-distributing hitch, and the 2018 manual makes a weight-distributing hitch required over 7,000 lb of trailer weight. Fitting or altering a receiver is structural work on the frame; have a qualified shop do it.

Where your own SUV's numbers are printed

Chevrolet puts a Trailering Information Label on the driver-side door jamb of every Tahoe and Suburban, and the owner's manual calls it the B-pillar label. It lists that vehicle's gross vehicle weight rating, combined weight rating, rear axle rating, maximum payload, maximum tongue weight and curb weight, which is what the guide table cannot do: the table rates a product line, the label rates your SUV.

Heavier trailers than these SUVs are rated for

Since 2022 no Chevrolet guide rates any Tahoe above 8,400 lb or any Suburban above 8,300 lb (the older 8,600 lb Tahoe figure assumed only the driver aboard), so a heavier camper means a different vehicle rather than a different option box. The figures their own makers publish for the Ford Expedition and the Jeep Wagoneer are worth reading next to these.

Common questions