This has turned into a very interesting thread about towing, so I'm going to interject just a little something near and dear to me.
I come from a varied background of towing (many times foolishly to get by) with experience of growing up on a fairly large (for it's day - not by today's standards) farm to towing various recreation vehicles with tow vehicles that were sometimes undersized and to almost oversized in instances. From heavily loaded farm wagons where they were rated for almost 40 tons being pulled sometimes by some of our smaller tractors that weighed in at 8000#'s if lucky and stopping those front steered loads off a fairly steep downhill gravel road stop sign that ends onto busy highway 10 cross traffic (bad place to make any mistakes) - to pulling my parents 5th wheel with a specially ordered heavy Ford Camper Special with 460 - to pulling my parents airstream trailer with an underpowered and over-geared Dodge pickup with 316...but it got pretty good gas mileage in comparison - to even pulling my old Glastron GT-150 with a little Dodge Horizon Hatchback sometimes. I even pulled a trailer that hauls my 20,000 pound Lull telehandler home with that same 318, and I didn't have the correct trailer brakes hookup but just figured I'd crawl the 30 miles home on the back roads - even at 15-20 mph, those truck brakes were smoking before I even got half way home, and I worried continuously about that trailer pushing me into the ditch when going down hill or to a stop sign!!
But my specific point for this thread is an example that to this day makes foolhardy ME cringe when I meet anyone towing something where the towed item is obviously significantly larger than the tow vehicle - whether there are trailer brakes or not...but ESPECIALLY if NOT. I had a '78 T-Bird (still have it in storage) that I pulled a '72 21' Starcraft Travel Trailer. I figured it out one time and it averaged 4 mpg pulling that trailer (5000# trailer) before I super-charged the engine (those old 351M's (destroked 400's) couldn't breath very well without supercharging). But that car still had a full frame and was quite heavy. On the way home from one camping weekend, we ran into a storm. I caught a side-wind on a curve and I watched in the mirrors as that trailer went completely off onto the side of the road - but my T-Bird held firm and pulled it back onto the road like nothing ever happened. While the car obviously weighed less than the trailer - the ratio was enough to keep it under control without "tail wagging the dog".
I went on to have other experiences with that combo like hitting a deer (on a curve again) where the trailer would have jack-knifed if not for trailer brakes - but to this day I seriously cringe when I see a trailer-tow combination where there is an obvious ratio difference which could send them hurtling towards me and my family while on the road! Then Dorelse's lawyer's logic would obviously come into play too!!
My point to this is, (and sorry if this is probably coming off as somewhat of a lecture rather than just an example and comment - that's not intended) even though the amount of power that can be gotten out of an engine and power train is improving all the time, if the tow vehicle doesn't have enough weight and stability, regardless of whether it can pull it or not, it can still be a significant risk to maintaining control of that combo.
So just for consideration, while you CAN "get by" more often that not (I'm certainly an example of not always having the funds to do things the "right" way and subsequently taking the chance) - IF something DOES go wrong, and only you can answer, will it really be worth the risk?
PS: I second that '02 Avalanche as a great Glastron tow vehicle - we are immensely pleased with our's too.
