LONG-TERM TEST BY JASON GONDERMAN EDITOR@FOURWHEELER.COM PHOTOS: JASON GONDERMAN
POINT YOUR PHONE CAMERA AT THIS CODE TO READ THE SECOND LONGTERM REPORT ON THE 2021 GMC YUKON AT4
2021 GMC YUKON AT4 Third report: A lot of off-roading, a touch of towing, and more fun features
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t’s always a good thing when we get to this point in the life cycle of a long-term test vehicle and have nothing of any grave importance to report. Such is the case with our 2021 Four Wheeler SUV of the Year award-winning ’21 GMC Yukon AT4. After nine months on the road and more than 16,000 miles, the Yukon is still rock solid and we are just as enamored with the vehicle today as we were on the day it was dropped off.
During the first half of the year we spent a fair bit of time with a trailer in tow. With 355 hp and 383 lb-ft of torque on tap from the 5.3L V-8 engine, and a respectable tow rating of 8,200 pounds, the Yukon AT4 has proven itself to be a competent tow rig. The one area that we’re not as certain about is the adjustable air suspension while towing. The system has a number of positive attributes, with the most useful being automatic load-leveling and the ability to raise and lower the vehicle’s height while hitching. On the flip side, there are several small quibbles that we’ve bumped up against that we feel need addressing. The same automatic load-leveling ability that we enjoy on the road has made unhitching difficult on many occasions, especially when the trailer isn’t level with the vehicle, because it will continue to adjust even when the vehicle is off. We also have the 74 AUGUST 2022 FOUR WHEELER
setting activated that automatically lowers the vehicle down to the lowest entry level when placed in Park. This is great, except when attempting to hitch a trailer. We wish there was an easy way to lock out the air suspension when towing, as it would be quite helpful to have full control over the suspension without the vehicle doing anything automatically. Additionally, we got a strange error message while towing a side-by-side on our utility trailer. The full load was about 5,000 pounds with approximately 500 pounds of tongue weight, well within the Yukon’s limits. Upon arriving at the desert and unhitching the trailer, the vehicle flashed “Height adjustment unavailable, air suspension overloaded.” It took several miles of driving and key cycles to get this to clear and allow us to bump into the higher off-road suspension settings. We hadn’t seen this prior, and haven’t since, so we’ll be
<\ Backcountry exploration is really what the GMC
Yukon AT4 is best suited for. Getting out and finding abandoned mines and old relics from centuries past is one of our favorite pastimes and the Yukon AT4 is one of the most comfortable and capable SUVs for the activity.
watching for it in the final quarter. Speaking of the Yukon AT4’s air suspension, we ran some incredible off-road trails this quarter and had a chance to use all of the vehicle’s off-road hardware. With the Yukon’s transfer case shifted into low-range we were able to raise it into the highest suspension setting, which provides an impressive 34.5degree approach angle, 22-degree breakover angle, and 10 inches of ground clearance. We waded through two feet of water, drove through soft sand, climbed steep hills, traversed rockstrewn riverbeds, and blasted down graded roads. About the only thing we didn’t do was hard-core rockcrawling … for obvious reasons. We still appreciate the Yukon AT4’s electronic rear limited-slip differential, which works quite well when traction starts to decline. Selecting the Off-Road drive mode (the Yukon AT4 features Normal, Tow/Haul, Off-Road, and Sport drive modes) improves throttle mapping and transmission shifting when in the rough. And the Yukon AT4’s standard hill descent control is certainly useful for those who choose to use it. Like most air suspension-equipped off-roaders, we’ve found the Yukon AT4’s ride fourwheeler.com
