Truck needed to tow?

[rancherlee]

As others have said, its not the weight, its the Wind Blocker. When you go take a vehicle for a test drive strap a 4x8 sheet of plywood on the roof STANDING UP to get a good feel!

I tow mine with an "almost 1/2 ton" V8 mountaineer and it only weighs 2500# total but tows worse than my skidsteer/trailer combo that is right at my 7000# tow rating, especially on a breezy day. Longer wheel base is preferred to help with trailer sway. Its strange, taking off from a stoplight I barely feel it, at 60mph I'm over 1/2 throttle and my dash says 11mpg, I get 13mpg towing my skidsteer!

[sgpwayne]

I tow with a 1/2 ton Ram 1500 with a 4.7l v8. I have towed my bass buggy all over the western US with no problems. It's 2 wd and I have had only 1 problem trying to drive it up a slick ramp. STOP and inspect the ramp if you are not familiar with it. Maybe let a few boats unload/load ahead of you to get a feel for the ramp. Make sure you get a limited slip rear end if you go with 2 wd.

[tracker2]

Just to throw in my

Tow a 21' Party Barge, single axle, 90 Merc 2stk with a '08 Trailblazer, 2 wheel drive with inline 4.2 six. Have had no problems. The guy I bought the boat from said "You gonna pull it with that?"

[GregF]

The other thing you have to think about is stopping. If you don't have trailer brakes your truck better have good ones.

[Ron Burgundy]

Something like this should do the trick.

[lakerunner]

I certainly wouldn't consider towing with any front wheel drive vehicle as they just don't have the guts for the job. FWD minivans are already lead weights before the boat/trailer is put behind them--and also unsuited for the job.

I will disagree with you there, on part of that statement. I pull our 26 footer, tandem axle trailer, with my 1/2 ton silverado most times, and it does pretty well, considering the truck sits soo much lower than the toon. I can keep 70 fairly consistantly, unless bucking a big headwind. On occasion though, I will pull with our 2010 Traverse, (front wheel drive, 3.6L V6) and I will be honest, it tows the toon better than my Silverado does. Only had one minor issue at a very steep boat ramp with the Traverse, and the issue really wasn't one, as the front wheels started to slip a little bit, but I just manually shifted into 2nd gear (on GM vehicles, used for a snow/ice start) and off she went right up the ramp. So, the minivan, I will agree with you, but you can't just assume anything Front wheel drive couldn't do the job pretty easily these days. My Travese is rated to tow 5,700 lbs. and has the 290hp direct injected V6, which is more than my Silverado has, no paper, with the 5.3L V8.

Yes but the highest thing you tow over in tar cracks in the pavement.

[Texoma Toon]

I tow my 22 ft G3 with a 2008 GMC Acadia, same as a Traverse. Dual wheel trailer with brakes. It does just fine except it really sucks gas when towing. I have the trailer tow package that keeps the tranny in low gears longer.

[Bamaman]

I know that there are very diverse opinions on tow vehicles, especially with front wheel drive vehicles. You're right that modern day 6 cylinder engines are pushing 300 horsepower, and that's enough power to pull a 4,000 lb. or 5,000 lb. load. There are other considerations.

My Lexus RX SUV has a very strong frame, and it's very structurally sound. But, the brakes are out of a Camry and I'm hesitant to think it has the stopping power for a 4,500 lb. vehicle, 1,000 lbs. of occupants and a 4,500 lb. pontoon boat and trailer. A good crosswind on a pontoon boat could destabilize a tow vehicle with such a short wheelbase. The front wheel drive axles have constant velocity joints on each end, and they're very small in diameter--and structurally weak. When 500 lbs. tongue weight is applied to the back end of my RX, the front end becomes light. Turning while pulling a trailer doesn't mean my RX has enough weight on the front end to make the turn. Since 2/3 of braking comes from the front wheels, an emergency stop wouldn't be pretty--and the short wheelbase under heavy braking could add serious control issues. There's not enough cooling capacity in my "Camry" transmission for towing, and heat could make my tranny prematurely fail. On a boat ramp, much of the weight of the tow vehicle transfers to the rear axle, which takes even more weight off an already light front end. Spinning front tires could be dangerous to others on boat ramps--especially the steeper ramps. With 5 people on board, my RX is already fully loaded and max'd out weight wise without adding a 4,500 lb. boat behind it.

Safety of the occupants, safety of the boat and long life of the tow vehicle are up the utmost importance. While some FWD SUV's seem to tow okay, you really don't want to get into an emergency stopping situation or even worse a jack knife situation in a vehicle that wasn't designed for such weight. (I've been in that position.)

A 1/2 ton V-8 pickup truck or SUV is still the preferable and safest tow vehicle for pulling these boats. Every family needs a pickup truck, even if it's an old one--just to haul around all their stuff.

[ROLAND]

How big of a truck or SUV would I need to tow a 20' pontoon with a 40HP bigfoot engine? I'm in Tampa, FL and would like to tow my boat to the keys this summer. My brochure says it weighs 2330 but I'm not sure that includes the trailer. Any ideas?

When we bought our boat, also a 20 footer but with a 75 hp motor, we had a 2006 GMC Envoy with an in line six cylinder motor... it pulled it ok but you could tell the boat was back there.... then we decided to buy a 2010 Toyota 4-Runner with a 4.0 6 banger... 4 runner tows our 20 footer with no issues what so ever....( except for the rotten gas mileage --- around 17 1/2 mpg with the boat in tow, ).



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[GXPWeasel]

I will add again, that when I do pull with the Traverse, I never had any problems with stopping. Stops the same when pulling the trailer, as it does without. This is EXACTLY why I installed brakes on the boat trailer. For safety, nothing else. Also, the Traverse (or any lambda body style) was made to tow things like this. It sit's higher than my truck, which is why it pulls pretty well pulling our toon. Finally, when I add the 300lb toungue weight, the Traverse squats less than an inch, and the fron rises less than 1/2", and there is still plenty of weight on the front wheels. I will say, if I towed more often, or all the time with the Traverse, I'd highly consider a weight distribution hitch for it, so that there was no sagging from the traverse at all.

[Thin Ice]

I tow my 22 ft G3 with a 2008 GMC Acadia, same as a Traverse. Dual wheel trailer with brakes. It does just fine except it really sucks gas when towing. I have the trailer tow package that keeps the tranny in low gears longer.

I too tow with my Acadia (AWD). It does do the job but you can definately feel it. Fortunately, my towing really never exceeds about 10-12 miles to or from storage or camp. If I need to tow further (to the Dealer, etc) I will borrow my fathers F150 5.4 V-8, it is stronger/heavier than my acadia.

[curtiscapk]

Sport Trac 4.0 V6

I only tow 3 miles each way though. I did tow it 25 to the shop with 20+ mph winds that was fun!@

[BigDaddy]

Here's my F250 I tow with....Don't even know its behind me.

[Bamaman]

I just returned from picking up my neighbors' high quality 24' tandem axle pontoon trailer. I decided it was time to do my once a decade full engine service including water and fuel pump replacements.

The trailer was parked in the weeds on a hill, and just getting the coupler over my hitch ball was difficult since the tongue weight was so heavy. I couldn't begin to physically pickup the trailer tongue and move it one inch--even unloaded.

I'm towing with a Ford F250 Supercab Lariat diesel setup for RV towing. It's also got an extra 80 horsepower ECU reflash, and pushing 700 ft. lbs. of torque.

I am with you guys about towing pontoon boats and trailers 10 or 15 miles max to the lake. I'd hate to think I'd have to tow a loaded pontoon boat 100 miles each way to the lake. That's when I'd be looking for a mini-storage that has boat storage close to the lake.

Even with a proper tow vehicle, towing my 1985 Starcraft 24' pontoon is not a pleasurable experience. I think this will be the third time I've towed it in 26 summers. I'm just thankful those old Yamaha 115 hp motors are so bulletproof.

If a pontoon boat must be towed very far, surge brakes would be mandatory for safety.

[GregF]

My boat is light enough that I never thought I needed brakes. Trailer brakes are a maintenance nightmare in salt water anyway. The guys I know with them are careful not to get the wheels wet. If they do get wet they try to flush the brakes with fresh water immediately. Some places that is not possible.