Boat and trailer weight - pulling

[sunniebeech]

How do I find out how much the towing weight is on a boat and trailer? I do not know the make of the boat, even after searching the net. It is a 15.5' Fish and Ski from 1971 or 1972.

I'm trying to find out the weight so I will know if I can safely pull it with a 2004 Honda CRV.

Thanks for your input!

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

Take it to a public scale and weigh it. If you can not do that then it is a guess unless you know the make and model. Do not forget the trailer itself, the motor, fuel on board and all the gear you will have stored in the boat for your calculation.
The more info you can give everyone the more accurate responses you will get.
Good Luck.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

Should be a number on the back starboard side of the hull. This may help a lot with identification. A photograph always helps as well for everyone to see what you have.

 

[sunniebeech]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

I'm attaching some pics that may help. Where would I look for a public scale in the Tampa Bay area?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

look in the yellow pages under public scale. some moving companies have them for weighing their trailers. possibly the land fill will weight it.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

A local salvage yard will also have a scale, as will many truck stops.
As a rough guess, just going by your pics, that boat will most likely be somewhere between 1200 and 1500lbs.
If it's much heavier, I'd look to see why.

 

[sunniebeech]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

Thanks, everyone

reelfishin, does your estimate account for the motor, gas, etc?

If it is 1500 lbs then I can use the CRV to pull it.

Since pulling the boat, I feel like the transmission is not right on the CRV so I'm trying to verify that the boat isn't too heavy. I had an oil change before towing for the first time and wonder if something happened there..like using the wrong fluid (Honda requires special transmission fluid). By "not right" I mean it shifts hard/jerks when shifting.

I appreciate the input.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

Thanks, everyone

reelfishin, does your estimate account for the motor, gas, etc?

If it is 1500 lbs then I can use the CRV to pull it.

Since pulling the boat, I feel like the transmission is not right on the CRV so I'm trying to verify that the boat isn't too heavy. I had an oil change before towing for the first time and wonder if something happened there..like using the wrong fluid (Honda requires special transmission fluid). By "not right" I mean it shifts hard/jerks when shifting.

I appreciate the input.

I had a 17' Starcraft trihull on a small tandem trailer that weighted in at about 1740 with a 50hp Mercury outboard and 12 gallons of gas on board.
Your boat is shorter and on a lighter trailer. My boat, a 17' Starcraft Capri is listed at 900lbs in the original brochure, plus the motor, battery, and fuel. The rest is trailer. The 1740 number is an actual weight on a CAT scale at a nearby truck stop.
I have a 16' runabout with a 40hp Johnson on a single axle Bandit trailer that weights in at about 1130lbs total, three of us carried that boat over from it's old trailer minus the motor, battery and fuel with no real effort.
If yours is heavier, I'd look close at the possibility of it's flotation foam being saturated with water.

How many miles on your CRV? Sometimes even a proper fluid change can create or expose existing transmission problems on higher mileage transmissions. Is it still under warranty? What did the fluid look like before it was changed? What led you to have it changed?

I wouldn't go much more than say 1500lbs when towing with that Honda, but I do have a neighbor with a CRV that pulls a fairly large pop up camper all over with his with no problems so far. He's been all over with it and it seems to do ok, but he don't keep vehicles long. I doubt if he'll keep it long enough to see whether or not it will hold up. The trailer has got to be near 1500lbs, maybe a bit more. A lot of how a vehicle holds up to towing has to do with driver habit. Take it easy and drive accordingly, and it should do fine.

 

[sunniebeech]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

Update:

Followed advice from fellow boaters and took the boat to the scales. It came up to 1340 pounds. Now I'm trying to relocate some of the information I've previously read about tongue weight and if what is inside the vehicle makes any difference.

 

[Scorpion 210 LTD]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

It won't from a transmission perspective- weight is weight. Tow empty of passengers when possible.

 

[chipman]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

yea weight is weight, but you also have to take in to consideration your center of gravity "cg" if the weight in the boat is too far forward it will put more weight on the toung, if it is too far back back it will lighten the toung and put more weight on trailer tires, tires should be rated to handle any weight of the boat and fishing suplies, unless you are carying alot of extra weight you should be ok. if concerned about too much weight, fill the boat with gas closer to water "gas weight is 8 pounds per gallon" and make sure you empty live well's before leaving lake. and only take as much gear as you need. extra weight also reduces fuel economy, and puts extra wear on tow vehicle.

 

[sunniebeech]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

Weighting question:

Do I have to disconnect the trailer from the vehicle? Because I didn't. I pulled forward over the scales until the back wheels of the CRV were off the scale. Today someone said I should have disconnected the trailer.

 

[dlngr]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

What you weighed is the weight on the wheels,not the total. You could weigh the tongue weight with a bathroon scale and add it to the 1350 lb, for a total weight. [the weight of the boat and trailer are divided,most of the weight on the wheels,and something like 7%-10% on the tongue.] So your method of weighing didn't include whatever smaller amount of weight is being supported by the hitch.

 

[sunniebeech]

Re: Boat and trailer weight - pulling

hmmm so much for being a boat genius! It was one of those "dumb" moments...and I'm not blonde!

I'll laugh about this someday. :redface: