How do most vehicles tow???

[TorchedGT]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

I don't think anyone here is suggesting that the OP get a 1 ton Diesel, only that the OP needs more tow vehicle then what he has in order to tow the boat he would like, there is just not much margin left for what he has right now, siting the big trucks was only as an example for instance I have a 6000lb setup and I have a 1 ton Diesel, I also live in Colorado where we actually have Mountains and its the only way to go for my size load and the distance I travel to Boat, the OP on the other hand does not.

Oh of course, and I started typing that reply after page one so I wasn't talking to you specifically or anything - just the people who jump in stating what they have/use and that he's being "dangerous" - you know, the usual Don't get me wrong, I'm nearly the same weight as you and would certainly feel better towing with a diesel, but I would never take advantage of anything else that truck was made for - especially not stuck in traffic 5 days a week, so I couldn't justify it. Anyways yeah no joke, the OP has zero margin and we all know that in the summer we can load up with tons of stuff.

I also don't think anyone mentioned GVCWR yet, since you might be uh 5lbs (haha) below your tow rating, but unless you plan on boating by yourself with no food, drinks, people, gear, etc.. you're SOL. More and more manufacturers want you to use combined weight ratings since you can easily exceed safe limits by throwing another 1500lbs INSIDE the vehicle.

 

[maproy99]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

So when did he say that?

:facepalm: Sorry, I was thinking of another thread I was following that was going almost the same as this.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

I don't think anyone here is suggesting that the OP get a 1 ton Diesel

Oh I'm sure someone is. This is the iboats trailers & towing forum after all!!!! :facepalm:

 

[TorchedGT]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

Oh I'm sure someone is. This is the iboats trailers & towing forum after all!!!! :facepalm:

Hey, those inflatables can get away from you back there! Better safe than sorry. Have you ever towed in a hurricane before? Pft.

 

[bucket of rivets]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

Over the past two years I've driven both a 2010 Hyundai Sante Fe and a 2003 Honda Pilot with roughly 2400lbs of boat in tow. Both belonged to friends moving to FL. Being a more experienced driver with a trailer I drove in both cases.
I can say that with a Sante Fe with a 2400lb boat and trailer in tow, with proper tongue weight, that this is WAY more than that vehicle should tow. It handled bad at speed, it stopped poorly, and crosswinds and rough highway wreaked havoc with the way it handled.
The Honda was worse as it would dip and dive on rough road and any thing short of a gradual slow stop. The rear suspension of the Honda was a joke. Both made the trip fine, the Honda ate up the rear tires and front brakes. The Honda at the time had 51K on the odometer and the Sante Fe had about 15,000 miles showing. Both were towing older trihull boats, both on newer roller trailers which were in good shape. The boat I hauled behind the Sante Fe got weighed just before leaving, just by chance since one gas station here has a scale, so I know for certain the weight of that boat. The other boat was probably a bit lighter but it had some other junk strapped down inside the boat as well. I drove both by myself, with both being pretty well loaded with bulky items in the back.
Gas mileage was good on the Sante Fe, but poor to bad on the Honda. The Honda averaged under 12 mpg, the Sante Fe got 17.5 mpg.
I was glad I drive an American pickup after both of those trips. I figured I would have gotten as good or better mileage driving a full size truck than I did with those two SUVs. I've done that drive using a 2002 Chevy p/u with a 4.8L V8 towing a boat and gotten closer to 20 mpg and not felt the boat tugging the whole way.

 

[Mikeyboy]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

Yes there is no question a full size truck is the best but also not practical for a lot of people. In most cases people's tow vehicle is just like thier boat. A compromise between what they need and what they want. Personally I think I'll always have a full size truck but I don't have a problem with the downsides of a big truck for others they just don't work. There are plenty of vehicles that will tow a boat just fine that are a compromise between a family friendly car and a boat friendly truck. There are also plenty of vehicles that will tow a boat acceptably but be more family friendly and if the op is only going to be towing the boat a short way and is willing to deal with bad gas mileage and a terrible ride on those short trips than that's a ok compromise. Just my .02

 

[CoffeeHound]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

So you are saying I shouldn't be towing my 6500# boat begind my 4200# truck. Please explain how, with that logic, a person could tow anything that is longer than 22'.

Think for a monent and dont get your feathers in an uproar . My dad passed away before bumper hitches become antique !
I'm bettin your to young to even remember what real bumpers looked like on real cars and trucks.

 

[aerobat]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

i would say he should be able to tow this with a santa fe, just make sure the trailer has good brakes. i,m wondering you are all calling for fullsizetrucks towing nutshells.

never tried the quality of pure US cars , but we tow here our family searay sundancer 240DA -which is with trailer and fuel about 8000lbs- easily with a VW toureq hill up and down, in the hottest summer without ANY issue. nobody thinks about tranny coolers or similar. our second boat is roughly 4000lbs with trailer and for this the current model of a toyota RAV4 with turbodiesel makes a very nice job.

18foot bowriders can be easily towed with a good family sedan ! ( BMW 5 series, VW Passat etc)

in europe of course every trailer above 1500lbs has brakes

 

[Mikeyboy]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

We, at least I wasn't saying he needs a full size truck. Quite the opposite. I do think he needs a bigger vehicle as he will be exceeding his tow limits before he adds fuel gear etc.

 

[jkust]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

Trailblazer or Envoy will handle your load really well. I tow 5,000lb with our Trailblazer and it handles it really well. Whatever you get if you are over 50% of you max weight put an additional tranny cooler on it. Don't care what anyone says about it having the "factory tow package" and being enough.
Jusy my opinion though.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the absolute best bang for the buck is the GMT360 line of midsized, body on frame SUV's made from 2002 through 2009 sold through 2010.
They are the Chevy Trailblazer (cheapest but can have it as nice or as fancy as you want), Buick Rainier (tied for most expensive but came nearly decked out), GMC Envoy (can be ultra cheap or 2nd most expensive), SAAB 9-7x (the most expensive but came completely loaded and has some cool euro features even though GM owned SAAB) and I'll ignore the odd ball Isuzu version that was identical to the Envoy. Each of the above, can tow up to almost 6000lbs depending on the axel ratio, whether it is 2wd or 4wd and if you got the robust 5.3liter used in the much larger fullsized suv's or the standad I6. They made tons and tons of these suv's, were up to $45,000 (SAAB & Rainier) when new but sell for practically nothing only a few years old. They are great cars to buy used because of the gigantic depreciation but they (we have the Rainier and the SAAB) were the answer to a lot of capability and highly optioned but for about 10k less than a new body style Tahoe in the used market. We've towed extensively with the Rainier with the 5.3/4awd/3.73 ratio and it has been unstoppable in the worst mud, slipperyness or whatever you can throw at it. We got the 9-7x four years old and it depreciated so bad that for the miles, the owner could have nearly taken a limo everywhere and it is truly an impressive suv. If you really like hp you can get the 400hp/400tq version of the SAAB and the Trailblazer but the tow rating doesn't go up at all. I'm all about the most for the least money but not look like you skimped. That means American with their great depreciation and usually high content and capability.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

Think for a monent and dont get your feathers in an uproar . My dad passed away before bumper hitches become antique !
I'm bettin your to young to even remember what real bumpers looked like on real cars and trucks.

So are you going to answer my question?

 

[ricohman]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

If you want a Trailblazer keep an extra 2-3K in your wallet.
When the timing chain wears early, and it will, the cel will come on it is going to cost you, a lot. Sell early and under warranty is my only advice.
I've had two fellows in my office with this same problem. Both repairs were over 3K Canadian.

 

[jkust]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

If you want a Trailblazer keep an extra 2-3K in your wallet.
When the timing chain wears early, and it will, the cel will come on it is going to cost you, a lot. Sell early and under warranty is my only advice.
I've had two fellows in my office with this same problem. Both repairs were over 3K Canadian.

I wouldn't own a Trailblazer or any of the GMT360 line if it didn't have the optional 5.3 liter v8 as I own them ultimatley for towing. The 5.3 is better than the 4.2 I6 in every way possible including how it sounds. The only issue the 5.3 has broadly is a cold weather start up tick and using a bit of oil between changes, all generally should have been fixed within the warranty period. They were simple issues. By the way, I literally know 200 Trailblazer owners, a hundred Envoy owners, many Rainier owners and a few 9-7x owners and none have had a timing chain issue on their i6. The early I6 years had a few problems but the chain wasn't a common issue. I've owned three of these vehicles and currently have two.

 

[gtochris]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

I wouldn't own a Trailblazer or any of the GMT360 line if it didn't have the optional 5.3 liter v8 as I own them ultimatley for towing. The 5.3 is better than the 4.2 I6 in every way possible including how it sounds. The only issue the 5.3 has broadly is a cold weather start up tick and using a bit of oil between changes, all generally should have been fixed within the warranty period. They were simple issues. By the way, I literally know 200 Trailblazer owners, a hundred Envoy owners, many Rainier owners and a few 9-7x owners and none have had a timing chain issue on their i6. The early I6 years had a few problems but the chain wasn't a common issue. I've owned three of these vehicles and currently have two.

Dont own one, but see plenty of high mileage ones on the road, I recently detailed an '04 with 190K on the clock and it started and sounded real good for the age (4.2L).

To the OP, if $$ allows, the new Jeep Grand Cherokee is a great ride! fair MPG and 5,000 tow capacity, I've really enjoyed driving that one.

 

[jkust]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

Dont own one, but see plenty of high mileage ones on the road, I recently detailed an '04 with 190K on the clock and it started and sounded real good for the age (4.2L).

To the OP, if $$ allows, the new Jeep Grand Cherokee is a great ride! fair MPG and 5,000 tow capacity, I've really enjoyed driving that one.

Yep the 4.2 was generally lauded but utilized only in the GMT360 platform before it was shelved. Decent power especially when you tune the PCM but pretty bad mileage. I've got a buddy that got about 180k out of his Grand Cherokee with the v8, 1998 if I recall before a hummer destroyed it but the amazing thing is that he ran it on almost no oil for a long time and it never had issues. The joke was how much abuse and neglect it took and didn't seem to mind.

 

[Sunsetrider]

Re: How do most vehicles tow???

My Dakota is rated for 7,000 lbs and is small enough that the girls in the family think it's "cute" and aren't intimidated by it. The quad cab makes it family-friendly and it tows anything under 21 feet like a champ, especially with the tow tune running on the Superchip. I bought it as a tow vehicle but it's turned out to be fun and useful for a lot of duties.