Re: Is This Boat too Big for My Truck?
Being safe with any tow vehicle is a matter of being used to and knowing how to drive any tow vehicle.
Just the same, a vehicle may tow one trailer just fine yet struggle with another much lighter trailer simply do to balance and tongue weight.
I used to have a 1999 Explorer 4.0 for a company car, I pulled a 19' boat with it in the mountains all the time, no big deal, the boat weighed in at under 3,000 lbs, and I rarely 'felt' the trailer behind me. It had no brakes, didn't come with brakes, it was new at the time, as was the truck. The truck felt 100% comfortable towing that boat and trailer and launched it just fine. I also had a 12' steel utility trailer, with 12" tires, which weighed under 800lbs, that same truck bucked and jerked all over towing that small trailer. Every last bump in the road gave the truck a jerk. The smaller tires and shorter wheelbase just pulled horrible. That same trailer pulled just fine behind my personal car, a 1988 Crown Victoria.
I hated to pull the utility trailer since I knew it meant a neck jerking ride the whole way. Yet the same truck pulled larger trailers just fine. I even once hauled a buddies boat down to the ramp to launch it, it weighed in at over 5500 lbs, I could feel that trailer but it never felt too big or out of control just running around town.
How well a vehicle does with a trailer often is just a matter of trying it, if it feels bad, find a bigger truck. No matter what kind of truck you have, if it takes leaving the thing in low gear to move it, it's too heavy.
Years ago I had an old Pinto wagon, with a bumper hitch on it, it was used as a shop car to run after parts, I hitched it to a smaller 16' enclosed trailer one day just to move it away from the door. I ended up taking it down the street to my other warehouse later that day, I was amazed at how well that car pulled that trailer. It stopped fine, didn't sag in the rear and pulled it without any struggle. While I wouldn't tow it any distance like that, I was amazed at how good it felt behind that small car. Yet behind my F150, that trailer felt like I was pulling a boat anchor. Sure the F150 would stop that trailer better but it strained and I had to keep it in lower gears to get it rolling comfortably.
That all just proved to me that you can't tell until you hitch it up and give it a try.
I currently own three trucks, and two cars. I use both my Ranger and my Dodge van for towing, as well as my new Grand Marquis. When it comes to my smaller boat, under 800lbs, the Grand Marquis wins hands down. It tows smooth, no bucking, no trailer hitching at all. While behind the truck, that same aluminum boat and small trailer bucks and jerks the whole way. The strangest thing is that that boat does little to affect the mileage of the Grand Marquis, yet it drops the mileage of my van from 15 mpg to about 11 mpg.
