The hunt for a tow vehicle...

[reidmefirst]

I am on my third year of 7.9 ownership, and I'm starting to have visions of sailing on something other than our Iowa mudpuddle -- perhaps a Great Lake and perhaps even hauling my boat out to a one design race (will probably want to crew on someone else's boat at a class event before I take that step though ).

I've been renting Uhaul pickups to move the boat around. It's a touch inconvenient to pickup/dropoff though, and they only come in RWD which has been a problem during haulout. Our boat ramp is super steep, so 4wd/awd would probably help. But I'm starting the awful hunt for a gas guzzling vehicle for hauling the boat around. It's especially bad because of insane used car prices at the moment.

Generally I'm thinking along the lines of: F150/Silverado/other half-ton pickup? Current-Gen Ranger (has some psychological positives to me, since it's just a 4 cylinder)? Some kind of SUV-y thing? I'm wondering what people use as tow vehicles and how they've worked out long-term.

I have always owned small cars -- currently a mini cooper and a mazda miata -- and think that my tow vehicle will mostly just sit around collecting rust and dust. I'm kinda wondering what not-so-monster things have worked for people. And for what it's worth, I live in Iowa...while our boat ramp may be steep the road from here to Chicago or Racine is almost flat enough to calibrate a bubble level with...

[USA007]

reidmefirst,

Good question. I have a 2012 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 with 4WD. It tows the boat reasonably well and was reasonably priced (9 years ago gently used). I have never used 4WD to pull the boat out of any ramp, but I likely have not used a ramp as steep as yours. The truck pulls the boat well up to about 65 mph. Faster than that you can almost see the fuel gauge move and it downshifts a lot. So, I keep it at our under 65MPH to keep the transmission cool and happy. This truck has the 3.08 rear axle ratio, so going up to the 3.42 may help. On the positive side it is a comfortable truck to drive the rest of the time (20+mpg highway). I think this would be comparable to a Tahoe or Suburban. I would not go with anything smaller or with less power if you are considering interstate trips. A larger engine or 3/4 ton truck would be nicer for towing long distances. That said, you have to balance towing well versus the overall utility of the vehicle. I typically tow my boat less than 1,000 miles per year, so it is a factor, but not huge one.

A couple other things I have done. Upgrade to load range E tires. I had a lot of bouncing with standard load range c rear tires on the truck. With thicker sidewalls and higher PSI it tows the boat more smoothly. I also replaced the stock non-functioning surge drum brakes on my trailer with electric surge brakes. These work great and have held up well since I exclusively use the boat in fresh water. If you will be backing the boat into salt water, I would hesitate with that recommendation. It was a surprisingly easy project for a novice and the local camping trailer store was very helpful.

Hope that helps.

Drew
Bond Girl - 007

[MnM20]

+1 on the Silverado 1500 although mine is much older 2004 - but it still has under <100K miles. I went full e-brakes when i bought my boat and tore out the hydraulic surge on my trailer as my truck has the factory 7 wire plug and added e-brake controller.

I too have 4WD and I always use 4WD Low at the ramp just for piece of mind. (I've seen enough "Boat Fails" videos on YouTube that i don't even want the remote possibility of the truck/trailer ending up under water). My truck has a 5.3L V8 and I wouldn't want to go much smaller as i experience the same thing as USA007 where towing over 65 upshifts into 3500rpm gas-guzzling mode.

The downside is that I live in inner-city Chicago. While I have a garage at home for overnight parking, at 19-ish ft LOA, if i have to take it out for errands parking can be a bit of a pain.

I notice at the 7.9 regattas I've gone to that most people have half ton pickups or greater. Tahoe/Yukons/Suburbans seem common as well.

[reidmefirst]

Well, I went ahead and got a current-generation Ranger. And it actually tows the 7.9 pretty well! I found a reasonably priced used 4wd model with some fancy stuff that helps towing up our boat ramp. Using the fancy stuff (off road toys), I learned that our boat ramp is a 9-10 degree pitch/15% grade that climbs 150-200 feet out of the lake valley. So yes I used 4wd Low to haul the boat out this season, it worked great. Previously with the uhaul/rwd silverado rentals I would be smoking the tires up the boat ramp, and literally could not stop to check how the boat ended up sitting on the trailer or I couldn't get moving again.

Have taken the rig on the highway too. It wasn't the most fun in high crosswinds (30kts one day when I was hauling it), but it did okay. I definitely am done with the surge brake system though -- I think I'll take the group advice and fit some electric brakes on the trailer next season. I have no intention of taking the boat to saltwater so I think electric will be okay.