How much does your boat/trailer weigh? Picking a tow vehicle

[TheDL]

I'm currently toting a 14' tinny w/15hp with a subaru wagon, no big deal....

I'm shopping for a new vehicle, and as much as I want a full size truck, it doesn't fit well with the family plan and baby seats, so we're looking at SUVs.  Most we're looking at seem to be 3500lb-5200lbs.

I will be upgrading the boat in the near future to something like a 17-20ft bow rider...likely the biggest outboard I can afford and I'm hoping a 9hp kicker, bow mount trolling motor, too much fishing gear and full tank of gas.   Problem is I have no idea what a rig like that (including trailer, gas, etc) might weigh.  I'd be really curious to know how much your boat weighs if you've weighed it and how it tows if you pull it with an SUV.

We're looking at traverse, enclaves, acadia, flex, etc....

[7lazy77]

I have a 2004 Dodge Durango with the Hemi engine in it & I use is to pull my 2004 Chaparral Sunesta 232.  The boat is 23' long & when loaded with fuel, food & beer....I mean "soda", it will weigh in at close to 5000#.  No problem pulling it, just need mirror extenders to see around it.  Believe it or not, but the Durango has a tow capacity of 8950#!  Not sure if you find anything similar with the newer stuff.  Whatever you do, make sure you get enough power to pull whatever you put behind it, or you will regret it.  I also have a little fishing boat (16' Alumacraft) that I also pull around with the Durango. 

[NJChris]

Many years ago we went on a family vacation with a 16ft mirrowcraft loaded down with a bunch of fishing gear as well as coolers and other junk, towed with a ford exploder full of other things needed for a week long vacation. Normally the exploder has no problems pulling the boat, but with all the extra weight in the truck it was pretty sketchy on the brakes, and struggled going up some big hills on the highway. The two things I learned was that a lot of weight in the bed/trunk will affect how much you can safely tow, and its much more important how much you can stop rather than pull. IMO, if your going to fish a lot its going to be a lot more fun with an appropriate tow rig. If I was in your position I'd want something that would tow 8-9k lbs at minimum just so you can load it down as much as you can and still be comfortable towing it

[Big Burk]

If a crewcab truck would work id go for a half ton, if you really need the 3rd row seating something like a suburban/Yukon would be a good choice. Always better to have a little extra tow vehicle than needed, especially if you plan on regular hauls with it

[Mac Attack]

I went through what you are doing but did the reverse.
I owned a PU truck that would tow my 25' Sportcraft.
But I was changing to a Ford Escape because I got tired of feeding the truck gas.
So I needed a boat and trailer rig that could be towed by my Escape.
I bought the Escape with the trailer pkg and the stronger motor.
It was rated for 3500 lbs towing capacity.
But I learned a long time ago to derate a manufacturer's tow rating.
Trust me on this as transmissions are not cheap to replace.
 

I used 3000 as my max and wanted to stay closer to 2500 to keep things manageable.
I ended up with a 2013 Lund 1650 Rebel XL and Merc 60hp 4-stroke.
Since then I have added a Honda 8hp 4-stroke kicker and Terrova with iPilot, downriggers with cannonballs, and a bunch of other goodies that added weight.
Now the 60hp Merc that I selected is marginal.
It is really awesome on fuel, but it takes too long to get on plane.
I should have gone with at least the 75, but in reality I should have pushed it to the max rating of 90hp.
Now it's really too late, but that's another story.
My point here is that even though this is my 10th boat, I still goofed.
Get more power than you think you need.
This has been my golden rule on the last few boats and I violated it big time!

Back to the topic here.

Here is a breakdown of what my rig weighs -

Boat   - 850
Motor - 247
Trailer - 750
Downriggers and rod holders   - 66  (20# each, 8# each weight, plus 10# for holders)
Fuel   - 133  (19 gallons @ 7#/gallon)
Gear - 50
3 Batteries - 195
Anchor and Rode - 25
Electric trolling motor - 50
Kicker - 100
Misc.    - 25
*********************
Total - 2425


Now add things like - on-board charger, water and fish in livewell, bait and water in bait bucket, cooler with ice, cooler with beverages and ice, cover and bows that you stowed underneath, electronics added, antennas, spare tire, trailer dolly, trailer boat guides, you get the picture.

It's very easy to creep up to the maximum tow rating.

Don't believe the boat manufacturer's tow weight they advertise.
The rating for mine that Lund states is 1912 lbs.
Mine is more than 25% over that published weight.

I created a spreadsheet and went about doing a little research to gather the true weight I would have.

Do the same for yourself.

Good luck.

Mac

[TheDL]

Thanks for the replies fellas.  I definitely would prefer a full size pickup, then no worries on the tow limit but with two kids under 2 loading them into car seats in a high-riding pickup might not be the best thing for the wife.  The SUV's I'm looking at are rated for 4500lb-5200lb tow capacities and I'm only looking at ones with AWD and factory tow package (tranny cooler) so seems like I should be ok to tow a 17-20 ft bow rider type boat.

[Jethro]

But I learned a long time ago to derate a manufacturer's tow rating.

Yep, agreed. My Tacoma has a rating of 6500lbs, but I can tell you I would not want to tow more than 4000 for any length of time.

[SLAYERFISH]

Bow riders are heavy.  An SUV will be a marginal tow vehicle at best.

[royjulius]

I pull a 19 ft bass boat with a 99 Tahoe. Never had an issue, and Champion boats are heavy. I'm sure it weighs over a ton. 

[Pliskin1]

Definitely do your research.  Knowing the vehicles gross weight capacity vs. what it can tow are two totally different things.  As others mentioned, weight can add up quick!

[fishlessman]

its beyond me how they do the tow ratings on vehicles, my 89 dakota claims to tow 5000 pounds with its 125 hp engine now i can tow my eastern lobster boat at about 4000 pounds upto 55 mph but with my 2000 pound box trailer it really struggles. you could replace the gas peddle with an on/off switch

[fishfighter]

I just bought a '14 leftover Silverado 1500.  It is the 6 cylinder that is a lot more motor than my Dodge 1500 4.7 liter V8.  They told me at the dealership that it was rated to tow 8500 pounds.  It came with a class IV hitch.  I towed my 3500 pound boat 500 miles last weekend and it pulled/ran great.  I have the full 4 doors.  It gets 20mpg driving around town and gets 13mpg when towing the boat.  I test drove the Dodge's but didn't like the dial twist shifter knob.

[jplug]

I just bought a new Toyota Tundra with the 5.7 V 8. They pulled the space shuttle with one. It should handle most boats.

[O]

I have a Dodge Durango and its a V6.  Plenty of power to tow my 19' Lund with 30 HP motor easily.  I even pulled a heavy fiberglass 19' ski boat with it and it was okay, just could not overload it too much.

The V6 is really good on gas and the interior has lots of room and is set up for family use as well as lugging around all your gear etc when you need too. 

Lots of vehicles in the competition that would do equally as well.