A man that knows his lane… respect.You guys are just the best...
I don't really want lake adventures. I had a fake wakeboarding boat in my 20s and towed it all over the place looking for party girls. Being that guy at this age, weight, income, marital and family status, would be pretty pathetic lol.
3.0 seems to be overlooked by many but is super important. Just because the vehicle has enough power to pull doesn’t mean it can handle turning, absorbing uneven roads or stop quicklyI’ve had a few towable boats and 3 tow vehicles. I’ve made lots of mistakes and learned the hard way after driving the road from Victoria-Campbell River to Gold River 50+ times.
1.0. Figure out total combined weight; boat, motors, fluids, gear and trailer. Usually it’s about 2 x boat dry weight. My 3510 lb Grady 228G dry weight= 7500 lbs total combined weight.
2.0. Buy a tow vehicle with 25% more capacity than total combined weight. My 2013 Suburban 2500 gasser has a 9200 lb tow cap and handles my boat perfectly with a 6.0 L small block.
3.0 Make sure your trailer length from hitch ball to Center of rear axle isn’t more than 2.5 x your tow vehicle wheel base. You need leverage over your trailer and tow vehicle wheelbase is King. Everyone worries about tow weight capacity when this metric is just as critical.
4.0. Small tweaks like weight distribution hitches and ideal tongue weight (10-15% normally) will make things safer and and more pleasant driving experience.
Theres more to it but get this right and the rest will be easy.
And most importantly “sway”. I can’t count how many times I’ve felt the bow wave of a semi passing me pull my trailer into there lane. It’s a thing and if your wheel base is too short you’ll lose control of your trailer. A longer wheelbase helps you control sway. That and of course riding just the trailers brakes sometimes at high speeds …..which is bit counter intuitive.3.0 seems to be overlooked by many but is super important. Just because the vehicle has enough power to pull doesn’t mean it can handle turning, absorbing uneven roads or stop quickly
We weighed our Grady this summer. Dry weight without motors is listed at 6800lbs. With only a 1/4 tank of fuel, the whole load was just over 11,000lbs. One thing to note, if towing over 10,200 lbs, you need to upgrade your drivers license. I think it's called a heavy trailer endorsement.
My f150 3.5 EcoBoost is a great tow vehicle. It's rated for 11,200 I believe. My boat weighs 6700lbs on the trailer (scaled), and I've towed an 8500lb travel trailer. The 1/2 tons are fine on power, and with good EOH brakes are fine for stopping too. Where you run into problems is hitch weight. A 10,000lb trailer is going to have over 1000lbs sitting on the hitch, and not many 1/2 tons are going to be happy about that.
#1 ton or #2500hd for the win.Yes, the allowable payload of a half-ton is going to be maxed out long before the max trailer weight is reached.
Payload for the truck includes:
- passengers
- fuel
- gear
- heavier wheels/tires
- trailer tongue weight
Everybody focuses on the max tow rating because that's what manufacturers broadcast in their marketing for half-tons. But it's the payload that is going to restrict what you can tow (in addition to the other factors listed here - wheelbase length, condition of brakes, etc)
How often do you need to tow? Is renting a truck a reasonable option?
I didn’t have a problem with renting and towing but this was back in 2016.Read the fine print before getting too excited with this one. Enterprise rental won't let you tow with a truck. When I pushed back the guy said all rental companies have the same policy. Don't know how true that is tho.
Not true. I’ve used Budget to tow in the States and here in BC in my truck-less days. For the size that RC is thinking, he’d need to rent from the construction fleet companies and will likely need the special DL for towing the heavy loads.Read the fine print before getting too excited with this one. Enterprise rental won't let you tow with a truck. When I pushed back the guy said all rental companies have the same policy. Don't know how true that is tho.
Not true. I’ve used Budget to tow in the States and here in BC in my truck-less days. For the size that RC is thinking, he’d need to rent from the construction fleet companies and will likely need the special DL for towing the heavy loads.
Reminds me of the guy who was towing his boat back from renny about 20 plus years ago using truck that was listed to tow 11,000 lbs basically a 1500 towing this (28 foot grady) well he hit that nasty switch back at sombrio YOU al know that one before they fixed the road. he apperantly slammed on the brakes and boat pushing the lil truck sideways back and forth . Bot went up and over the passenger side cab and over the embankment smashing .3.0 seems to be overlooked by many but is super important. Just because the vehicle has enough power to pull doesn’t mean it can handle turning, absorbing uneven roads or stop quickly
haha nooo. It'll always have a place in my heart. I used to own a unit at the Safari Bach in Osoyoos and my dad had a cabin in Canoe right on the water. I always loved having the little bowrider up there but when I sold it and got hard into the ocean life, the enjoyment faded. I think I was just jealous of everyone else that had boats. And now since having little ones around, the smokey summers are an absolute no go for us. Having friends commit to renting a place on the water with a huge dock sounds pretty ideal though.Lets not forget that even if you can rent the truck, you will need to buy a trailer, maintain/insure the trailer, and pay for somewhere to store it.
Anyway, I thought you were done with the cokeanagan? I don't think Fatsac makes an option that fits a Jeanneau...