KDMatt
Seaman Apprentice
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2009
- Messages
- 33
Hey guys, I could use a bit of advice on tow vehicles.
It's winter at the moment, but during the summer I'll be hauling my 18 foot fiberglass deckboat that I restored last season (never finished my thread, but I finished the resto). The current tow vehicle actually belongs to my significant other -- it's her daily driver and she hates how awful the fuel economy is. It's a '96 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 4 liter straight six and 4 wheel drive.
The dry weight of the boat is about 2100 lbs, the motor is another 400 ('99 Yamaha Vmax 150) ... and am I wrong in estimating the trailer to be around another 500ish? It's a shoreland'r from about 1988. Not 100% on the model since it's been repainted and all of its decals were removed.
The Jeep makes about 190 hp and 210 lb/ft of torque and routinely returns about 18mpg highway with nothing behind it (don't ask me about what it does while we're towing, haha). One of my first projects in the spring is going to be regreasing the hubs on the trailer since I expect I'm encountering a lot of drag there that I don't need to be.
All told, the Jeep hasn't really been a stellar tower for this rig. It didn't quit or fail to pull up a ramp, but on the highway it was just a teensy bit scary on long climbs... then again I'm something of a towing novice, and not used to chugging along at 60 mph on the interstate, so that could be big, big part of it. The brakes on Grand Cherokees are also notoriously bad -- even with new calipers, pads, and master cylinder, stopping its own weight is sometimes a bit of a battle, much less with extra weight behind it.
I'm looking for a compromise vehicle that offers up more towing power/torque, but surpasses the 4 liter Jeep in fuel economy. The list of contenders is pretty short, but at the moment I'm feeling a bit tempted by vehicles like the Honda Pilot, or its american facsimile the Saturn Vue, which promises something like 25 mpg highway, while also boasting around 250 hp/266 lb/ft of torque. It would be adequately efficient to be her daily driver (and let's be honest, she does really enjoy driving an SUV,) but still theoretically ponies up enough juice to pull my boat on the weekend.
So the obvious question is something like... At an approximate 3000 lb rig, that doesn't leave me a lot of wiggle room with that 3550 towing capacity for either vehicle, does anyone know if the Vue or Pilot need a "towing package" to be properly equipped for a task like this? What about trailer brakes? How do I know if I have them? How hard are they to install if I don't? This close to towing capacity it's going to be pretty crucial to have them, right?
I'm minimizing my search to AWD vehicles, and I'd like to hear people chiming in if they've got some experience with these vehicles, or similar. Thanks!
- Matt
It's winter at the moment, but during the summer I'll be hauling my 18 foot fiberglass deckboat that I restored last season (never finished my thread, but I finished the resto). The current tow vehicle actually belongs to my significant other -- it's her daily driver and she hates how awful the fuel economy is. It's a '96 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 4 liter straight six and 4 wheel drive.
The dry weight of the boat is about 2100 lbs, the motor is another 400 ('99 Yamaha Vmax 150) ... and am I wrong in estimating the trailer to be around another 500ish? It's a shoreland'r from about 1988. Not 100% on the model since it's been repainted and all of its decals were removed.
The Jeep makes about 190 hp and 210 lb/ft of torque and routinely returns about 18mpg highway with nothing behind it (don't ask me about what it does while we're towing, haha). One of my first projects in the spring is going to be regreasing the hubs on the trailer since I expect I'm encountering a lot of drag there that I don't need to be.
All told, the Jeep hasn't really been a stellar tower for this rig. It didn't quit or fail to pull up a ramp, but on the highway it was just a teensy bit scary on long climbs... then again I'm something of a towing novice, and not used to chugging along at 60 mph on the interstate, so that could be big, big part of it. The brakes on Grand Cherokees are also notoriously bad -- even with new calipers, pads, and master cylinder, stopping its own weight is sometimes a bit of a battle, much less with extra weight behind it.
I'm looking for a compromise vehicle that offers up more towing power/torque, but surpasses the 4 liter Jeep in fuel economy. The list of contenders is pretty short, but at the moment I'm feeling a bit tempted by vehicles like the Honda Pilot, or its american facsimile the Saturn Vue, which promises something like 25 mpg highway, while also boasting around 250 hp/266 lb/ft of torque. It would be adequately efficient to be her daily driver (and let's be honest, she does really enjoy driving an SUV,) but still theoretically ponies up enough juice to pull my boat on the weekend.
So the obvious question is something like... At an approximate 3000 lb rig, that doesn't leave me a lot of wiggle room with that 3550 towing capacity for either vehicle, does anyone know if the Vue or Pilot need a "towing package" to be properly equipped for a task like this? What about trailer brakes? How do I know if I have them? How hard are they to install if I don't? This close to towing capacity it's going to be pretty crucial to have them, right?
I'm minimizing my search to AWD vehicles, and I'd like to hear people chiming in if they've got some experience with these vehicles, or similar. Thanks!
- Matt