I have been towing my 12 ft alum boat with my ford explorer 4.o litre, just picked up a 15ft trihull will my trailer ball on my explorer Bumper be able to handle it ?? thanks all.
Rating of the bumper hitch should be listed right on the bumper and in your owners manual. Rating of the ball itself should be stamped on the top. What ball size are you running with the 12ft 1 7/8 or 2" The 15ft will almost certainly require a 2" ball.
Agree, check the bumper hitch rating and also the condition of the bumper mountings. You do not mention the age of the explorer. Also check the hitch height is OK with the bumper as well.
I towed a 16 Lowe CRAMMED full for a week vacation with the wife & kid & the HONDA car crammed full. 1974 shoe box car. Did dozens of 330 mile trips with no problems.
I towed a 16 Lowe CRAMMED full for a week vacation with the wife & kid & the HONDA car crammed full. 1974 shoe box car. Did dozens of 330 mile trips with no problems.
Bumper is rated at 200 LBS tongue weight, and you need to keep between 8-10% of your trailer weight on the ball. Should be good to 2k lbs or therabouts. Bumpers are not rated for much unless it's a class 3 bumper hitch like this
Funny you should mention me stopping that overloaded 74 Honda Civic..
Hit the brakes on a short steep curve at a 1 lane creek bridge..............WHAT BRAKES ?????
Good thing guy closer to the bridge saw I was a idiot and let me roll thru.
Bumper is rated at 200 LBS tongue weight, and you need to keep between 8-10% of your trailer weight on the ball. Should be good to 2k lbs or therabouts. Bumpers are not rated for much unless it's a class 3 bumper hitch like this
I have been towing my 12 ft alum boat with my ford explorer 4.o litre, just picked up a 15ft trihull will my trailer ball on my explorer Bumper be able to handle it ?? thanks all.
I tow a 14' whaler on the bumper rather than switch out the ball on the drawtight hitch. One problem that you may encounter, as I did, is the square bow can conflict with the vehicle on tight backing turns. With the short wheel base it's harder to back, easier to jackknife.
So assuming the boat came on a properly rigged trailer, if it has a long wheel base you may be OK; if it's rigged short you may find it worth it to extend by adding a hitch and picking up a foot. That's more for convenience than towing.
Buy a hitch. A couple hundred bucks and you'll never look back. Adds safety and convenience to every part of the scenario for towing the new to you boat.
