Re: Will my Ford tow this?
I would be towing it for about 10 miles where I will dry berth it. Unfortunetely there are no side roads at all.
After reading alot of these comments, I gotta say I'm concerned now.
The boat weighs in at exactly 4624 lbs without fuel (which it won't have when towing). The trailer weights 1,085 lbs for a total of 5709 lbs. My Ford's max tow capacity is 5375 lbs.
As well you should be. Like everyone has already pointed out, towing near a vehicle's tow capacity limit isn't very safe or smart.....I certainly wouldn't try to tow any load near our Blazer's capacity limit of 5200#.
But now you're looking to tow something that's already almost 400# beyond your vehicle's tow capacity, and that doesn't include anything inside the truck outside a 160# driver (the weight Ford assigns to the driver when determining towing capacity of the vehicle) and a half full tank of gas. Add anything to that load (heavier driver, full tank of gas, a Kleenex, a soda, a passenger, etc.) and your tow capacity drops by a like amount.
Personally, I wouldn't tow that setup out of my yard, much less down any roads traveled by the unsuspecting public. Your vehicle's suspension, engine, transmission, and brakes just weren't designed to safely pull that load anywhere.
Just to share something I saw yesterday......we made a quick trip from Savannah, GA to Orlando, FL to pick up some parts for my outboard (saved a ton of money on a deal I couldn't pass up....but that's another story). The majority of the drive was done in the 75-80 mph range on the 70 mph speed limit I-95. On the return trip, we kept encountering a pair of vehicles towing loads, a Cadillac SRX towing a very small enclosed utility trailer from Pennsylvania which was following a Dodge Ram extended cab pickup pulling what appeared to be a newly purchased travel trailer (guess they were going back to PA.....the Caddy was following right behind the Dodge and shadowing its every move.)
Now, here's the ugly part. The vast majority of the time we were in FL, we were doing around 75-76mph in the 70mph zones. We'd occasionally catch up to the pair of trucks when traffic would slow everyone down to our speed, but when traffic allowed, they'd pull away, so we only saw the pair from the rear. But when we approached Savannah's outskirts, we were back in familiar territory and sped up a tad.....enough to catch up and pass the pair. That's when we saw what was really scary about them.......
The Dodge was obviously pulling a load way beyond what it was rated for---the truck and trailer made the nicest "V" centered on the hitch. The truck looked like its rear end was sitting on its suspension stops and the front end was pointing upward so hard its headlights looked like they could be used to signal aliens. Every single bump in the road (going over expansion strips that were slightly uneaven, over the two bridges we saw near Savannah that didn't have exactly smooth transitions between the roadway and bridge) produced sparks from the safety chains hitting the ground....and the chains weren't overly long....and that trailer swayed back and forth so badly after hitting those road blemishes we were surprised the trailer hadn't taken over the lead from the truck.
We left them trucking north when we exited at the Savannah airport, the two were still driving 70+ mph, trailer swaying like a hula dancer, and I just thought it was an accident waiting for th emost inopportune time to happen....avoiding a road obstacle, sudden swerve of another vehicle into his lane in front of him....it wouldn't take much to lose his load, and maybe his life----not to mention any others near him when he loses control.
Just don't do it.
