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I had a question for anyone experienced in towing a boat with their truck/SUV. I plan on going to Lake Havasu with a couple friends this weekend and one of them has a 27' Cruiser that he asked me to tow up there. I have no problem doing this but the tow rating on my Denali is 7900 lbs and his boat has a dry weight of 7600 lbs appx; I know you're only supposed to tow 3/4 of the maximum tow rating of your vehicle so I was wondering if it would be safe to use my Yukon to tow his boat? The trip is about 3-3.5 hours without traffic.
If it isn't safe to use my Yukon, my dad has an '09 F-150 that I'm sure I could borrow. It can tow 11,000 lbs but I'd rather use my SUV is possible.
I had a question for anyone experienced in towing a boat with their truck/SUV. I plan on going to Lake Havasu with a couple friends this weekend and one of them has a 27' Cruiser that he asked me to tow up there. I have no problem doing this but the tow rating on my Denali is 7900 lbs and his boat has a dry weight of 7600 lbs appx; I know you're only supposed to tow 3/4 of the maximum tow rating of your vehicle so I was wondering if it would be safe to use my Yukon to tow his boat? The trip is about 3-3.5 hours without traffic.
If it isn't safe to use my Yukon, my dad has an '09 F-150 that I'm sure I could borrow. It can tow 11,000 lbs but I'd rather use my SUV is possible.
Towing is more about what the car can stop as opposed to haul.
I don't have any experience towing stuff in this weight class, but it's hot now in AZ, you mentioned hills too, guessing at the weight of the trailer itself and at least some fluids in the boat, you would be at or a little over your SUV's rated towing capacity - you could certainly get away with it at least once, but if you have a more suitable truck available I think it would be wise to use it.
With all that I would suggest you not try to set any records for how quickly the trip can be made, that's a lot of weight and considerably more than you are (probably) used to handling. The urge to demonstrate the prowress of your rig to your buds is likely to be strong, suggest you supress it as much as you can.
I guess I'll go for the truck then, I really wouldn't want to exceed the maximum tow rating in case I did have to stop suddenly or something. I'm not very skilled in towing large objects to begin with, the biggest thing I've pulled so far was a car trailer and it wasn't near the size of this behemoth boat! Better to be safe than sorry...
The boat weighs over 7000 lbs, and there are no brakes on the trailer? That isn't legal in many States! The TRAILER BRAKES stop the trailer!
If the boat trailer has no brakes, and/or you don't have a brake controller in your SUV or the truck, you have no business towing anything that heavy!
I don't know where the so-called "80% rule" came from, but it is fallacious. Your rig is rated to tow just exactly what the book says it is. Actually,it is a pretty safe bet that the engineers downrated it by at least 10% to help avoid lawsuits!
I am not telling you what to do, and I am not giving advice, but if it was my rig, and I had a good brake controller, and the trailer had brakes and a breakaway system as (probably) required by law, I wouldn't be a bit afraid of towing that boat.
The trailer may have surge brakes, in which case I would want to check them to be sure they were working.
The boat weighs over 7000 lbs, and there are no brakes on the trailer? That isn't legal in many States! The TRAILER BRAKES stop the trailer!
If the boat trailer has no brakes, and/or you don't have a brake controller in your SUV or the truck, you have no business towing anything that heavy!
I don't know where the so-called "80% rule" came from, but it is fallacious. Your rig is rated to tow just exactly what the book says it is. Actually,it is a pretty safe bet that the engineers downrated it by at least 10% to help avoid lawsuits!
I am not telling you what to do, and I am not giving advice, but if it was my rig, and I had a good brake controller, and the trailer had brakes and a breakaway system as (probably) required by law, I wouldn't be a bit afraid of towing that boat.
The trailer may have surge brakes, in which case I would want to check them to be sure they were working.
I'm not seeing anything confirming or denying that there are brakes on the trailer, but, I have never seen a trailer that large without brakes.
Yeah, you pretty much have to have trailer brakes to tow a trailer heavier than the towing vehicle - probably should have them with smaller trailers, but once you exceed the towing vehicle weight, if you are going to go over agricultural tractor speeds, there you are.
Yeah, we'd hate to see another picture like this one show up on the internet...
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