Paul C 944

I looking for recommendations for tow vehicle for a 16 ft boat.
Is a full size 2 wheel dr ok or should I absolutly get a 4 wheel vehicle?

qoncept944

2wd should be fine. My dad tows around a 19ft in his truck with no problems. His buddy pulled a 19ft with an old little Nissan pickup and he ran in to some trouble a couple times.

Matt 944S

its kind of funny......Here in Germany, you see people towing all kinds of things in their Bimmers. Ive even seen a couple of 944s with trailor hitches. In the states, people have a huge a for F350, dually to pull a wagon.

James86-951

I have pulled our 20ft bowrider with the grand caravan. (not cool, but it tows great!)

Paul C 944

I had some trouble getting the boat off the ramp with my nissan 2 wheel drive.Easy way to put on a smoke show!So no prblem with a ford 150 2 wh dr?Boat is a 16 ft bow rider.

Thanks,

Paul

Red1

A 16' boat is pretty small, I would think any full size 2wd pickup would be fine.

My 23' center console, fully loaded, weighs about 4200 lbs. The freakin' gas tank is 116 gallons. It's exclusively saltwater, so you can imagine what the ramps are like. I use a 4x4 F150, with a 5.4L, auto and a 3.73 rear end. My average drag to the ramp is 40 minutes, so I really don't pull it long distances. If I did I'd like more power. I could not use the ramps I do if I only had 2wd. I have unhooked my boat, and used a chain to help pull 2wd trucks back up the ramp before. It's no laughing matter when someone has a heavy cuddy cabin cruiser and a 2wd truck. They can launch fine, it's coming up the ramp with the boat on the trailer that gives them problems.

I haven't seen anyone with a boat under 19' have any problems. 23s and 25s are where people get into trouble.

ZV

We towed a little 50 horse 14-foot bowrider (outboard) with an '86 Volvo 245DL for a long time but when we traded up to an 18-foot I/O we definitely needed more than the old Volvo (almost burnt up the clutch pulling it out once). We ended up with a '91 Explorer (160 HP pushrond V6) and we didn't have any more trouble.

For a 16-footer, you probably don't even need an F-150. I'll bet that a V6 Ranger would tow it just fine. Where I live (NW Ohio) I would never recommend a 2WD pickup just because they can be a pain in the winter and what good is a working vehicle that gets stuck in yards if it's been rainy. A 2WD will pull just fine, but my personal opinion is that 4WD is more practical all-around.

Aaron

Jonas Goldsmith

one word... Cayenne...

Fishey

ONE word... Anyone know how much a 944 can tow? Hint.. Its more then some new SUV's...... LOL I say 944 all the way!

Jim 944S

Its' about 2400 - 2500 pounds (though Porsche wants you to have Aux trailer brakes for that. I think w/o additional brakes P says you can tow 1500 pounds with a 100 pound hitch weight.

Jim 1987 944S (who passed a "vette on the turnpike while he was doing 95 mph in his "S", pulling a trailer!.... Oh! behave!!!)

Manning

I used to tow my old 17' Dusky center console fishing boat with a 70hp outboard behind a '78 Monte Carlo. That boat was pretty heavy for its size. I never ever got stuck on a ramp, and some of the public ramps on the intercoastal down in south Florida can get wicked slippery.

So my answer is you can get away with a two wheel drive vehicle.

That said, I had a two wheel drive long bed super cab Ford F-150 back in the mid 90's and that was a big fat mistake. The back end was so light when it was empty that I could spin the wheels without trying on dry pavement.

Dave

2 wheel vs. 4 wheel drive is not that big a difference for towing in general, just look at the ramps you are likely to launch at. Steep slippery ramps may require 4wd but flatter ramps with good grip are fine in 2wd.
OTOH, there's my way around the issue, keep it in a slip at the local marina, no towing just get in and go.

ACG

I hope this is not redundant

What we are dealing with here is the equation of gradeability and startability. To determine the ability of a vehicle to "start" at a certain "grade" is dependent on these factors:

* Maximum rated horsepower, RPM at maximum rated hp
* Maximum rated torque, RPM at maximum rated torque
* Selected transmission and rear axle ratio
* Gross combo weight (chassis, trailer, passenger, fuel etc)
* Type of surface (rolling resistance)
* Type of tires (radius, surface area contact)
* % Grade

DerSchlechtSpecht

I had a 14ft aluminum boat with a full size trailer. Since I would launch the boat locally, I had a hitch installed on the 944 and used that to trailer the boat. Worked pretty good. But ended up getting a different vehicle for the boat as I hated getting all that salt water all over my rear end!

Christian

ZV

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Jim 944S:
<strong>Its' about 2400 - 2500 pounds (though Porsche wants you to have Aux trailer brakes for that. I think w/o additional brakes P says you can tow 1500 pounds with a 100 pound hitch weight.

Jim 1987 944S (who passed a "vette on the turnpike while he was doing 95 mph in his "S", pulling a trailer!.... Oh! behave!!!)</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Tongue weight doesn't change with trailer brakes really. And 1,500 pounds and 100 pounds tongue weight is already sounding wrong. Tongue weight should never, under any circumstances, exceed 10% of trailer weight and most trailers are set-up at 10% tongue weight. So almost every 1,500 pound trailering setup will have 150 pounds of tongue weight. To get a trailer combo down to the proper tongue weight for a 924S/944 you're looking at around 1,000 pounds unless you set the trailer specifically for the 944/924S.

I've towed trailers a lot. I have a few thousand miles of trailering and I've towed a few trailers that were set up with less than 10% tongue weight. The less tongue weight, the more squirrely the trailer becomes. If you have a 2,500 pound trailer with 100 pounds of tongue weight, the back end of your car will be skittering all around over bumps because the trailer will change weight distribution over bumps.

Regardless though, a 16-foot boat and trailer will easily exceed 1,500 pounds and there is pretty much no chance of a single-axle 16-foot boat trailer coming with trailer brakes.

I'm just curious about the one person's assertion that this 2,500 pound limit (with trailer brakes) is more than some SUVs. I may just be looking at more legitimately truck-like vehicles but I haven't seen an SUV yet with less than a 3,500 pound maximum tow rating.

Aaron