towing question, help please!

[Edward Steenstra III]

Am taking delivery of Hunter 216 soon, and have a trailer question.Car is a 97 Nissan Maxima,towing distance never more than 10 miles, mostly just to get the boat out of water and to spot at sailing club 200' away.Listed weights from Hunter are:weight 1250lbs,towing weight 1750lbs,loaded 2750lbs. Am I asking for trouble or is this doable? Alternate car is a 90 BMW 325 I, which would be better for towing or am I just asking for trouble? Thanks for your replies!!! ED

 

[Skipper (Eric)]

Personally, I would recomend......

what type of engine is in each car? For a 1,500 lb boat as is yours aprox, you should be fine with a 6 cylinder. However, I have a 1,800 lb boat I hauled all over the place locally with a little Nissan Sentra 4 cylinder. But I would not recommend this. It is hard on the transmission. I Chevy s-10 pick up would do just fine hauling your new boat. The problem is not so much the hauling part but rather the ramp portion of your quest. It is very hard on a transmition of a small car to pull such wt. off a slope. As soon as the boat is no longer buoyant, there is a great strain. Here is my recommendation. I suggest you first make sure you have a rease hitch put on. Then give it a try. You will know rite away if your car is not strong enough. Personally, I would go out and get a cheap s 10 pickup for under a 1,000 bucks. You can use the truck for many other things too. Skipper from Ohio (Eric Stanson)

 

[Pete]

towing questions

Edward,check the owners manual of both vehicles and get the towing capacity for each.Most likely are both O.K. but you did not mention what either car had for a tranmission. I would use what ever has the lowest first gear ratio because as skipper said (in first response) the launch ramp is the hardest part of towing,if you had a lower first gear manual tranmission it would be my preference.

 

[Jim Covey]

I wouldn't use a front wheel drive

Edward,The Maxima is front wheel drive isn't it? If so, when you're trying to pull the boat out of the water the increasing tounge weight will decrease your traction by transfering weight to the back wheels just when you need it most.Good luck,Jim

 

[Skipper (Eric)]

Heavy wife? Great! Now we have tongue wt! at ramp

Well, a way to compensate for that (The problem Jim discussed) is to have some one sit on the front bumper when pulling her out! Hahahahaha...If you have front wheel drive, have your wife sit on the front bumper. If you have rear wheel drive, have her sit on the rear bumper.....And you wondered what good your wife was, didn't you? Now, you have found a good use for her. And if she is over 400 lbs, all the better! Just keep feeding her and you will always have pleanty of wt. to put on your tires! Hahahaha"The Skipper" from Ohio Eric Stanson

 

[Rich Wallace]

Front Drive Works OK

I pull a MacGregor 25 with a 2000 Pontiac Bonneville. Boat, trailer, and motor weigh about 3000 lbs coming out of the water. It does not even work hard pulling it out and the front wheels are far enough forward that they are not into the slime that my old rear wheel drive van would pick up on the rear tires. The only thing I notice is that the transmission hunts between 3rd and 4th gear if there is a hill or a headwind. On flat, level road with no strong headwind, it idles along at 1600 at 60 mph. I think your Maxima will handle it fine.