New Boat! Need to tow it! - Diesel Forum

JasonRider · 07-07-2002, 11:11 PM

The wife finally convinced me into a boat for the fam-damly.
It's a 27 foot cruiser. It comes in at around 7500 pounds dry.
Fortunately it came with a Custom Eagle Trailer that is brand new.

Now I know from reading and searching that a few things need to get done to the X for it to be the premiere towing machine...please let me know if I left anything out because I want my first towing experience to be a good one...and not a nightmare.

I'm ordering the Tekonsha Prodigy Brake Controler
The Ride-Rite Air-Assists for the rear
And a Weight Distribution/sway controler for the factory hitch that comes on the X.

Anything else? I'm planning down the line to replace the shocks and add the rear sway-bar, but don't have that in teh budget right now.

Also...I have to pick the beast up this weekend, and most of the above won't get here in time probably for me to get it ready so am I going to run into any problems towing this beast for about 20 miles with no additions to the stock layout?

TIA.

Jason L

turbodave · 07-08-2002, 08:07 AM

At only 7500 lbs. I don't imagine you'll have any trouble towing it until you get all that extra expensive stuff added. The only thing you'll NEED is brakes. Whether electric or surge, you need some kind of trailer brakes working.

As for all that other stuff, well, spend it if you feel the need.

VMaxDave · 07-08-2002, 10:15 AM

i towed a 30 foot cruiser with no controller or weight distributing hitch, barely knew it was there, i would double check the trailer brakes, there arent too many coming out with electric brakes
(because of water), most have surge brakes, and you cant put a weight distributing hitch on with surge brakes. P.S. there are a couple companys doing electric brakes for boat trailers now, so if they are, thats great.

Dave

JasonRider · 07-08-2002, 10:33 AM

Okay thanks for the info...
I did some reasearch, and yes, it has surge brakes.

My question is then, I noticed that the stock hitch states it's rating as 5000 lbs/10,000 lbs weight distributing.

So do I need a different hitch then to handle the 5,000+ lbs of the boat & trailer?

VMaxDave · 07-08-2002, 11:48 AM

i believe the "01's" are rated at 10,000 w/o distributing, all it took was a sticker change on the hitch. go figure. you will be fine.
just make sure the ball and lift/drop unit are rated for what you need. i think some of the units when used to "lift" a ball, drop in rating for if they were used to "drop" a ball. i hope i explained this properly.

JasonRider · 07-08-2002, 12:27 PM

That makes perfect sense.

Thanks again for the input!

agapemou · 07-12-2002, 03:06 AM

The Equalizer hitch is weight distributing and can be used with surge brakes. That is the one I am getting. Check thier web site. My boat trailer combo is also 7500 lbs and you need the w/d hitch according to the marker on the EX hitch.

coldair · 07-12-2002, 06:22 AM

I faced the same delilima, no on makes a 10k tak trailer hitch for the X so I bought the reunel rear bumper, its rated to 15k, I also installed RS9000 and a 6" lift kit with 37" bfg's but thats not needed unless you are me according to the spousal unit.
is that 7500 dry weight without power? if out boards add 800 to 1000, fuel about 7 lb per gallon and a trailer around 1500 lb, oh yea don't forget water. plus most boat manufactures don't include T tops or radar arches.
I tow my buddies 30 open center counsle and he kept killing axle bearings so we weighed the boat it was on a 9600 lb trailer well guess what without gear on board it weighed 11600, 10 grand later he has a custom 16k trailer.
another thing i would recommend is to go very slow and practice stopping, backing, and turning with your trailer. We where going fishing when my wife who is an excellent driver btw took off some guys front bumper with our boat trailer's fender, her excuse was she was trying to park real fast cause I always get the crazy look in my eyes until I get the lines in the water, so I just had to laugh and write the check for the new bumper.
oh yes b4 you pick up that new boat get your boatUS memebership with unlimited towing, I used it on 2 new boats on the first day of ownership [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
happy trails [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
mike

JasonRider · 07-12-2002, 10:01 AM

coldair,
e-mail me your name and BoatUS Membership ID so you can get credit for referring me to them. jlohrenz@mn.rr.com
Thanks again. I'll definately be practicing.
As for the boat, it's 7500 DRY WEIGHT. No outboards. (It's got a 310Hrs MerCruiser) 100 Gal Fuel Tank, and 28 Gal Water tank (We'd tow with that empty..we get water to the slip).
The Trailer is a Custom Eagle Trailer

coldair · 07-15-2002, 01:17 PM

Jason did you get my email?

JasonRider · 07-16-2002, 12:13 AM

Yes I did...and thanks.
I'll be signing up wednesday when we close on the boat. Get to haul it 60 miles home..load it up, and then another 60 miles out to the slip on the river...St.Croix (Big boating river in MN...connects up with Mississippi).

And Thanks again.

The Dealer brought the boat out for a test spin...they pulled it with a F350, but from my examination, it's got the exact same hitch as my X does..so I'm not too worried..especially with the Ride-Rites.