Posts: 406
Location: Stones throw away...finally!! | I am in the market for a new to me vehicle to haul my boat and had a couple questions that I was hoping you could maybe clear up for me. Let me give you as much info as I can, hopefully helping you understand what I am asking.
My boat is a 2002 620 and up until very recently, have pulled with a number of trucks ranging from 1/2 tons to 1 ton diesels. I am going to be purchasing an SUV for the wife and will be using it for pulling the boat from here on out. As this is going to be my wife's every day driver, needing something both economical (somewhat) and with capacities high enough to trailer the boat. The tandem trailer has surge brakes. I am not sure what the tongue weight is, but it is not a concern.
I contacted Ranger and the specs on the boat are: 4600 lbs (hull, trailer, motor and kicker). I figure there is an additional 700 with fuel, batteries, gear, etc...raising the total to approx. 5300 lbs.
The vehicle that I am looking at is a 2008 Nissan Pathfinder with the V8 (same as the Titan and the Armada), so plenty of power and torque. The max trailer weight is 7000 lbs. and the max tongue weight is 700.
I know this is considered a mid sized SUV, but all the specs are telling me that it should be ok for my towing needs. I will be towing maybe 6-7 times a month and mostly local, but will have the occasional trip up north (Vermilion and Canada).
Just looking for some advise. This vehicle is only a viable choice if it is capable of safely trailering the boat. As I mentioned, this is my wife's everyday driver, and realize that there are other options that would perhaps be better (Tahoe, Yukon, Expedition) full sized SUV choices, but my wife would prefer to drive something along this line if it is capable of what I need it do do.
Thanks for any insight that you could throw my way. |
