Tow vehicle

[Nap22]

We do have a marina in town that I could keep it in the water all summer for $300. But I really don't want to keep this expensive of a boat in the water. I think I would be a lot happier having it at home where I can make sure it stays clean and looking good. My wife is not a big fan of trailering the boat to a boat launch every weekend but I will be doing the majority of the work anyway ad I will be happier.

 

[ericscher]

I used to have a 1987 Chevy 2500 with a Redding utility bed.

It had a 350 Target Master, a Turbo 400 tranny, the 14-bolt rear end and the light duty 8-lug rear axle. It was light ONLY in the sense that it wasn't a full floating axle. Visually, that would be the one that has what looks like a 4wd hub, only without the lock-outs. Speaking of 4wd, this truck had it.

I loved that truck. It would carry insane amounts of cargo (2-ton loads didn't even faze it), would do 85mph on cruise control all day long and the A/C blew like a 100-year Nor'Easter.

Funny thing was, no matter how empty or loaded it was, no matter how fast or slow I drove, the truck would always get 12mpg.

 

[ericscher]

We do have a marina in town that I could keep it in the water all summer for $300. But I really don't want to keep this expensive of a boat in the water. I think I would be a lot happier having it at home where I can make sure it stays clean and looking good. My wife is not a big fan of trailering the boat to a boat launch every weekend but I will be doing the majority of the work anyway ad I will be happier.

Give yourself permission to re-think that after you've gotten through your first season.

 

[SEMPERFI8387]

Give yourself permission to re-think that after you've gotten through your first season.

I agree. $300 is cheap. It's $640 from April-October here in Pa. in uncovered dock.

We just make sure to use mooring cover all the time, and jump in water and scrub toons every 4 weeks or so to keep growth off toons.

I did trailer our first toon the first year, but never looked back after getting a dock.

 

[Nap22]

Thanks for your comments, I was worried about how well we would keep the boat clean at the marina and how easy it would be to keep the toons clean. I only live a few miles from the marina and the convenience of driving to the marina, hopping in the boat and going is very nice. I could always bring the pontoon home every couple weeks and pressure wash the toons. I would defiantly use the cover all the time.

The Marina also stores the boat all winter. My 24 ft Crownline boat costs me $45 per month all year round. Not sure the cost for the pontoon.

 

[SEMPERFI8387]

Thanks for your comments, I was worried about how well we would keep the boat clean at the marina and how easy it would be to keep the toons clean. I only live a few miles from the marina and the convenience of driving to the marina, hopping in the boat and going is very nice. I could always bring the pontoon home every couple weeks and pressure wash the toons. I would defiantly use the cover all the time.

The Marina also stores the boat all winter. My 24 ft Crownline boat costs me $45 per month all year round. Not sure the cost for the pontoon.

Just do what I do. We anchor off an island on our lake all the time. Every 3-4 weeks, I take a grill scrubbing pad with handle (Brillo pad), and scrub the toons. If you do it often, it only takes 15-20 minutes. If you let it go a couple months, it can take a lot longer, at least with the gunk we get here . Where do you live as your storage/dock prices are really reasonable. Indoor winter storage here runs $500. Summer dock is $640. Pulling in/out from dealer is another $150 each. It adds up, but the cost of the trailer, plus storage for trailer, made our decision easy.

 

[Nap22]

I live in rock falls Illinois. It's about 2 hrs west of Chicago. Our marina is a one man operation and it's basically about 12 pontoon slips with a storage building for all the other boats. Right now with our Crownline we just show up and he puts it in and out of the water for us each time. We are on the rock river and will sometimes trailer over to the Mississippi river. I hope to do some traveling with the pontoon and find some good lakes for a long weekend or summer vacation with the family. I really think we will enjoy the benny over the Crownline and look forward to next year.

This next weekend we should have our benny ordered. Hashing out the final details and we'll be ready.

 

[PDX Hosedragger]

Two words: Cummins Diesel.

400hp, 800 ft/lbs of torque. My 2500 MegaCab (link below) gets 21 mpg on the hwy empty, and 12-13 loaded and towing the boat. Frankly I'm shocked that more guys aren't running diesels. The service life and power alone has made it the clear choice for me. I'm also taking it to www.longbedmytruck.com in Utah to make it a long bed, which will accomodate my camper, as well as making towing smoother due to the longer wheelbase.

 

[ericscher]

Frankly I'm shocked that more guys aren't running diesels.

Because for most people, it takes longer to get the payback from the diesel than they plan to own it.

 

[PDX Hosedragger]

Because for most people, it takes longer to get the payback from the diesel than they plan to own it.

Maybe... But we bought Benningtons. We aren't exactly the type of people looking for payback. My last cummins in 2007 was 48k msrp, I paid 35k. I sold it in 2011 with 80,000 miles for 31k. That's way better return than you could ever expect from any boat. The truck I had before that was a V-8 gas motor, which averaged 13-14 mpg all the time. Sure, gasoline is cheaper, but you almost make up for it with added fuel economy and longevity.

In the end, to each their own. We're all entitled to our opinions, and ultimately, what our wives give us permission to do.

 

[cwag911]

In the end, to each their own. We're all entitled to our opinions, and ultimately, what our wives give us permission to do.

:lol:

 

[Wild and Free]

Because for most people, it takes longer to get the payback from the diesel than they plan to own it.

Sweet ride you have there Hose dragger!

I had 2 Cummins and sold my 02 and bought a 2010 Hemi. I still have an 05 cummins though.

Resale is part of where the pay back comes in, for an example I had a 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 I bought in 03 with 18K miles for $26K. I just sold it this spring with 150K miles on it for $17,500. Had it been a gas engine it would have been worth $10K less or more.

One has to figure cost per mile rather than miles per gallon. If one tows heavy a lot the cost per mile will shine through with a diesel.

Here is my 02 in action when it wasn't pulling my pontoon around.

 

[LT1GMC]

My "02 Tahoe 5.3 with 4.10 axle pulls the 2574GLi ESP great. The proper trailer makes a big difference, I found when shopping for mine that there can be a 6" difference in height from one trailer brand to another. I needed to get my toon inside a garage with an 8 ft high door. Mine fits with several inches to spare. A toon sitting 6" higher than another would be alot more drag behind a Tahoe. I bought disc brakes on the trailer too, with electric reverse lockout. (better than getting the wife out to manual lockout the brakes when backing up).

 

[PDX Hosedragger]

My "02 Tahoe 5.3 with 4.10 axle pulls the 2574GLi ESP great. The proper trailer makes a big difference, I found when shopping for mine that there can be a 6" difference in height from one trailer brand to another. I needed to get my toon inside a garage with an 8 ft high door. Mine fits with several inches to spare. A toon sitting 6" higher than another would be alot more drag behind a Tahoe. I bought disc brakes on the trailer too, with electric reverse lockout. (better than getting the wife out to manual lockout the brakes when backing up).

The 4:10 axle is what made your towing sweet... But you will get around 12% less fuel efficiency all the time with that rear end vs. a standard 3:73.

What brand trailer did you get? Sounds nice. I got a MetalCraft out of Utah. Pretty damn happy with it.

 

[PDX Hosedragger]

Sweet ride you have there Hose dragger!

I had 2 Cummins and sold my 02 and bought a 2010 Hemi. I still have an 05 cummins though.

Resale is part of where the pay back comes in, for an example I had a 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 I bought in 03 with 18K miles for $26K. I just sold it this spring with 150K miles on it for $17,500. Had it been a gas engine it would have been worth $10K less or more.

One has to figure cost per mile rather than miles per gallon. If one tows heavy a lot the cost per mile will shine through with a diesel.

Here is my 02 in action when it wasn't pulling my pontoon around.

Thanks man. It's my 3rd cummins and I can't say anything bad about them. AND they still don't run DEF like the other guys...

Your 02 is sweet too. Reminds me of something I read: "Black smoke don't mean it's broke!" What you got under the hood of that? Is it the HO 5.9?

 

[Wild and Free]

Thanks man. It's my 3rd cummins and I can't say anything bad about them. AND they still don't run DEF like the other guys...

Your 02 is sweet too. Reminds me of something I read: "Black smoke don't mean it's broke!" What you got under the hood of that? Is it the HO 5.9?

Well in 2013 every manufacturer including Cummins will have DEF. Actually anything over a 1 ton has had it for 2 years already. At work we have a 2011 4500 ram with DEF.

My 02 had many mods. It was an SO engine with an automatic tranny which is better than an HO/6speed combo. The pumps on an HO engine are a limiting factor on the 24 valve cummins. I actually what was called a hot rod pump on it which is a combination of parts from both SO and HO pumps. I had 150 HP injectors an Industrial injection silver 62 turbo different intake and exhaust manifolds and the list goes on for a couple more paragraphs. The last Dyno results on a chassis dyno was 560 HP and 989 torque at the rear wheels. The beauty of it was that it still did 18 mpg on highway and 12-13 towing.

Here are a couple links to a couple pics of my 02 and 05. In one pic the 02 is loaded on a trailer behind the 05 ready to head to a power pulling event and the second is my old 2007 Benny 2275 GL tripple tube behind the 05 in its usual filthy condition, Hard to keep em clean when I drive 30 miles of gravel roads to and from work each day.

My link

My link

As you see it the last trip down an 1/8 mile track yielded 7.86 seconds locked in 4wd with very slow reaction time at the light and down a quarter mile track was 14 seconds with an asleep at the wheel reaction time and no boosted launch in 2wd and I broke loose at mid track but i came out the end at 112 mph. in 4wd in the 1/4 mile with a proper boosted launch I should have been able to hit an even 13 second or high 12 second run the way I was set up, Not bad for a rig the weighed in at 7800 lbs with me in the seat.

The nice thing about time and evolution is that I had thousands invested in reaching the power level I was at on my 02 but on the new ones a $500 programmer will get you to 550+hp now days. Of course if you want to use it there are always supporting mods that need to come with it but the fact that they will do it at a small fraction the cost is still awesome.

 

[Wild and Free]

My "02 Tahoe 5.3 with 4.10 axle pulls the 2574GLi ESP great. The proper trailer makes a big difference, I found when shopping for mine that there can be a 6" difference in height from one trailer brand to another. I needed to get my toon inside a garage with an 8 ft high door. Mine fits with several inches to spare. A toon sitting 6" higher than another would be alot more drag behind a Tahoe. I bought disc brakes on the trailer too, with electric reverse lockout. (better than getting the wife out to manual lockout the brakes when backing up).

GM pickups with the 6.0 gasser like the 4:10 ratio the best. I have a couple friends who are hard core GM guys and both have had several pickups with the 6.0 gasser and both said that the 6.0 pulls better and actually gets way better fuel economy daily driving with the 4:10 gears than any other, there in the "Sweet spot" of HP and TQ with 4:10's, I have heard this from several other sources as well. But I can not comment on the 5.3 engine as not too many guys around here like the small engines for the heavy towing most do around here.

 

[Nap22]

So far I have had my Toyota tundra a few weeks and have been averaging 15.5 MPG on my normal driving. Drove my 8,000 lb. Crownline to the dealer yesterday to order my Bennington and averaged 11.2 MPG on the trip. Now we will have to see how it does with the wind resistance on the Bennington. The Bennington is almost half the weight but will have more resistance. Time will tell.

 

[mtudb24]

My last tow vehicle was a beast. Trailblazer SS with the 6.0L LS2., 410 gears and AWD , airbag rear suspension and 450hp after vector engineering mods of pcm tunes, cai, exhaust, etc. Ran a 1/4 mile of 13.2 at 106mph and could tow 6000lbs. But was for shit in the cornfields and off roading I do for hunting. Went to the jeep jk. Shitty motor, but I don't tow far anymore, so it works out well and it's built like a brick shit house for off roading.

Todd

 

[LT1GMC]

The 4:10 axle is what made your towing sweet... But you will get around 12% less fuel efficiency all the time with that rear end vs. a standard 3:73.

What brand trailer did you get? Sounds nice. I got a MetalCraft out of Utah. Pretty damn happy with it.

I bought a Trailmaster by J. Q. Tex, http://trailmastertrailers.com/, built in Elkhart, IN. It is very nicely built and they custom made the middle bunks to extend out the back further to match the longer middle ESP tube. It is also lower to the gorund than most, letting me fit my 2574 into a 8' high door garage.

Actually 10% more rear gear does not correspond to 12% less fuel economy, don't forget you have a .70 overdrive transmission which reduces the rpm change to 7%. Especially in town driving the engine does not need as much throttle to accellerate, and on the road it depends on throttle opening versus load.

Also tire size plays into it. I bought 32.6" diameter tires which make the rear gear ratio close to 3.85 compared to the 4.10 and standard tires.