Tow Vehicle

[Bob C]

13 hours ago, Further North said:

Bob?

Any time you'd like to come see it, you are welcome to.  Ice comes off the water sometime between March and May, freezes back up around Thanksgiving.

To be polite, you are wrong.

You can pull a big boat with a golf cart. Not safely. An Escape is way too small to control a boat in an emergency situation.

[VolFan]

Depending on your budget, I'd be looking for an early to mid 2000s Jeep Grand Cherokee or 4Runner with a V8 or be getting a full size 4WD truck with same. 

[Logan S]

Pick-ups are the better all around choice for towing in my experience.  In addition to all the mechanical reasons which have been covered already, the convenience factor of having the bed and tailgate for launching/loading is really nice.  A full size pickup is typically a good bit longer than an SUV too, which is also a benefit.  If you don't put a cap or huge toolbox in/on the bed, you also have a better field of view in a pick-up.  I've used both, IMO the only advantage an SUV has is the ability to store more stuff inside...But a 4-door pick-up comes pretty close to that.  

You can tow with almost anything, I've seen a Crown Vic and a Mustang towing and launching bass boats at ramps on the Potomac before...They seemed to work well enough for their owners, but that doesn't mean it's a smart choice .  

[flyfisher]

2 hours ago, Way2slow said:

Not all college students have to work their butts off to pay their own way through college like I did, and I still managed to keep a boat but I lived with an aunt who didn't charge me anything to stay there and gave me a place to keep it, so that helped.  You have to remember, not everybody is po folks and have things a little easier that a lot of us coming up.  I think some universities even offer bass fishing scholarships now.

Yeah i know what you mean there, maybe i am just jealous but at the same time, I had my share of fun in college too while working full time job and full time classes   I was lucky in that i was into fly fishing and climbing so my only expenses were gas money to get me to and from the streams and the crags lol

[Further North]

10 hours ago, Bob C said:

You can pull a big boat with a golf cart. Not safely. An Escape is way too small to control a boat in an emergency situation.

Not true.

If what what you mean "In your opinion..." that's an entirely different statement...but I can tell you for a rock solid fact that the 2014 Escape can pull a 3,000 lb boat with no problems...as long as the driver isn't stupid about it.

Again, you are welcome to come over anytime there's open water and give it a try.

I've been towing trailers since the 1970s and the newer Ford Escapes with the factory tow package tow a boat the size of the one I have as well as any other vehicle I have used.

 

[tomustang]

Fords with IRS, never again am I towing with them. They can't handle the long haul, and they never will change that, their game is for you to spend more and upgrade to a pickup. Keep thinking everything is fine but when you start hearing the bearings whirl you better trade up to a solid axle. 

[tomustang]

1 hour ago, Further North said:

Not true.

If what what you mean "In your opinion..." that's an entirely different statement...but I can tell you for a rock solid fact that the 2014 Escape can pull a 3,000 lb boat with no problems...as long as the driver isn't stupid about it.

Again, you are welcome to come over anytime there's open water and give it a try.

I've been towing trailers since the 1970s and the newer Ford Escapes with the factory tow package tow a boat the size of the one I have as well as any other vehicle I have used.

 

It's not just the driver. You have to contend with the idiots out on the road. Once you run into some guy pulling out on you and realize he's lunch meat since you can't stop well enough, that's his own action. 

 

I've had tribues and explorers, and well full size just handles towing much better and safer.

[Further North]

1 hour ago, tomustang said:

It's not just the driver. You have to contend with the idiots out on the road. Once you run into some guy pulling out on you and realize he's lunch meat since you can't stop well enough, that's his own action. 

 

I've had tribues and explorers, and well full size just handles towing much better and safer.

You're not wrong at all...but I've had that happen...and have been more than able to control the vehicle and trailer.

I've also had full size (up to and including Chevy Suburbans) and I've pulled up up to 30' campers...and I still think a modern vehicle like an Escape works just fine.  I'm not trying to pull a 22 ft. glass bass boat with a 300 HP motor on a monster of a twin axle trailer...

There's plenty of HP and torque, low enough on the power band to be useful, great brakes (with less overall weight to deal with, built in anti-sway...it simply gets the job done and done well...and get the added benefits of a more efficient, less expensive vehicle every day.

Please note that I've not criticized anyone's choice to go to a half ton...that's what they should do if they want...but the uninformed criticism of some of the smaller vehicles - especially the newer ones - is both unfounded and incorrect.

[Tim Kelly]

A friend of mine tows an RT188 with an Escape perfectly well. He does have trailer brakes, which he says are a nice upgrade over his previous Triton boat which didn't have brakes, but he's pulled them both for years a long way with no problems. The previous escape, and the Mazda Tribute before that lasted for over 200K before retirement.

[Way2slow]

I look at towing a 3,200 pound boat with a 3,200 pound vehicle like driving a 4WD vehicle.  Having those extra two pulling wheels don't mean a thing 99.9% of the time while you are running up and down the highway.  However, that couple of times you do need them, they are worth their weight in gold.

Same with towing, that light vehicle with as much weight behind it as it weighs may be running up a down the road just fine for you, but that one time when roads are wet and you have to stop quicker than planned on and that weight behind it is pushing it like a toy vehicle, the extra weight and stability of a larger vehicle can mean the difference of just having to change your underwear and getting hauled off in an ambulance, maybe in one of those plastic bags. 

I've had the experience of trying to stop a 86 Toyota 4WD pickup with a 2,700 pound boat behind it on a wet road when someone ran a red light.  The brakes were almost useless because it would start sliding and jack knifing, causing you to have no steering so you had to keep modulating the pedal, and I'm talking about pretty darn quick.  Because I didn't panic and just lock up the brakes, by the grace of god, I was able to maintain enough control to miss them by inches because there dang sure wasn't no stopping it.  Seeing a little girls face looking at me on the back seat of that car while I was headed straight for her door is still as fresh as the day it happened.  That was the last time I used that truck for towing anything of much size. 

[Further North]

Coupla things:

A '14 Escape doesn't weigh 3,200 lbs., it's over 3,700 with the tow package (more than 15% more, for the math heads like me)

You don't have to modulate the brakes because they have anti-lock brakes...so stomp the pedal and steer as needed.

...also, run the math on total swept area of brake to total pounds in motion with truck and trailer...

The new Esacapes with factory tow packages have the same built in anti-sway that the big Fords do...it utilizes the the anti-lock brakes, the traction control and the AWD to bring sway under control, PDQ...I tested it with a trailer before I bought the vehicle.

I'm going to go back to the basic assumption that anyone who is saying it does not work well hasn't tried it.  Well over 2,000 miles towing, just last year, on the longer trips I took...

I'm not going to convince the die-hards, and I honestly don't want to...and they should use what they like anyway...but I know for a rock solid fact the Escape works just fine, and perhaps some others won't get wrapped up in the false paradigm that they have to have a truck that costs $50K new to pull a fairly light boat and trailer.  Do the math, run the numbers, study the specifications and ratings...then make the best decision for what you want to do.  Technology changes things, and this is one of the things that's changed...

A couple more thoughts: How many huge campers do we see out there that outweigh the trucks pulling them...and if we go back a few years, before lighter weight campers...how many more were there?  I've pulled them myself, never had a problem...and yes, plenty of idiots pulled out in front of me.

...How many semis pull trailers that are many, many times heavier than the truck?  If the vehicle is designed for it (and that's what the tow rating is for) it works just fine.

[Way2slow]

Do you throw a blanket over it, give it a hug and a kiss, and tuck it in every night?

[Further North]

No, but I stick my finger in the eyes of folks who are trying to be jerks on a regular basis, just for fun.

[Fishing Rhino]

4 minutes ago, Further North said:

No, but I stick my finger in the eyes of folks who are trying to be jerks on a regular basis, just for fun.

[Way2slow]

Look, just joking with you because you do seem to luv that vehicle.  Ford should hire you as a spokes person.  You are the only one that has to be happy with it.  When I was about 17, I had bought me a new 14' GlassMaster ski boat with a 65 Merc on it and lot of times I used a VW Karmann Ghia to  haul it to the lake, but that was only about five miles of fairly level road to the ramp. The ramp played havoc on the clutch but it worked.

Now, I use a 4WD Chevy 2500HD that weighs approx. 6,200 pounds to tow my bass boat.  Like I said, I got a lot of years and a lot of miles, and experience has been my teacher.   Also, don't get into the new cars HP and Torque from the small engines.  I've been building, racing and hot rodding cars and boats probably long before you were born, so I know more than just a little bit about engines.   

[Further North]

2 hours ago, Way2slow said:

Look, just joking with you because you do seem to luv that vehicle.

I got that, it's why I stuck the emoticon thingy at the end of my post.  Sorry if that wasn't clear....my fault.

I don't love vehicles...they are just tools...unless they are for going fast on a twisty road...that's a whole 'nother story.

I got out of racing-tuning-building sports cars back in the early 80s when I figured it was going to get in the way of other things that were more important to me (fishing, hunting, raising a family)...but I still cling to enough of the tech that it makes it pretty quick to get back up to speed when I need a new truck...not sure when you were at it, but that's my background.

We towed boats and campers all over to hunt and fish, and was hauling race trailers for a while too...and then work trailers a bit later for a side business.

You've got a great rig there - I'm certain I'd love it and I'd have one like it if I needed it...but I don't for what I'm doing.

[Way2slow]

Actually, it's not when I got out of it.  I started about 1960 racing a go cart with twin Mac-8 chainsaw engines  and progressed from there into drag racing and circle track and been going at it ever since.   I actually have a 3.2 Evinrude eTec showing up Wed, from a friend in Cal so I can build him 450hp outboard for his 20' Stoker boat. Even though Al Stoker has already told him it was not designed or built to handle that much power.  I took his 200hp 3.0 Johnson and built him a 330hp motor about seven years ago that pushes it 105mph. Now he's ordered a Dave Busch piston and sleeve kit for me to build him a monster motor. 

I guess I will have to install it on my Javelin to break it in and get it tuned.  I figure that's going to make about a 100mph Renegade 20 bass boat when it's peaked out.  That should be fun.

[Further North]

That sounds really cool...I hope you post info on those.

There was a guy on one of the old SxS shotgun boards I used to frequent who'd post step-by-step restorations...really interesting to read.

[Ray K]

On 1/20/2016 at 8:06 AM, Bob C said:

My wife has a 2016 Escape. There's no way I would attempt to pull a boat with it. That's a good way to end up on your roof. 18.9 mpg pulling a boat? Not buying that either.

Well, you might want to start buying that a Ford Escape will tow an 18 ft. boat and get 19 MPG.  I also have a 2014 Escape Titanium with the 2.0 Turbo EcoBoost motor.  It has the factory tow package that is rated by Ford at 3500 pounds.  I have a 180 Sea Ray Fish 'n Ski that has a towed weight (verified at a truck scale) of about 3100 lbs with a full tank of fuel and gear.  I've been towing that rig all over the State of Florida for almost 2 years without an issue of any kind.  We just returned from a trip to South Florida from Orlando of about 200 miles each way and we averaged almost exactly the same as Further North gets, actually a few 10ths better for the round trip.  I drive about 65 MPH on the interstates.

The Escape weighs about 3900 lbs and my Escape tows my rig effortlessly.  Braking is very satisfactory.  You know you have something back there but, it feels very controllable and power is very adequate.  It has almost 46,000 on the clock and no problems yet.  I'll get off my soap box now.

[gim]

I have a 2008 Escape (V6) that I use to tow my Ranger RT178 and it works fine but I have to admit that it would be nice to have a bigger vehicle to do it.  The Escape seems to "labor" too much because its a smaller SUV.  I would be hesitant to tow anything weighing more than about 2500 pounds with it.  I hope to trade the Escape in for an Expedition or F-150 within the next year and a half.

[SHIMANOFAN]

I had a 1999 Dodge Durango 4X4 with the 318 I used to tow my 22' cabin boat wit never a problem even towing from Central Florida to Key West at Interstate speeds. It's is basically a half ton truck but you have massive storage capacity with the seats down.

[Ray K]

21 hours ago, gimruis said:

I have a 2008 Escape (V6) that I use to tow my Ranger RT178 and it works fine but I have to admit that it would be nice to have a bigger vehicle to do it.  The Escape seems to "labor" too much because its a smaller SUV.  I would be hesitant to tow anything weighing more than about 2500 pounds with it.  I hope to trade the Escape in for an Expedition or F-150 within the next year and a half.

There is quite a difference between the normally aspirated 2008 Escape and the Turbo charged EcoBoost models.  They weigh about 400 lbs more and have about 50 more HP.  They also offer all wheel drive now.  FYI

[sarcazmo]

I have a diesel to tow my 18ft aluminum boat... Glass boat plans fell through due to other investments taking priority :-(

That being said... My buddy has a ford 7.3 that was made by IDI before they became powerstrokes. Sick motor, plenty of power, easy to work on, more than capable of towing, and can usually be had pretty cheap.

[Bob C]

On ‎5‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 1:08 AM, Ray K said:

Well, you might want to start buying that a Ford Escape will tow an 18 ft. boat and get 19 MPG.  I also have a 2014 Escape Titanium with the 2.0 Turbo EcoBoost motor.  It has the factory tow package that is rated by Ford at 3500 pounds.  I have a 180 Sea Ray Fish 'n Ski that has a towed weight (verified at a truck scale) of about 3100 lbs with a full tank of fuel and gear.  I've been towing that rig all over the State of Florida for almost 2 years without an issue of any kind.  We just returned from a trip to South Florida from Orlando of about 200 miles each way and we averaged almost exactly the same as Further North gets, actually a few 10ths better for the round trip.  I drive about 65 MPH on the interstates.

The Escape weighs about 3900 lbs and my Escape tows my rig effortlessly.  Braking is very satisfactory.  You know you have something back there but, it feels very controllable and power is very adequate.  It has almost 46,000 on the clock and no problems yet.  I'll get off my soap box now.

Mine is also a turbo. Power isn't the problem. It's controlling it when pulling a boat and you are forced to make an evasive maneuver that will get you in trouble. Good luck.