I've made a couple 6 hour round trips this year hauling my 16' jon boat with my 05 2.3l 2wd Ranger that just hit 65000 miles. It seemed to pull it fine, a little slow going up hills, but I left it in 4th gear most of the time and it did fine. Normally I get around 27-28 mpgs driving and was getting 21 mpg towing the boat so I'm plenty happy with it.

Anyways I was curious if there was anything simple and quick that would increase my horsepower to help towing just a little. Also should I be worried about my transmission or brakes when pulling the boat? I was told to worry about being able to brake when towing my boat, but haven't had any troubles yet and plus I take my time anyways.

Once I pay this truck off, I'll get something bigger for pulling my boat, but for now I'd like to be keep using my truck unless you guys tell me that I shouldn't due to tearing up the tranny or something.

Let me know and thanks ahead of time.
Seth

 

Do you have a auto or manual? If you have a auto I would check and make sure you have a tranny cooler, which you might from the factory. Theres not many performance options out there for the 2.3. You could do intake and exhaust to let it flow a little better but you won't notice much from those. And your brakes will just wear faster but you wont be harming anything other than that.

 

if you're auto get a tranny cooler if you don't already have one

 

It's a standard. My buddy is a mechanic and told me to get a tranny cooler installed, but I couldn't find one for a manual transmission. Does a manual not need one or what? Sorry for my ignorance, but I'm by no means automotive literate. If I have trouble, I usually just bug my mechanic buddy.

 

They don't make tranny coolers for manual transmissions lol. Are you sure he's a mechanic?

 

Well I don't remember telling him it was a manual so he probably assumed it was an automatic. Who knows. My other buddy who is a better mechanic and knows a lot more about vehicles wasn't around to ask so the other one just threw in his 2 cents because he likes to pretend he knows everything about everything lol.

Thanks for the information fellas.

 

Oh yeah that would make sense then. I was about to say lol