Whats the biggest enclosed trailer you think i could pull with a b4000 4x4? its got the towing package

 

It's all depends. Check out your owner's manual, or even the mazda/ford website for your load. Also depends on the hitch in which you have. Plus it depends on the weight of the trailer your trying to pull.....I think max trailer weight of a 4.0L w/ automatic, 4x4, excab, is around 5500 pounds. I think. I lost my manual and brochure, so I honestly have no exact answer.

If I were you....pull one of those 10 or 12 ft enclosed trailers. Find out the weight of the trailer, and be careful of the amount of stuff you put in there. You DO NOT want to exceed the maximum of the truck......you may not be able to stop. To be safe, if the max trailer wt is 5500 lbs, Don't go over 4500....because the trailer may weight more than the truck and you'll have some fun stopping.

 

trailer... brakes...

 

I towed a 16ft enclosed toy box trailer (full kitchen bath ect) Full of water gear and my bikes I figured it weighed in at ~4500-5000lbs. I was able to tow it with little problem, yea the truck didn't like it and I couldn't have the AC on, but it did it none the less. Have fun.

 

ive pulled my mustang a few times with a tow dolly and acceleration sucks have fun

 

These trucks don't like wind resistance, I towed a covered snowmobile trailer with mine once and I got about 6 mpg and I never got it into 5th gear. I tried once and I had to floor it to keep up to fifty, so here I was driving at 3500 rpm's down the freeway it sucked. The same trailer without the top on, I got 17 MPG with no problem and could even go into 5th gear. I once towed my '75 cadillac on a car trailer (6000# + 1000# car trailer ) It wasn't a good idea but I had no real choice. It did the job surprisingly well, but I would never do it again. If you are going to be towing an enclosed trailer Regularly, I would suggest you get a full size. I have a '75 Glaston trihull boat and that is about the heaviest thing that I am comfortable towing for a great distance. Just my 2 cents



~HJ

 

ive pulled up to 6893 lbs including the trailer with 33s. pulled it fine. did it a few times but i wouldnt recomemnd it. My tranny has disagreed with that decision.

I RECOMMEND TRAILER BRAKES!

i prolly have around 15,000-20,000 miles in pulling a trailer.

i wouldnt recommend pullling any trailer and using OD, just turn it off.

it wont hurt one thing running at 3200 rpms (except the gas milage a little)

here is usually what i pull. its somewhere in the neighborhood of 4500lbs.

 

It is surpirsing what these trucks can pull...with my 03 EXT cab edge 2 wheel drive with the 3.0L...I can pull our 16 ft cattle trailer, with a 1000 pound heifer and a 950 pound steer with really no problem of stopping or anything u just have to be careful and know what u are doin...The trailer weighs about 4500 pounds I think...then u add the other...so my dad and I figured out total it was about 5500-6000 pounds...floor-borded goin 70 against the wind and 75 with the wind...and I ran the AC and everything normal...just turn the OD off...I also pulled a 16 foot flat bottom fiberglasses boat about 2 hours away...to Chrpus Christi and back with no problem and I avereged 10-12mpg...i was very pleased...Like I said these trucks can pull alot, u just have to know what u are doin and what u feel comfortable with ...and how much stress u wanna put ur truck through....thats it...if u dont have much experience pullin stuff dont do anything to heavy....

 

I found a couple pics of what i was towin...with out the heifer and steer....

 

weight is not going to be your problem the aero on that trailer will kill you if your doing interstate driveing. Here at school we have a 21' enclosed and i'll pull it anywhere under 50mph without any problems. After that its all down hill the faster you go the harder it is the harder your motor has to work. i know i only have a 3.0 and you have a 4.0 but i've pulled one of these around a few times with it without any problems

 

 

sorry i had to re-size them

 

A related question to this thread.

Can I pull a trailer that has an 8-prong trailer plug with my 4-prong factory Ford one, is there some sort of adapter or does that mean the trailer is WAAAAY too big and I shouldn't bother?

 

no...u can pull the trailer...just some people like the bigger plugs...thats all my dad had from out 12 ft trailer to our 40 ft goose neck trailer...so...and no i do not know of an adapter that can go from big to small there is one if u have the 8 prong on ur truck and the 4 on the trailer...u can go to napa or one of those places and buy a 8 prong and a 4 prong on the same deal and it just plugs into ur four on ur truck or u can hard wire it...but the answer is no to the plug but yes to te trailer...if it is light enough

 

I have never seen and adapter like that, but I made one for my truck so I could move are horse trailer and at least have trailer lights. the brakes don't work obviously. Just go to any trailer store and tell them what you are trying to do and they will help you out!

~HJ

 

they make all kinds of adapters

i just bought this and wired in trailer brakes with a brake controller.
http://www.etrailer.com/Merchant2/me...ategory_Code=A


here is a link to more adapters
http://www.etrailer.com/Merchant2/me...ategory_Code=A

 

check this site too

http://www.trailerwiring.com/

 

My father used to have that exact same boat, down to the color.. although I think his was a '76.. and we had a Johnson 50-horse on it. I towed that thing all over Northern New England (including through the White Mountians) behind my '99 XL Sport (w/ the 2.5L I4) w/o problem. Sure, it didin't accelerate like a sports car, but then that truck never did. My biggest problem was getting traction on wet boat ramps.

He's since upgraded to a bigger mid 90's V-hull I/O drive that has to weigh easily 50-70% more. My new 4.0L V6 truck pulls it easily. .. FWIW, he has towed both boats w/ his '01 Subaru Outback 2.5L H4 w/ an auto trans.

 

It's not so much the weight as it is the airflow. I have 4.0 and a 5sp, and my old truck was a 4.0 and an auto and my truck stuggles to keep up with traffic with that thing. I usually if I am going to a lake more than an hour away tow it with my parents expedition. You don't even know you are towing that with the expedition. I have a 85 horse Merc on there that runs like a top. I completly redid the interior includin replacing the floor and the wooden stringers. way more work than I would ever do again for a boat like that. That is an old pic. I redid the exterior and had it repainted. I also bought a new trailer cause that trailer sucked!.

~HJ

 

Like most said, it's the wind resistance that will kill you. I can pull my boat (4000lbs) much easier than I can my loaded 6x12 flatbed (4000lbs) becase the flatbed sticks out the side of the truck by more than a foot on each side, and over the top with the load.

As far as adaptors, yes they make them, but you'd really be better off getting the dual plug (both 7 pin, and 4 pin), and wiring it into your truck so you can hook up a trailer brake controller. You really should have that if your pulling more than 2000 pounds. Their is a really big difference between stopping distances if I forget to turn my trailer brakes on.

Don

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We did this as well... and I agree, more work than it was probably worth. My father is a bit excentric and avoids power-tools whenever he can. We screwed the plywood decking down by hand. I will always remember the pain my hands felt that weekend! Although it was fun.. gave us something to do for a couple weekends.

Why'd you paint it though? That 70's orange is the shiznitz!

The tri-hull really sucked on the ocean and on the larger lakes around here though. It just spanked too much on the waves. It was a back-breaker on the open bay up on a plane. But the boat was so small the thing tossed and turned too much in larger waves. The V-hull rides like a frickin' dream in comparison. And w/ the I/O drive it absoloutely hauls ***!

 

You got to be really careful doing that, The bottom of the boat is really close to the floor. I was cutting of the old plywood with a air tool and I was going really slow and careful and I still ended up putting two small slits in the bottom of the boat! I thought I wrecked it. I repaired it with some fiberglass and it is as good as new. I bought the boat for $2000 and it just had one soft spot in the middle of the floor. I wanted to fix it before it got too big. Once I ripped up the carpet I couldn't even walk in it, the carpet was holding the wood together. I ripped up the floor and discovered that the stingers were rotten too, so I replaced them, Not easy to get a straight 2x4 to follow the curve of a boat! Then when all was said and done my quick little project cost me another $2000 in interior stuff. (granted I went all out on the interior)

It is still orange and off white. It looked nice when I bought it, but after I had the interior done I was sick of looking at the cracks so I sanded them all out and fribergalssed tham and repainted it, I Painted it like a car, because it would have cost way too much to re gel coat it. I have about $1000 into the paint and body work.


Original purchase price for the boat: $2000
Interior redue $2000
exterior redue $1000
new trailer +$1500
grand total of: $6500

Lesson learned:

Never again will I buy a used boat! for few thousand more I could have a similar new Galstron with a warranty.

Although I am more attached to this boat for those reasons, I even had someone make me custom decals that say "That 70's Boat"

~HJ

 

We got our Glastron for $1200, including boat, motor and trailer. The thing was in rough shape when we got it.. the electronics were all shot (well, what little electronics a boat that size has: the marker lights and horn). There was a hole in the hull near the bow, it had obviously been run aground. The decking was, as you say, held together by the carpet. The steering was shot, but repairable. The most valuable parts were the motor (recently rebuilt) and the trailer..

We spent three solid weekend just getting it to float/run. Patched, sanded and gel-coated the hole in the bow, repaired the steering and electrical 'system', got the motor tuned, and got a new peice of glass for the center portion of the windsheild. Sunday afternoon on the 3rd weekend we decided she'd probably float and took her for a spin.. then nearly sank her because we fergottabout the plug in the transom!

The following summer we tackled the decking. At first it was just to replace the carpet.. then we found out how bad the decking really was. Up that came. The ants had gotten to just about everything that was at one point organic down there.. so up everything came. I think the stringers were actually (miraculously!) okay. We laid tubing for bilge drainage and filled the hull w/ that expandable, spray in foam. We used like 3-4 cans of the stuff. In the morning after it had cured we found we used way too much, the mound of solid foam was up to the gunwales! After we shaved out the extra, we laid down new decking and sheet-rocked to the stringers. Our boat had plenty of room down there. I think we used 3/4" screws on the endges up to 1 1/2" in the middle. By the time we got done w/ it that puppy was never gonna sink. We basically turned it into a 'Whaler! We threw down new indoor/outdoor carpet and some new seats. We chose white seats instead of the orange as we couldn't stomach them anymore.

The boat definitely gave us our money's worth though. Most of the investment we put into it was actually our own labor.. which is relatively cheap. The money we saved repairing these things we later turned around and spent on things like a new prop (when my father located an unmarked rock at low tide in Portsmouth harbor at full speed) or yet another engine rebuild (when I ran it through 300 yards of mud at low-tide in Great Bay because I didn't pay attention to the channel markers).

Mmm, owning a boat, nothing but pure fun!

That said, buying new was never an option. I think his new V-hull I/O drive still set him back like $9k or something. Pretty steep for a toy you can only use 4-6 months a year.