Anybody pull their boat with a minvan?

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acwd

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Location
Albion, IL
We just got a mini van about two months ago with the thought of using it for camping and such. Going to put a hitch on it and pull the boat when we go camping. Just worried about pulling the boat out of the water at the boat ramp being a front wheel drive and wet. Anybody have a setup like that? How does it do? Its a 97 Dodge grand caravan with a 3.8. Should do better than 10 mpg, thats what the truck gets!

Steve
 
I use a 2005 tdi beetle to pull my riverboat. I have only had trouble twice, and both times I shouldnt have been there. dirt ramps.
 
I use a rav4 which is front wheel drive only, works a-ok on my boat. Consider that the front wheels are not in the water like the back wheels often are. The 3.8 engine is plenty big for tinboats.
Tim
 
My dad used to use a dodge caravan to pull his bass boat with a 125 Mercury. Never had any problems. I can't imagine you having an issue pulling a jon boat.
 
Dont have a hitch on the minivan or a trailer for the boat. I put it on the roof. Saving for a pickup truck... toyota tacoma. Then will look into a trailer
 
The boat is a 16 ft semi V which I am going to start working on soon. Putting a floor and a deck up front. Jigngrub that what I am worried about. Some of the lakes I go to have pretty steep ramps. I even thought about making up a hitch to put on the front just for loading and unloading the boat. The trailer I got is a tilt trailer so I might be able to use that feature, I dont know. Thanks for the replies

Steve
 
I've pulled similar boats to yours with the following vehicles, and had NO PROBLEMS with any of them:

A Honda Civic
A Toyota Sienna
A Nissan Altima
A Jeep Cherokee
A Jeep Comanche
A Ford Taurus
A Subaru Forrester

Of all of those, the Taurus Station Wagon towed the best. It had a long wheel base and a pretty powerful V6. The Honda Civic is the smallest with the least power, and it does fine for local towing.

Just look at the ramp first ... if its slippery, steep, loose, then be really careful.

As a safety precaution, I always have a 30' tow strap in my boat. That way I can detach the trailer, walk it down the ramp into the water, load up the boat, hook the tow strap to the trailer tongue and then to the hitch and pull the trailer up out of the water while the car is up on safe, level ground. It might look really redneck, but it would work just fine and might turn a horrible day into only 10 minutes of embarrassment.
 
we had the same van,pulled a 15' glass runabout and 1500 lbs. of people and gearfrom b.c. to cali and back,also across the rockies,no problems.
 
I do :mrgreen:

IMAG0281.jpg
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Never thought about a tow rope will buy one just in case. The state lakes that I most fish at have concrete ramps. I am wanting to go to some lakes farther from home this year. We usually go camping with some good friends and we like to try out different lakes and parks. I want to go Giant City state park and fish Little Grassy and Devils Kitchen lakes here in southern IL. They are about two hours from here. Backpain nice rig ya got there!

Steve
 
My old boss pulled his 23' wellcraft cuddy cabin with a 1994 twowheel drive astro van with a 4.3 v6. He would use the 200hp outboard to help until the van started moving up the ramp good. You should be fine
 
Thanks Steve! I have towed my boat back and forth across PA three times a year roughly for the past two years and haven't had a problem. That is with a van full of people and a roof rack loaded lol. I even use it to launch/retrieve the boat at a gravel ramp here at a local lake. The front wheel drive is actually good for pulling up the ramps because I often have the rear tires in the lake to get the boat on the trailer because the lake is electric only. The front wheels stay on the drier ramp. I say local lake... but living in Philly I travel an hour to to two hours to fish usually.

I would read your owners manual and follow the recommendations for towing. On my van I installed heavy duty load sensing shocks in the back and would invest in a transmission cooler. When in the mountains I drop to 3 and keep it around 60mph to keep the trans from doing too much back and forth shifting.
 
2007 Toyota Sienna van pulls my 16W Lowe with 40 hp Johnson just fine. Pretty big, heavy boat for a tinny. See my avatar.

Haven't had any slipping problems on my ramps yet.

Tow rope/strap is a good idea. I think I will pick up one for my rig, too.

R
 
I use a little Suzuki SX4 to pull my tin...

167473_10150374158935634_520410633_16901282_2779230_n.jpg


Weight for boat, motor & trailer is under 1000lbs--so its only a class I hitch and stuff... Tows it just fine. Although the car is small... it is also AWD, so I don't worry about launching at all
 
I did some reading in the owners manual right after we got the van. It said that 3.8 was offered as a tow package only but the van has no hitch or trailer plug. It does have a external oil cooler I seen that when I fixed one of the lines with a small leak. But I am going to call the local Dodge dealership to confirm this. Going to go with a class 2 hitch because thats what all of the other trucks have on them here on the farm. The manual also listed the tow weight I believe it was between 2500 and 3000 lbs so I am going to be under that with all of the camping gear and the boat. Just got to get the receiver hitch and trailer wiring kit.

Steve
 

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