I am trying to determine the total weight of my boat on trailer (for tow capacity purposes). I know the weight of the boat from the mfg, but I have no info on the weight of the trailer (Prestige, who is now out of business). Any thoughts on what a steel, tandem axle 27' boat trailer might weigh?

Doh, found my answer on the interweb: I have a Prestige tandem axle trailer for a 27 foot Formula. The torsion axles are rated at 7000 lbs a piece. The empty trailer weighs in at 1800 lbs without any extra's like spare tire and mount or tool box.

Sounds very similar to my trailer, so I assume the weight would also be similar. I will simply use 2K lbs for my two capacity calcs.

Next question: Regal lists the dry weight as 5,800 lbs, which I assume is with the base engine (5.7 small block). Given that my boat has a VP 8.1, what would be a reasonable estimate of my "wet" weight?

Your gas tank will probably be the largest variable. Multiply the gallons of gas by 6.2 lbs/gal for the weight. Any water/holding tanks should be accounted for at about 8 lbs/gal.

On our Trojan, we have about 1,500 lbs of gas in the forward tanks. The rear tanks are not currently in use.

Add a couple hundred pounds for the Big Block, vs small block.
add a few hundred pounds for the "stuff" the admiral has put in the boat such as linens and cookware.
use the liquid weights WayWeGo mentions.
Then in the spring, take the boat to a scale and compare it to what you've calculated. I'd guess you're about 9500 pounds on trailer.

Looking to buy a new truck?

Santa bringing you a new truck??

Yup.

Considering the 2018 Ford Expedition, which can tow 9,300 lbs with the HD tow package. My initial rough estimate of my boat + trailer was 9,500 lbs, so trying to sharpen the pencil a bit.


With some planning, I can minimize the amount of fuel on board (85 gallon tank), and I can easily drain the fresh and dirty water tanks.

Trailer: 2,000 lbs.
Dry Boat: 6,200 lbs (with big block and options)
Fuel: 30 gallons x 6 lbs = 180 lbs.
Misc Junk: 200 lbs.

Seems like this would round to 9,000 lbs.

Would I be crazy to tow with with an Expedition? The trailer has 4 wheel disc brakes with surge actuator.


WWG - Your fuel weight alone puts me over my tow capacity.

My Half Ton has a tow rating of 6500 lbs. I had done a few engine mods to increase the power of the 350, put a high volume transmission pan with cooling fins on, and added a transmission oil cooler to try to keep the tranny cooler.
I put the boat across the scale when new, full of fuel and came in at 5700 lbs wet. figure when we add all the skis, food, and extranious stuff I tow in at about 6100 lbs.
Hard to believe it was 13.5 years ago, but towing said boat with said truck blew the tranny towing to Lake Powell early in the morning in April, so it wasn't too hot yet.
You're at a lower elevation, and your hills aren't as long or steep as ours, so towing at capacity may be okay, but I'm a firm believer of weighing the boat as you typically tow it and staying way under capacity here.
Plus I'm a Chevy guy, so would vote against the expedition.

Don't forget about exceeding the vehicles Gross Combined Vehicle Weight. It's GCVW is maxed out at 15,200 lbs, and it's curb weight is 5443 lbs. So, your total loaded boat/trailer of 9,000lbs plus the curb weight is 14,443 lbs. That only leaves about 750 lbs for fuel and people and gear in the Expedition. Are you looking to bring along less than 5 150lb people?

Yes, with me being Santa.

Actually just looking over the winter. Might buy in Summer/Fall of 2018. I have read that the 2019 Expy comes out in March, so there could be the possibility of getting a deeper discount on a 2018 in the summer.

Good point, Bob.

To me it would depend how far & what type of towing you are looking at. If you are not going very far i wouldn't worry much. If you are planning long distance tows thru the mountains that would be a different story. My son just bought a new f150 with the 3.5 ecoboost engine & 10 speed transmission & it is very impressive.

I don't plan on towing often, for long distances, or through mountains. It would be nice to drop in Lake Michigan on occasion (~45 miles ) or Green Bay / Door County (~250 miles). The longest or most challenging tow would be a trip to the Ozarks (~600 miles).

Big block + 30 gallons of fuel ====> does not compute!!!

We used to get about 3mpg and had a 80 gallon tank. There were some times when we put in over 65 gallons at the end of the day, especially if water sports were involved.

+ 2 to what Bob said about combined weight. Link below is to an old post of when I weighed my boat. First deleted picture is of boat and trailer only with scale reading next. I was surprised by how much more the boat and trailer weighed than what the manufacturer said it would. It adds up fast. Good luck with your new tow vehicle.

http://www.boatingabc.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/356945/weighed-my-boat.html#Post356945

Seems like getting boat & trailer weighed would be a good plan before dropping big bucks on a new tow vehicle. Very familiar with the roads going to lake of the ozarks and there are some pretty good grades.

I can't speak for the Expedition, but I can tell you the newer F150s tow great. 24', 5.7 with an aluminum trailer. I can tell it's back there, but not by much.

As to the truck - start looking in the door jambs at the GCVW. On the pickups, you run out of GCVW and space for the tongue weight before you run out of towing capacity. The more options, the smaller your GCVW is, as the vehicle weight is higher. The more options you ad, the higher it goes. Stripped down F150s have a roughly 2200lb payload capacity, mine is just under 1600lbs. Once you get into the Limited/Platinum series trucks - 1200lbs is very common.

Out of curiosity, I checked the owner's manual to my son's 2017 Honda Pilot yesterday. The information format was very interesting. There were three columns. The rows in the left column were for the passenger load, each row indicating 1 through 8, the number of passengers (150 pounds each with 15 pounds of luggage). One of the other rows was for the two-wheel drive model, the other for AWD. This table basically eliminated owner calculations based on GVWR. The towable weight was reduced for each additional passenger. It was amazing how fast the number dropped off. They had a similar chart for tongue weight.

some factory figures are a bit dumb... Like our old 27' Winnebago, that towed our near 8000# Sun Runner with relative ease---



--once I crunched the GVWR numbers on the plate by the drivers seat, and after adding us and our stuff, gas and water, I came up with about 75 pounds left over for towing weight.
Sheesh, the trailer's tires weigh more than that!

The Winne had factory suspension air bags all around, and a 3500# hitch that we towed the Sea Ray with, no problem. I have no idea who came up with those weight numbers, but they were pretty bogus. --and that little hitch got replaced by TWO class 3 hitches welded together end to end and bolted to both the main chassis frame rails and the extension frame rails, to pull the Sun Runner. With 80psi in the rear bags the tongue weight barely lowered the back of the Winne...

I did similar calculations when we upgraded to our current Regal 2400. I was within the limits of capacity for our F-150 however not by much, verified weights at a CAT scale. Even though the towed weight was below the trucks capacity I definitely knew the boat was behind me and made traveling very tiresome. We now tow with a 3/4 ton diesel truck and I hardly realize the boat is there and arrive at my destination much more refreshed. The point of this is to say make sure you have some cushion and are not at your max. capacity as the trailering portion will not be enjoyable.

TOWING is never the problem. STOPPING is the problem.