Need some opinions/advice from people who've towed large-ish boats with their wagons before. My step-Dad will be getting a 32' sailboat, and would like to tow it with an LT1 wagon. The boat plus the trailer will weigh around 4,500lbs (the boat's made out of some kind of foam or something). Now, I know one of these wagons can pull it no problem, my concern is with traction on a boat launch ramp. Obviously a limited slip rear is necessary, as would be good rear tires, but even so I'm just concerned that a RWD car trying to pull 4,500lbs uphill on a slippery boat ramp might end badly. My step-Dad does have experience doing this where he used to work, but not with boats quite so big, although he used a RWD non-LSD F150 and had no problems. I, on the other hand have ZERO experience with boats or launch ramps (ironic as I've lived in ocean towns almost my whole life) so that's why I'm looking to you folks for help.

Tthe wagons have better rear grip than an empty pickup,.it also depends on your tongue weight of the trailer,.
any boat ramp that is slimey is going to be a problem as is a shallow ramp,.you'll end up with the back bumper in the drink,.
some folks put the extra ball on the front of their vehicles so their drive wheels and exhaust are up high on the dry stuff,.

Nick
launched the odd boat here and there,.

the wagon has nothing to do with my advice Lynol.

The former owner of the Funeral Home pulled his 27 ft boat in and out evry trip with the 91 wagon.

It was something to see,however any sailboat I have ever seen (the size you are talking about), needed a cradle to put it in.

They require too much water for a slip.

I was around boats when I was younger, my dad had wagons all those years, and he and I pulled boats out without much hassle. Never had them in the salt water, fresh water only, the boats were only 20'ers, but were heavy mahogany '50s boats. The car that had the most problems was the '86 Pontiac Parisian wagon, it was an open diff, but still never got stuck. The launch ramps were usually textured, or had channels in them to aid traction. As long as the lake level wasn't too low we never had a problem. As Lornejay said, I have never seen a '32 sail boat that could be towed by a car, the keels got to be 4' anyway.

Maybe try doing it this way:

Well, I don't know jack about boats, but this thing he's buying is a tri-maran type sail boat, and supposedly it can be launched from a ramp. I've never seen one like it before, it's called a Farrier F-32. This is what it looks like un-folded (the side hulls fold upward for transport).

That.... is quite a boat, and that explains the no keel thing, cool boat. I'm thinking if your dad has the cash to buy a boat like that, he should be buying a extended cab long box GM pickup to tow it, might as well go with the diesel while he's at it.

Mike

Mike, How do you launch that thing?

Get it up to 40 and stomp on the brakes or 120 and watch it fly off?

Well having towed things with a variety of 2wd vehicles, I only use a 4wd now, which in this case is a '98 K1500. They do NOT get stuck under normal conditions.

That said, I think that's too much boat for a wagon. I would be looking at a 3/4 ton dually. Older Ford diesels can be bought pretty reasonable these days.

That makes more sense now Lynol seing it is a a tri.

The question is how far and how often will it be towed?

If too far,I say get a truck,if not, why trailer it rather than leave it docked.

The Guy I worked for was worse than Frank and Mike together when it came to cleaning.

Thats why he took it out of the water every time,but it was really too much for a 91 wagon.

We are only a mile from the slip as well.

TOw pack car no problem..... that thing is so long the wheels will never get to the slippery stuff. as long as the trailer is a roll on with the wheels you can dip the rear in and let the winch out to launch. I live near a steep ramp and had a 19ft bowrider. I pulled it with my 95 Cherokee, biggest issue I had was low low tide and algae on the ramp. The truck was too light and had to have a couple people stand on the rear bumper for traction to pull it out.

When I pulled the same boat with the conversion van and that wimpy Ford 302 I never had an issue cuz the back of the van was so heavy. Wagons have lots-o-glass in the back

To follow up and answer some questions, I think mostly he would be towing the boat locally, and probably will get a slip for it in the harbor, so he may not be doing much local towing, but he also mentioned he'd like to take the occasional long drive somewhere with it. Also, my concern wasn't so much with the weight of the boat/trailer, as it should be under the factory rated 5k lbs, but really the lack of 4WD. Other people who have these boats seem to often use mid-size SUVs like an Explorer, Durango or Pilot. But it seems the majority of people are using mid-sized ext. cab trucks, like a Colorado, Dakota, Tacoma, or Frontier. All of which I found have surprising towing capacities IMO. He'd ask over there on his Farrier forums, but none of them probably have any idea what a RMW or Caprice wagon has under the hood. It seems whenever you talk about towing to people (besides us, of course) everyone automatically thinks you are nuts to want to tow anything with a car, not realizing cars built like this even existed in the mid '90s.

I once recovered a swamped 16' full ballasted keel boat by backing a trailer under it and hauling it up the sand beach and wet grass. The boat had a dry weight over 1,000lbs and there had to be at least that much weight of water in her. 92 RMW w/ tow package.

I hauled out a 35' park model trailer that tipped the scales at close to 5,000 lbs up a hill that was comparable to a launch ramp in a snowstorm once. Same wagon, wearing all-season radials.

And I learned 4wd alone is not enough when my uncle tried to haul a utility trailer up a very steep cottage road in the snow with his pickup. It was a neat sight watching the front left and rear right wheels spinning away fruitlessly because, even though 4-low locked the transfer case, the axles weren't posi. I backed Ol' Faithful down and hauled him AND the trailer out with a tow chain. However, in that particular case, I put snow chains on the tires first.