how big a boat do you tow with your car

[garman1]

I have an au ford falcon sedan, with a 4.3 mtr quintrex. No probs on highway. As far as fuel consumption is concerned I get good fuel economy on gas about 25 bucks a fill. I had the gas fitted after I bought the car, so I figure that fuel economy is of no importance when towing the boat. You can't have your cake and eat it too.....

I do use economy/cruise control when towing on flat open roads on gas, but drop the economy/cruise control mode when going through hilly or long uphill hauls and use petrol if needed, it cleans the injectors under load too.

The car was used for towing a caravan before I got it, so it came with tranny cooler etc, not sure about uprated suspension though.

[Roo]

I had an older model falcon (EB GL Single point injection) that was quite ok for general driving across town but became asthmatic over 80kph. If I tried to overtake a car from 80kph it would kick down a gear and die in the Ar$e, Fairdinkum felt like a parachute was hung off the towball. It turned out to be exhaust related. the rear muffler had collapsed internally and was blocking gas flow badly....ok replaced that half....much better for a few weeks then started doing it again.....checked the cat...bingo another major blockage due to the guts crumbling. replaced that and it was sooo much better on fuel and went like a cut cat!(compared to before).
The jist of it was that short trips will root your exhaust much quicker than you'd think. The AU1 is an old car now but yours has only 100K on the clock. Average usage is about 20,000k per year. might be worth checking that out. mine was in a bad way but any amount of blockage will reduce performance and the extra load of towing will exagerate problems that you might normally not notice.

Cheers Roo.

[backlash08]

has the trailer got brakes? might be worth a check to see if brakes on the trailer arnt dragging, unlikly but worth a check and easy to do
cheers - Craig

[Scott nthQld]

I recently towed a mates Xtreme alloy 550C from Townsville to Mission beach with my BF Falcon ute, 5sp manual with no dramas, sat on 100km with ease, even got her up to 120km when i wasn't watching the speedo, it just crept up on me without realising. That boat comes in at about 1200kg dry tow weight, plus we had another couple of hundred kilo's in the way of fuel and gear in it too, so probably a total of 1400-1500kg. Only time it struggles a bit is pulling it up the ramp, but thats just the clutch, its a real bitch to get used to, thinking of ripping it out and putting a heavy duty one in.

Never use top gear when towing, top gear is only for cruising and is not to be used when there will be a lot of load on the drive train.

[STUIE63]

I tow a 5.5m galeforce glass c/c with a au series1 with 420 000 on the clock no dramas just put it in third on the auto and off i go but if i slow down to 80km then my fuel economy nearly doubles
Stuie
100 000 is not even run in yet my economy was still getting better at that

[Chamelion]

I tow my 4.4m fibreglass runabout at 110km/h down the bruce highway without any concerns at all. 2002 AU3 Falcon wagon with 179,000km on the ODO.

[mudrunner]

this big...

[griz066]

this big...

Now I can c why the ford cant tow it

[Tracker]

this big...

Trailer wheels to small

[BarraBandit]

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[twist]

Make sure your axle is in the right balanced spot. My first boat was a 4.8m stessco towed by the company falcon. The axle was positioned too far back leaving too much weight on the tow ball and the car hated it. Worked for me.

[Mad-One]

Roo sounds like he might be on a winner. Any blockage in the exhaust will definately cause loss of power

Mad

[White Pointer]

G'day,

If you normally drive the Falcon gently it may be disguising a few problems. One is engine working hard but not going anywhere with a load on which suggests transmission slip. Another is a fault with the engine ECU which thinks it's overheating and goes into limp mode.

I suggest you get car + BMT to a Ford dealer with the diagnostic gear and let them download ECU data and test drive.

Hope it's not too expensive.

White Pointer

[chris69]

Well guys there are some interesting things to consider i bought the car of my brother inlaw and he servisted it religistly at a ford dealer ship and trailer has no brakes,i do think that some one hit it on the head with rpm as the moden car rev lower to reduce fuel economey and not getting enough hp at low revs ive thought about some extracters to give more torquec and hp at the lower rev,but theses car are well known for there towing ability and was the reason i decided to buy it,but i will leave it in 3rd until i get up to 100km drop it into D and see what happens i will let you all no how it goes and what i do if i still am not happy cheers to all

[TunaKing2008]

i tow a southwind sf655 which is a 6.5m boat with a au station wagon it does it pretty easly towed it from vic to bermagui and from sydney to melb