Greetings everyone,
I'm looking at purchasing a boat but the main criteria is the towing capacity of the Subaru. Its an automatic and came with a hitch installed. The ball from UHAUL says 2000 lbs but I've read on this forum that the Baja's hitch will accomodate 2400 lbs.
If I get some trailer brakes installed could I get away with hauling a 2200 lb boat/trailer once in a while? Thoughts?
Jason
Towing a boat
Moderator: mikenmel08
Re: Towing a boat
bajajay wrote:Greetings everyone,
I'm looking at purchasing a boat but the main criteria is the towing capacity of the Subaru. Its an automatic and came with a hitch installed. The ball from UHAUL says 2000 lbs but I've read on this forum that the Baja's hitch will accomodate 2400 lbs.
If I get some trailer brakes installed could I get away with hauling a 2200 lb boat/trailer once in a while? Thoughts?
Jason
I have an 03 and tow a small (12 ft.) boat and a utility trailer occasionally. I would say if you can keep it under a 1000-1500 lbs. max. load you will be fine. Make sure you have a tranny cooler installed!! Cheap insurance. You can go higher on the load, but unless you are going dead flat roads, in cooler weather (it's 118 here today....), you would be best to not push it. There just isn't the power there to tackle mountain roads pulling that kind of load, without seriously risking your Baja~ That advise comes from personal experience and several knowledgeable folks.......Just $0.02 worth. Personally, unless I was going to haul a boat like you are talking about many times per year, I would go out and buy a cheap $2000 heavy duty pickup just for that purpose - (cheaper than a new tranny for the Baja or worse.)
Good luck on the decision,
Re: Towing a boat
The 2,400 lb. towing capacity figure you've been told is correct. Our Baja towed a 17 ft. outboard boat several times before we very recently sold it. That trailer had no brakes. I never weighed that boat, but it weighed somewhere between 1,000 and probably 1,300 lbs including the trailer. Our Plymouth Neon previously pulled it, and didn't have much trouble with it at all.
We also tow a tall and much heavier camper with our Baja. I have also not had it on a scale, but I believe it to weigh in the 3,000 to possibly even 3,500-lb. area. It does have trailer brakes, and I had a brake controller installed in our Baja in order to tow it. I also had the factory A/T oil cooler replaced with an aftermarket one. Last season, the Baja (an '05 turbo automatic) would overheat if we tried to tow it at freeway speed (75-80) unless it was very cool (below ~60 - 65). This season, we have had no overheating. I cleaned out a bunch of dead bug shells between the A/C and coolant radiator, but mainly I replaced the coolant with a water plus WaterWetter mixture. I do have ~15% propylene glycol antifreeze in the system to make sure the A/C doesn't freeze the water in the heater core.
Tow your boat and don't worry another minute about it.
P.S. Our towing is at high elevation and up into and over the mountains.
We also tow a tall and much heavier camper with our Baja. I have also not had it on a scale, but I believe it to weigh in the 3,000 to possibly even 3,500-lb. area. It does have trailer brakes, and I had a brake controller installed in our Baja in order to tow it. I also had the factory A/T oil cooler replaced with an aftermarket one. Last season, the Baja (an '05 turbo automatic) would overheat if we tried to tow it at freeway speed (75-80) unless it was very cool (below ~60 - 65). This season, we have had no overheating. I cleaned out a bunch of dead bug shells between the A/C and coolant radiator, but mainly I replaced the coolant with a water plus WaterWetter mixture. I do have ~15% propylene glycol antifreeze in the system to make sure the A/C doesn't freeze the water in the heater core.
Tow your boat and don't worry another minute about it.
P.S. Our towing is at high elevation and up into and over the mountains.
Re: Towing a boat
My wife and I were in a simular situation. When we decided to buy our first boat we quickly found out how limited we were with only 2400lbs towing capacity. We found two boats that had cuddy cabins and could still be towed by the Baja.
Both are 16 foot, one is made by C-Dory and the other is by Arima. We chose the Arima Sea Explorer 1511 because it is slightly beamier and has a foot more space for sleeping. The trick then was to find one on the east coast as they are both west coast walk-around fishing boats. After looking for a few months two came up on craigs list at the same time.
This is the one we ended up buying. She is 1999 boat that has been well taken care of.
I have added trailer brakes and a Tranny cooler along with a temperature gauge. The Baja handles the load quite well as long as you remember you are towing almost a ton behind her. The boat on the trailer with the motor and 20 gallons of gas is about 1800lbs. We normally launch from a boat ramp that is about a mile from home so it's no big deal towing that far. We are looking at other boating destinations in central or north eastern PA that we could tow the boat to.
Both are 16 foot, one is made by C-Dory and the other is by Arima. We chose the Arima Sea Explorer 1511 because it is slightly beamier and has a foot more space for sleeping. The trick then was to find one on the east coast as they are both west coast walk-around fishing boats. After looking for a few months two came up on craigs list at the same time.
This is the one we ended up buying. She is 1999 boat that has been well taken care of.
- Here she is getting ready to come home
- DSC00966.JPG (153.65 KiB) Viewed 5139 times
Re: Towing a boat
Put in the tranny cooler and bought the boat. 1800 pounds total for boat/trailer. Towed it easily from Cambridge, Ontario to Buffalo with no problems. Hardly knew she was back there.
- DSCF0001.JPG (39.74 KiB) Viewed 4974 times