[loudog3114]

I am about to purchase a 22 foot sailboat. I live about 100 yards from the water and its a trailer boat. The boat weighs about 1800lbs, the keel about 500lbs, and the trailer maybe another 500-800?. Im wondering if I should put the receiver hitch on my explorer or my TJ to tow it. The TJ has more power and weighs about the same as the explorer, but the explorer is a much bigger car overall. Ill only be driving it up and down the road and up and down the ramp, but the first drive is going to be about an hour long to get it to my house. What do you guys think I should do?

I assume since both trucks have 4L they would both be capable of pulling it out of the water and up the ramp, but I could be assuming wrong.

[KD5LEF]

Originally Posted by loudog3114

I am about to purchase a 22 foot sailboat. I live about 100 yards from the water and its a trailer boat. The boat weighs about 1800lbs, the keel about 500lbs, and the trailer maybe another 500-800?. Im wondering if I should put the receiver hitch on my explorer or my TJ to tow it. The TJ has more power and weighs about the same as the explorer, but the explorer is a much bigger car overall. Ill only be driving it up and down the road and up and down the ramp, but the first drive is going to be about an hour long to get it to my house. What do you guys think I should do?

I assume since both trucks have 4L they would both be capable of pulling it out of the water and up the ramp, but I could be assuming wrong.

The jeep is rated at 2,000 lbs total. What is the explorer rated at?

[loudog3114]

Well its currently a class 1 hitch, meaning 1500lbs. If I put a receiver hitch on it I would assume it could do more.

[loudog3114]

I would rather do it on the TJ just because it has alot more torque to pull a boat out of a fairly steep ramp.

[b3x]

an option is to search for "towing boat", it does return a few results. HTH

[JandAGibbens]

the big thing is getting the boat stopped if you had to really quick, it will jacknife you, due to your SWB. You could put electric brakes on it to remedy this, but it seems to be overkill IMO.

[04JeepTJ]

I think you'll be fine for a hundred yards...

[Jerry Bransford]

Only 100 yards? Like 04JeepTJ said, it'll be fine. The TJ will do a great job pulling it up the launching ramp, just use 4Lo to keep things slow.

[JandAGibbens]

oh, nevermind, missed the distance thing, but definately not much more than that.

[SteveBad]

Hi, y'all.....

I pull my 3,300 lb runabout on a tandem wheel trailer with
my 4-banger TJ. The boat goes in the water April 1 and
comes out October 1.

I hope you are leaving your boat in the water all season,
cause stepping / unstepping the mast each trip is NOT fun.

I have a receiver hitch, and the nearest ramp is 2 miles away.

I use 4- LOW to pull the boat up the ramp. It's like it wasn't even there.

steve

[loudog3114]

Originally Posted by SteveBad

Hi, y'all.....

I pull my 3,300 lb runabout on a tandem wheel trailer with
my 4-banger TJ. The boat goes in the water April 1 and
comes out October 1.

I hope you are leaving your boat in the water all season,
cause stepping / unstepping the mast each trip is NOT fun.

I have a receiver hitch, and the nearest ramp is 2 miles away.

I use 4- LOW to pull the boat up the ramp. It's like it wasn't even there.

steve

The mast has a hinge to lower it quick, its made for bein a trailer boat.

[Brian4.2]

Make the dealer tow the friggin boat home, then you are good to go!

[Killian]

The tow rating of the average Explorer is 5000 pounds. These ratings are not so much dependent on what's under the hood, but what's holding you on the road. The shorter wheel base Wrangler is going to have a higher potential of jack knifing while under certain maneuvers. The Explorer has nearly half over again the weight of the Wrangler which also helps to stabalize the extra load it pulls. For the short distance you have to travel, either vehicle will handle it and at ~ $110 for a class III hitch at Walmart (not an advertisement) why not buy one for both of your rides?

Worse case scenario...have an accident in your jeep with the boat and the Insurance mafia will ask why you were towing something obviously above the limits of the vehicle when making the assessment to pay.

My spell check sucks!

[04JeepTJ]

This jack knifing is b.s. I see tens of very short rigs pulling trailers over 3x their length and they don't jacknife. Do you really think farm jeepers weigh what they're gonna haul? No, they pile the $hit on and go in 4lo to the north 40

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by 04JeepTJ

This jack knifing is b.s. I see tens of very short rigs pulling trailers over 3x their length and they don't jacknife. Do you really think farm jeepers weigh what they're gonna haul? No, they pile the $hit on and go in 4lo to the north 40

Wow, very intelligent sounding. You're very, very wrong about that, to say that a Jeep won't jacknife towing a heavy rig and to say so here is just plain irresponsible. Jack knifing is a big problem when the tow vehicle performs an emergency maneuver and is one reason Jeep limits what can be towed to 2,000 lbs. What you have "seen" doesn't reflect the reality of short wheelbase rigs and towing. There's more to it than meets the eye, which is why some wonder why short wheelbase tractor trailer rigs can tow huge loads but short wheelbase Jeeps cannot.

In other words, just because you don't understand why things are the way they are or think it's "b.s." doesn't mean it's not true. At least you're in the very small minority in recommending doing something outside of Jeep's published safe towing limits. There are plenty of idiots on the roads today performing all kinds of stupid and irresponsible acts which cause untold accidents, injuries, and deaths and this sure sounds like one of them to me.