I would like to buy a Volvo V70 wagon. The vehicle is rated to tow 3300 lbs. I tow a smal boat to Florida anually. Total weight with trailer is 2000 lbs. Can I feel comfortable towing that weight at interstate speeds?
Assuming the DC in your name refers to Washington D.C., I think that’d be fine. It would probably be iffy if there were any mountains on your way.
But the Toureg from your other post would be a much better tow vehicle. Why don’t you use it?
Is there a factory designed tow system? if not the car has towing in mind only as a afterthought.
DC is for Door County, WI. My trip is 1700 miles each way. The Toureg is great. I would replace it withe the Volvo because of lower cost and improved gas mileage. I tow the boat three days a year. I don’t want the extra expense for only three days.
No. It needs a better sound system. I don’t see any towing competition out there, other than SUV’s which are expensive. Your choice may be one of the better ones. If I had to make a guess on a better vehicle, I might say to buy a Honda Ridgeline. You may be happier with a more reliable and capable vehicle.
The Volvo can tow the boat, no problem. However it is a Volvo, that is a problem. Towing is stressful on the transmission and differential, in addition to the motor. You’ll need to get these fluids changed much more frequently, I’d suggest a week or two before your trip, every year.
If you kill the Volvo tranny you are looking at a major expense to repair, or more likely replace it. So, while the specs on your Volvo say you can tow safely. What they don’t tell you is that you will shorten the life of your transmission significantly. Go ahead and tow, but be ready for extra very expensive repairs as a consequence.
By all means, yes. You are only using 60% of your towing capacity, which should be perfectly safe.
It is so nice to see a question about towing capacity where the question isn’t about somebody wanting to do something stupid. So many of our questions about towing capacity are things like “My minivan has 3,500 lbs. of towing capacity. Can I tow a trailer with a 3,800 lb. gross vehicle weight rating?”
My gut says yes. I know a few Subaru owners with smaller(Impreza) or similar size cars(Outback) with similar towing capacity and size boats and are fine towing. They keep speeds at 65mph or less.
You may want to poke over on a Volvo forum and get the skinny on V70’s and towing too.
You may hear get this large vehicle blah blah but I think most of that is to justify the overkill of vehicle a person owns.
Towing capacity are rated low in the US for one major reason, our legal system.
Considering those numbers you will be alright IF you do not increase those numbers.
Unless you already have one, definitely add a tranny cooler as this will reduce the strain/temp and wear on the tranny, as you likely know heat is the tranny’s #1 enemy.
1700 miles is a fairly long haul for anything but I would recommend you do not use overdrive on ANY hills regardless of grade and try to keep a steady speed.
The car weighs 3800 pounds and it’s rated to tow 3300?? Good luck with that…But it should pull 2000 pounds okay with one of the optional engines…If your boat is higher than the roofline of the car and catches a lot of wind, the trip may be tedious and 65mph will be the top of your speed range…
Just plan on taking enough time and you should be fine.
There are 5-6000 lb. pickups that can pull over 12,000 pounds and I drove a 15,500 lb Mack Tractor that routinely went down the Thruway grossing 143,000 lb. on two 45 ft. trailers.
True enough.
I did some long hauling for a few years but I was lucky enough not to get stuck with a train.
How’d you like it?
Comparing a Mac Tractor to a Volvo C70, well, what can I say??
Towing trailers with passenger vehicles is ALWAYS a pain in the @ss…The heavier the trailer, the bigger the pain…
Buy a boat in Florida and leave it there! In todays market, they are almost give-a-ways…