Cars do not make good towing vehicles because they were designed to carry their own weight and not much more. They are also unibody where the body and frame are one. The torquing action will bend and twist the body. A truck is body on frame so the frame is taking the torque. With a small boat and a full sized car however, you should be OK. The Mustang is too light.
You want rear wheel drive or four wheel drive. Front wheel drive doesn’t work well with trailers because a) the weight of the trailer lifts weight off the drive axle and b) acceleration also lifts weight from the front wheels.
Car transmissions aren’t designed to pull a trailer for extended periods, they will overheat and wear out faster. For local hauls down to the lake, you’re OK, but if you’re going to pull on long trips you should get a transmission cooler added.
More than pulling, think about stopping all that weight. Trailers for small boats don’t have brakes. On wet pavement you’re going skiing, like it or not. Get good quality tires, check the brakes often and leave a LOT of room between you and the car in front of you. (Now you’ll understand why you shouldn’t nose dive in front of cars with trailers.)
I pulled a 2400 lb rig with a 2 wheel drive, std transmission, 6 cylinder Toyota pickup for over 150,000 miles and never had problems getting up highland reservoir ramps, gravel or concrete. If the rear wheel start to spin, slowly apply the emergency brake. The brake will apply equal pressure to both wheels and power will be transferred from the spinning wheel to the non spinning wheel. You can also put your overweight brother on the right rear of the pickup; works for me. When you gain momentum, release the brake.
Learn to back up with the boat BEFORE going to the boat ramp. When you do go to the ramp, take off the tie downs, load the boat, etc before getting on the ramp. Practice ramp courtesy. You’ll appreciate it when you’re sitting in the sun in the water waiting for your tow vehicle.
For $12K you can get an awfully good compact/full size 2wd with fewer miles. I’m not a Dakota fan with that mileage especially in 4 wd where the additional components will be questionable. Use 4wd a lot and you have wear problems. Don’t use it enough and you still may have problems due to lack of lubrication. Too many other good F150s, Tundas/Tacomas in 2wd you could modify with limited slip if not have it already, that would be cheaper, more economical, reliable and better serve your light towing needs.
Best of luck though with what ever you choose. At least it’s a truck.
It has ALL the features of the truck I was looking for… SLT, under 90k miles, 2005 year, nice color… It has a lot of “options”. I don’t see the problem with it.
I know I’m not in a heavy snow area, but I would like the 4x4 for traction purposes. I’m so used to my mustang being so dangerous in anything, but dry pavement.
I replaced my crummy worn-out Dakota, that just wouldn’t last beyond 623,000 miles…with a Generation I Tundra. I’m averaging the high 18’s which is what the V6 Dakota did but the bigger, newer, more powerful Gen II gets better MPG.
If you go with the Dakota, get the V8, which gets better mileage than the V6.
The limited slip differential cost less than the conventional, and would be a great asset on a wet boat ramp. But, were I to do it again, I would get a fully locking differential that I could control because the automatic thing makes the truck squirrely in the rain.
Reybestos Pads are far better than the others, and I tried most. And you have to eyeball because there are no wear indicators.
A Subie should be fine to haul a 900 pound boat and it’s trailer, but check it’s capacities first.
Ken, it may feel like this tow is being accomplished “effortlessly” but it isn’t ,there is no free lunch. The problem I have with the 'effortless’tow is that people drive like they are not towing a 30ft trailer (not saying this is the case with your father). It seems to be some sort of macho sport to show your truck can “tow like its not even there” but it is.
I think it’s time for me to get a vehicle that is good on it’s size and reasonable with mpg. My mustang is about 17/18 mpg all the time no matter how you drive it.
I test drove the Dakota and loved it a lot. The link I posted in my last reply is what I hope to buy as long as the small accidents didn’t effect anything anything mechanically.
The Dakota is roomie and perfect I think for what I want to do.