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Driving the H-2,3 series is similar to taking your kia or corolla and welding BMW badges to the hood,they're just a LD 1 ton van chasiss, not a shred of hmmv techno anywhere on them.

Hello Russ,

Here's an idea from left field, try renting a vehicle. Depending of the frequency of use it may be less expensive; there are two companies, that I know of, Budget Truck and U-Haul. Just think of the coolness factor pulling up to the ramp in one of those babies .

Back to reality, it would be a nice option to have air shocks depending on which vehicle you decide on. I use my wife's 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe to tow MAC-A-TAC, but there are no air shocks made for it so I had to install air bladders inside the rear coil springs. The bags made a difference of ~ 3" - 4".
Good luck and happy tow beast hunting.

God, Family, Country,

MAC Out.

If I could do it over - and a local rental company was available - this is the way I would go.

MAC-A-TAC wrote:Hello Russ,

Here's an idea from left field, try renting a vehicle. Depending of the frequency of use it may be less expensive; there are two companies, that I know of, Budget Truck and U-Haul. Just think of the coolness factor pulling up to the ramp in one of those babies .

Back to reality, it would be a nice option to have air shocks depending on which vehicle you decide on. I use my wife's 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe to tow MAC-A-TAC, but there are no air shocks made for it so I had to install air bladders inside the rear coil springs. The bags made a difference of ~ 3" - 4".
Good luck and happy tow beast hunting.

God, Family, Country,

MAC Out.

Be careful with the renting angle. Check the contract carefully before you sign up... most rental agencies will not allow or insure you for towing a trailer.

And even if it's allowed NOW - the rental policy can change at any time

kmclemore wrote:Be careful with the renting angle. Check the contract carefully before you sign up... most rental agencies will not allow or insure you for towing a trailer.

Russ,
I have been shopping past 2 years. Ford F150 3.7 with 302 hp will haul your boat no problems. Dodge Ram came out with a new 8 speed trans and 3.6 litter 6 cylinder with 305 hp. Both of these get far better milage than the older V8 and much more HP and Torque.
Family in a extended cab has much more room than a small suv and has the cargo area aft.
Ford also has the sway control and many other features that a SUV doesn't have.
I am just waiting for the new 150 fords and Ram.
My problem is letting $28K go and 3x big insurance increase.
Dave

RussMT wrote:So tow BEAST is probably overkill. I have a Dodge RAM that tows the boat 2 twice, up and back to the lake. I'm thinking of something of a family vehicle that the admiral will drive most of the time and get the boat up there and back. I may keep the truck just for hauling stuff.

So pickup truck is out for this application. That Mercedes SUV looks sweet, but the nearest Merc dealer is 3 hours away. Not sure I want to travel that far for maintenance stuffs. Still, it's a nice ride.

Lincoln Navigator looks nice too.

Probably going to have to go shopping and drive a few.


--Russ

Russ. If you are looking at the Mercedes or the Lincoln... Why don't you hire someone to take the boat to the dealer? They can come to you as well.

I've got a 10 year old Sequoia, runs great, plenty of power with the big V8 to tow the Mac on a tandem axle trailer. But my gas mileage is nowhere near as good as what some of you are posting with comparable V8's. With no trailer, I get about 14 mpg city and 17 mpg highway but with towing the Mac which I'm estimating is around 4500 lbs or so (the SUV is rated at 6200), my mileage drops to 9-10 mpg. Does that sound right? I know some of my O2 sensors might need replacing but overall, the truck runs well. Is it just because it is 10 years old or something else that the mileage is so poor?

Plans changing a bit. The admiral doesn't want a big SUV. I have a Dodge Ram we tow the Mac with now. May just keep that for towing it and go for a general SUV for our winters.
So today we drove an Acadia and Highlander. Both can tow the Mac in a pinch and we don't tow far.

Ray, did you say your Acadia tows your Mac well? I like that car. Some cool features. More to look at.

New VW Bulli next year, with diesel option......thinking about replacing the 11 year old Eurovan....

Russ,

I tow Nice Aft every year up to the Adirondack mountains, about a three hundred mile trip one way. The vehicle tows the boat well, and has all of luxuries that make a long trip easier.

There are many good vehicles out there, so do your due diligence. I happen to like as many luxuries as I can get in a vehicle that I am gong to spend hours in, and I don't apologize for that

Ray

Dimitri-2000X-Tampa wrote:I've got a 10 year old Sequoia,
I know some of my O2 sensors might need replacing but overall, the truck runs well. Is it just because it is 10 years old or something else that the mileage is so poor?

Why do you think the sensors are bad? If only 10 years old, you have a sensor either side of the catalytic converter and these check each other. If you are not registering an OBDII code (and likely a MIL/check engine light), then do not worry. It was only in the old days when we only had a single O2 sensor that we needed to change periodically.

I have a new F150 with the Ecoboost and my mileage is only about 11 or 12 mpg when towing. Much depends on how you drive - speed and acceleration.

Thanks for the response Robert. I do have the check engine light on for a couple years now (yea, my bad..lol) and have had the codes read and was told it was the O2 sensor..but apparently, there is one on each cylinder and to figure out which one ias bad is not so easy, so, I've just been putting it off. And as I said, the engine runs very well so it wasn't like I really needed to do anything about it immediately. After reading up on it a bit, I think i found that the worst possible thing that could be happening is that my mileage is a bit off...although I don't ever remember ever getting better mileage than what I'm getting currently either. And I did drive this SUV for a few years before the engine light came on. I know that other bad thing about driving it with the engine light on is that if something else happens, it will be masked by the O2 sensor issue.

And I do try to drive it very economically when towing. I know how the mileage gets much better at 55-60 for example versus 70 mph and how too many starts and stops can affect the mileage. Coming back from the Keys last year, the portion that I did on US41 at about 55-60 mph, I was able to get up to about 11mpg, and if I make a lot of starts and stops, it can even drop down as low as 8.8 or so...but my mean is in the 9.5-10 range and that is probably at an average speed of about 68mph. And believe me, with my one year old tandem axle and the V8 power, I could definitely go faster, but I try to keep the mileage reasonable (and reduce the number of splatted bugs on the boat parts too).

Anyway, I was just wondering since some people were reporting getting 15-16 mpg with a V8. Good to hear that your new truck is not getting a whole lot better than mine. I could see how you could get better with a smaller engine, but you would also be wearing out the motor faster too I suppose.

Join the club - my 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee has a fault in the radiator sensor that isn't really there. Sometimes on - sometimes off - no big deal.

Dimitri-2000X-Tampa wrote:I've got a 10 year old Sequoia, runs great, plenty of power with the big V8 to tow the Mac on a tandem axle trailer. I know some of my O2 sensors might need replacing but overall, the truck runs well. Is it just because it is 10 years old or something else that the mileage is so poor?

Over in the UK we don't tend to do the big 4x4s (who says size matters!!) - I've had no problems towing/launching the Mac with my Lexus RX300 - 20 Mpg towing and 24mpg normally.