Anyone pull a boat with a minivan?

[Jim]

I am considering trading my truck for a minivan. Yes, I know it is not cool, but it would be much nicer for the family life. I have a 16ft bass tracker and I am wondering if anyone tows their boat with a V6 minivan? Most of the ramps on Old Hickory are pretty good and not too steep, so I am thinking it may work for a little while.

It will suck to not have a 4WD truck, but it is really uncomfortable to fit the family into it.

Ok, make all your jokes But I am interested to see if this is even a possibility or if I need to go the SUV direction.

Jim

[bd-]

You shouldn't have any problem. I used to have a Toyota Previa minivan, which had a 4 cylinder and not even a V6, and it pulled my 17-foot Bass Tracker just fine for several years.

Now, the transmission eventually started slipping where it wouldn't pull my boat, BUT I put 275,000 miles on the van before that happened, so I can't really complain. Plus, a van with a V6 will have a better transmission than my Previa so you shouldn't have any worries. I might hesitate to pull a 20-foot fiberglass boat with a minivan, but a Bass Tracker doesn't really have that much tongue weight on the trailer anyway.

One minor adjustment is that it's hard to look behind you and back the boat with a minivan. You will have to learn to back the boat in by using your side mirrors. However, learning to back up with your mirrors is a good skill to have anyway.

Good luck,

bd

[Travis C.]

Dad had a GMC Safari and it I believe was th same motor as the full-size trucks. He like it for the reasons you said being lots of room. I could not get used to driving it because it felt like I was out in front of the car trying to steer it with not much hood.

On pulling a boat my uncle used to take his speed boat and load/unload it into the river below Old Hickory Dam using his 4 cyl Nissan truck. You should be fine and stopping shouldn't be a problem either.

pulling is never the issue, it's stopping and whether your rear suspension can handle the tongue weight without bottoming out your fender wells on your tires. With that size boat you should be fine, a 21 ft glass boat would be another story, although I see people doing this all the time. oh and those safari's were probably on a 1/2 ton frame which would have made pulling and stopping about the same as 1500 gmc. I feel the same way about vans though, you sit right up on the windshield like your in a space ship or something.