Tourag for towing Nautique?

[srock]

Looked at the reliability ratings of the Tourreg and told my wife no way.

[AllianceBJJ]

My wife has a 2008 Touareg w/44K miles. Not been back to the dealer for anything but oil change. We have the V8 and have not even considered trying to tow our 230. I bet it would pull a pre-07 210 ok though. Gas mileage on the Touareg sucks, for how small of a vehicles it is that sucker is heavy.

[MattieK27]

Have had many jeeps, no issues. It will tow fine, I am pretty sure the site owner pulled his 210 with one.

Some people feel you need a huge vehicle to tow ski boats, I find it ridiculous.

[AirTool]

I'd buy another pathfinder if I could find a used 4x4 in gray, black, or blue, but all I can find are 2wd.

Have you gone to auto trader dot com and filtered for 4x4 out to 500 miles? just to see what is out there? I see a lot of 4x4 on the street here in houston.

Years ago, I bookmarked a search string on autotrader.com and dragged it to my start menu. Each morning at work I'd check the new entries while I sipped my first cup. A year or more later, this one popped up less than 10 miles from the house. You probably won't find it that hard to find one. A helpful dealer that is on the on-line auto auctions can search for you. Once he finds one, you can run the carfax then have him get it. I think carmax here will go and get if for you and if you don't buy it, you only loose a few hundred bucks....they sell it on the lot.

[DanielC]

I tow my 1997 ski Nautique with a 1996 Ford Aerostar. My biggest worry, what can I replace the Aerostar with?

[SkiTower]

Everybody's talking engine size...the concern is whether or not there's enough mass to handle the boat (stopping). Can't say I'd trust anything bigger than a 196 (if that) to a jeep wrangler, jeep cherokee maybe...

[swc5150]

Agreed! I had a Jeep Cherokee that I pulled my 196 with. It pulled fine, but the boat owned it when stopping.

[cgofort]

I have a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4X4 with 5.7L Hemi. The 5.7 Hemi with 20" wheels means it comes with larger brakes. I can pull and stop my 1997 Sport Nautique with no problems. I think any mid-size SUV will pull any boat, it's the stopping part that you need to be concerned. If a trailer has brakes, this will greatly assist. My current trailer does not have brakes - yet I still stop with plenty of control.

[MattieK27]

The only jeep that was brought up was the grand Cherokee, a vehicle that has a weight almost identical to a half ton pickup.

If your vehicle weighs over 4000 lbs and it's getting pushed around by your boat, you really need to get tour trailer brakes checked...

[Chexi]

For anyone who cares, I ultimately decided to go bigger and ended up with a low mileage used Toyota Sequoia. My wife and I cleaned the garage out last night to make room. I had found an 05 Pathfinder to replace my totalled 05 Pathfinder, but after doing some research, it looks like I was pretty lucky with mine. There were posts after posts about the radiator leaking into the tranny on the 05 Parthfinders, it killing the tranny, and being a $6k repair. Some other issues too. I did have the fuel sender issue and had that replaced (and was ultimately reimbursed by Nissan when they finally acknowledged the problem) and had a windshield wiper reservoir break (also common), but nothing terribly expensive... but it seems I was one of the lucky ones. No need to tempt fate.

Sequoias appear to go through brakes fairly quickly, but that's about it. Reliability is my number one concern, and it looks to be pretty reliable. Ultimately, I am getting a slightly older Sequoia with 30k fewer miles on it than my Pathfinder had, and after my insurance proceeds, it will cost me about $500 due to the taxes and registration. Not too bad.

[jmo]

What year is the Sequoia? It's built on the Tundra platform and the early years 2001 - 2003 had under powered front brakes and weak planetary gears. 2005 & 2006 were the sweet spots for those 1st generation models.

JMO

[prairiethunder]

I have '07 volvo XC90 v8.... braking is the issue and short wheel base. I live in the flat land so i have one hill at each of the lakes I go to (they are different hills) but I would not tow my 97 SN into the mountains... not enough "truck". Volvo was owned by ford... does that count as domestic?? so far love the compromise but waiting for repairs to start $$$

[dihrdskir]

Why all this discussion about brakes? If you put decent brakes on the trailer then you do not have to worry about the limitations of the towing vehicle.

[east tx skier]

It's not for the usual stops. It's for the scary stops.

[Chexi]

It is actually a late 2003. My research indicated a fair amount of problems from 2001 - 2002, but nothing mechanical in 2003. Oh well... my towing trips are very short, so hopefully it will hold up. It only has 57k miles, I have all the service records (nothing major), and I had it checked out at the dealer. It did have new brakes and rotors about 5k miles ago. My commute to work is 3 miles each way, and my commute to the lake is 70 miles each way (but 65 of this not towing, as my boat is stored 5 miles from the launch) . When I finally build my lake house, I will build a lift and only need the Sequoia for towing when I need service, but that is probably 1-2 years away.