Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 19:54:02 -0400 From: Malt_Hound <Malt_Houndnospamm*yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Saab 9-6x photo
Kevin Rhodes wrote: > This was an ex-U-haul rental trailer - wieghs ~1500lbs. So the combination was > pretty close to 3500.I never said anything about towing and launching a boat, > but since you bring it up, I have a friend in the Saab club who uses his 9-5 > sedan to tow and launch his 18ft sailboat. Boat and trailer wiegh ~3000lbs. > has not had a bit of trouble putting it in and out of lakes and the ocean > around here. A snailbote weighs nothing close to the same as a similar length power boat, my friend. An 18 ft blowboat on a trailer would not come close to 3000 lbs. unless it had a full (weighted) keel, which would eliminate it from the trailering realm. > Back before the SUV craze, the standard tow vehicle was a big old > American station wagon, which wiegh about the same as a modern European car > and are a heck of a lot less sophisticated in design and engineering. I disagree (once again). The old standard tow vehicle American station wagon (say, like the Ford Country Squire we once owned?) was a behemoth thing, complete with a huge V8 engine. It was nothing like any current European car then or now. But even then, the *preferred* tow vehicle was always a truck, not an elongated car (station wagon). >>>In fact, I have also towed >>>the same car and trailer with a friend's 2000 GMC Jimmy, a "rough, tough >> >>SUV". >> >>>There was simply no comparison, the Saab was infinitely more comfortable >>>towing than the Jimmy. Hugely better braking, and far more stable. >> >>That's your opinion. I would disagree. > > > I would suggest you try it and get back to us when you have some actual > experience rather than uninformed opinion. Yeah right. No thanks. > > >>For one thing, a properly loaded trailer will have a tongue weight of >>between 10 and 15 percent of the load. That SAAB 9-5 would be doing a >>wheelie with my boat trailer loaded on it. > > > Max tongue weight is a function of trailer hitch and car. My 3500lb rated > Class II hitch is rated at 150lbs, same as the 9-5. That is exactly what I > used towing the Triumph, determined with a bathroom scale. Towed beautifully. No, you are wrong, again. Tongue weight is a proportion of the total trailer weight. This is for safety and proper trailering. If you don't realize this you may have been lucky enough to stumble upon a combination that worked OK for you, but it was merely luck. And in all likelihood your luck put the tongue weight squarely where I suggested. > > >>Then you have to back it down a sometimes slippery boat ramp (sometimes >>they aren't even paved). With front wheel drive and ~400 lbs on the >>hitch, I doubt I'd even be able to retrieve the boat and trailer back up >>the ramp at the end of the day. >> >>In many of the places that I launch, before the trailer gets submerged >>enough to move the boat on and off of it I usually have to back the >>Explorer up so that the bottom of the rear bumper is submerged. At that >>point the exhaust is underwater and bubbling away happily. Half the >>trunk of the SAAB would be underwater. > > > You need a trailer with a longer tongue. It's really not an issue. That is just stupid. You don't (and couldn't) lengthen the tongue enough to allow a car to launch it. Period. > > >>>In Europe, >>>using the official Saab hitch (which is rather more rugged than my CII >>>Drawtite), I believe the official towing capacity of a Saab 9-5 wagon is >>>5000lbs. > > > > >>As I mentioned in another post, I found the same thing. It's ridiculous >>if you ask me. > > > I didn't. :-) > Of course you didn't (in retrospect) since it would not advance your position. > >>But either way, there is no way in hell you would be able to use a FWD >>SAAB automobile to trailer (launch and hopefully retrieve) even a modest >>sized power-boat like mine. You guys really do not have a clue. >> >>-Fred W > > > As I said, try it and get back to us. No thanks, I'd prefer to do it the *right* way. The safe way. Not just what you can get away with. Look, Kevin. It appears we will have to just agree to disagree. Just let me know when you are on the road, and where you are headed with these kludged up trailering rigs so I can avoid that area... -Fred W
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