Tow vehicles

[Brent65]

Fellow Eclipse Sailors,

Does anyone have experience towing the Eclipse with a Toyota 4Runner or a Ford Explorer? Both vehicles show sufficient tow capacity, but how does that translate to real world towing? I live in the Rocky Mountains at 5000 ft. above sea level. Please share any experience you may have.

Brent

[Tim Gardner]

I tow a19 behind a Ford Explorer Sport Trac, albeit at 1000 fasl. Works just fine.

[atrometer]

I towed a Casita travel trailer (3900#s) with a 2010  Jeep Liberty (4.0 6 cyl. engine, tow pkg, 2 wheel drive, 5000#s tow rating) through the rockies 12,000+ ft. with NO problem.  12/15 mpg. I would think any 5000# rated vehicle would do fine.

[TedStrat]

I tow my Eclipse with a Toyota Tacoma 6 cyl - no issues whatsoever so 4 runner will do the same. I have some hills here on north shore of Long Island but not like up in the Rockies. 

[Ferd Johns]

I have done a lot of Cascade/Rocky Mountain/Blue Ridge sailboat towing with a 1996 V8 Ford Explorer 4x4 and a 1995 Dodge Roadtrek 2WD conversion van, as well as some with a V6 Ford Ranger 4x4. I lived in Bozeman MT for 20 years, and trailer-sailed the Pacific Northwest every summer. Heaviest boat I towed was a Kent Ranger 26 (about 6,000 lbs all up, I think). Went from Anacortes WA to Bozeman and back with many boats including the Kent Ranger many times, and then eventually towed the Ranger all the way from Bozeman to Deltaville VA. Latter trip was with the V8 Explorer. Stopping safely should be your main concern .... I always had surge trailer brakes with the heavier boats, and well-maintained vehicle brakes. The rigs would definitely slow trying to crest the Divide, of course, just like the big semis, but so what? Going down, downshifting gently and tapping the brakes intermittently to keep speed well under control without overheating or locking up either set of brakes was the trick. Going cross country, taking slower, less crowded highways and keeping speed down to a max of 55-60 mph even on the flats kept the bigger loads under control, but the stress level was very high towing that enormous, towering Kent Ranger with the Explorer. I would not do that again, although there were no incidents or close calls.

I have towed a ComPac 19 and SunCat easily over the mountains with my V6 Ranger, and just bought an Eclipse in southern CA. I towed it to my new home on Whidbey Island WA using the old van, which didn't even notice the Eclipse was there. I do not think you will have any trouble with either tow vehicle you mentioned if you are willing to slow down a bit and watch the downhills.

Happy New Year!

Ferd

[relamb]

How about towing with a Smart Car?
Here's my Micro-Yacht Transporter.
About 650lbs towing capacity, but the boat/motor/trailer are not even half that.
Until you fill that cooler with beer.

[waterwheels]

Finally a post I feel I can contribute to......

I towed an Eclipse with a 2010 Ford Escape 1600 Km (1000 miles) from Cambridge-Narrows New Brunswick to Tiverton Ontario. New Brunswick has some pretty long hills, some must have been going up hill for 2-3 miles.
The Ford Escape is a little smaller than the Explorer I think. My Escape has a 3500 lbs tow rating with a V6. We took it out of overdrive and burned high octane fuel. I was very impressed the way it handled. The magic tilt trailer had perfect tongue weight and the boat was very well balanced. I think the length of the trailer made it hand bumps like a champ. We had no trouble doing 100-105 km (60-65 Miles) on the highways.

Now since I haven't had the boat in the water as of yet.......I just hope she sails as good as she trailers.

[crazycarl]

we tow our compac 19 with a '05 jeep liberty 3.7 ltr V6 without a problem.

unless we're traveling through tennessee.  then we get flat tires, transmission problems, coil failures, bad radio reception, stomach flue, pterodactyl droppings, chased by sasquatch, and all around horrible gas mileage.


CC

[Tim Gardner]

"Until you fill that cooler with beer."

Rick, is that the thing in front of the boat trailer?

TG

[Eagleye]

Brent,
The tow vehicle for our Eclipse is a Toyota Highlander rated for 5000 lbs. with no problems at all here in upstate NY.


-Allen

[skip1930]

Our Ford Expedition finally died at 332,000 miles and a ton of rust holes when #3 spark plug blew out of the aluminum head.
Even on 7 cylinders the 5.4 L V-8 pulled my CP-19 just fine to winter storage, all be it noisy.

The new to me 2007 tow is now a Jeep Commander, 4.7 L V-8 Hemi ... doesn't even know that my buddies CP-19 was behind it.

The Expedition? I sold it to a repair shop for $200 and they stuck one used head on it and flipped it for $2,500. Everything else worked on it.

I's Luv's the Jeep.

That's 2040 lb of dry wall removed from an old building that we are turning into a new in-town pharmacy. [About 9,660 lb as per scale prior to dumping].
Second pix shows the trailer shoveled cleaned off. [2040 lb of dry wall ]

skip.

[BobK]

http://s778.photobucket.com/user/bobknapp47/media/003.jpg.html?o=0

After trying to insert the picture for 30 min I finally QUIT.  My car has a 6 cyl. engine...it gets it going ok but is difficult to stop.

[alsantini]

I tow my 2007 Eclipse with a GMC Acadia.  It is tow rated for 5400 lbs. and obviously the Eclipse is way under that.  16 mpg all the way to Florida from Elgin, Illinois in November.  No sweat.  I believe the Ford Explorer is rated around the same as the GMC with a tow package or probably around 2000 lbs. without the tow package - just a guess on my part.  By the way normal highway mileage is 25, so I lost 9 towing but I generally kept up with traffic between 60 and 65 mph.  Hills were never an issue.  I ran in 5th gear and cruise control (6 speed transmission).  There were some really flat roads that I allowed the trans to shift into 6th but found it would downshift as soon as the slightest hill was reached.  The GMC allows for setting any gear as the top one, so I would drop down to 4th if I was lower than about 50 and 3rd in some cities.  My goal was always to keep the engine around 2000 rpm to 3000 rpm and not have the transmission be shifting all the time.

[kickingbug1]

    one important factor is the final drive ratio (rear end). i wouldnt go any higher than 3.42. gotta keep that engine in the power banc

[Vectordirector]

Back in mid October I towed my Eclipse from Lakewood, IL, chicago nw burbs to Punta Gorda, FL, 1400 miles with a 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited.  Factory towing package rated at 3500 lbs.  Normal 17mpg was steady at 14mpg with the boat.  I wouldn't want to do it again.  58mph max because of shimmy in steering wheel any faster.  I never had that before without the trailer.  I never had a chance to get it over 55 before this trip due to the roads used between Lake Geneve and my house.  I don't know if it was the trailer or the Jeep but I expect the trailer.  The new wheel/tire package wasn't balanced before I left.  No one could balance a 10" wheel.  Anything below 59 was great.  Just noisy and  a long 3 days.  I figured the trailer all up was about 3000 lbs +- a hundred.  Paying attention and braking early were all it really took to get her down here.  She trailered great albeit slow.  Jeep is great tow vehicle for anything under 50 miles.  I read somewhere that my Jeep is rated to tow 6000 pounds in Europe.  I wouldn't want to try that!  Out of a boat ramp?  Maybe.  Highway, no way. 

Vectordirector