Selecting A Truck For Fishing Boat...

[FishinCricket]

does the pinto have any value to lose though??

Eric needs to check his math.. (Pinto's were practically free when the were new.. )

[Ranger Dave]

Don't forget about the rear end ratio and the type of transmission and their affect on mileage. I have an older Chevy V8 (350 CID) with a 3.42 rear end. I get around 17 mpg on the highway when empty or not towing. However, when I start towing my boat, my mpg drops to 11 (it dropped to 9 when I pulled my 18' travel trailer). My brother-in-law has basically the same truck but with a 3.73 rear end. His highway mileage is about 1 less than mine (16 mpg) but when he pulls his boat, the mpg only drops to 14. I suspect the small 4 cylinders will drop mpg drastically when pulling as opposed to driving empty so I highly recommend getting a V6. In addition, an automatic will pull better than the straight tranny. Check out the horsepower and torque curves in the new truck brochures. The auto will always have more pulling power than the straight stick.

[Geoff]

dont bother with a 4.3 v6 from GM. yes, its agteat motor, all of my s10/sonoma's have had them however, my new fullsize 1/2 ton GMC with the 5.3 v8 gets better mileage then the sonoma could have ever wished with. this is also accounting for the same 3.73 rear end. I get about 19/20 empty on the highway with the truck and with a 19' bayliner behind me and the a/c on it only drops down to about 14/15 runnning 65 in it. you can find the older 1/2 chevys for a decent price now-a-days.

the other thing to remember is even though your little diesel VW pulls the boat fine, backing it up is going to be a pain in the butt since the wheelbase is so short. if you can, find a older Dodge cummins truck with 150K on for cheap and just use that. You'll be able to pull whatever you want and still get good mileage. our 06 cummins gets 30 on the highway empty.

[bigredbirdfan]

Anything smaller than a V-8 wouldn't even keep speed with my alum tracker boat on the hills of 65 south to taney or branson.

[taxidermist]

Go with a half ton truck V-6, much more room!! even better mileage. I have a 97 V-6 ranger 3.0 and the best I can get is 20mpg without the boat (20Ft shawnee) and with it 16mpg. Oh and a 5 speed. I wish now I had went to a half ton.

I am 6ft tall and 240lbs, the ranger is to small.

[FishinCricket]

Go with a half ton truck V-6, much more room!! even better mileage. I have a 97 V-6 ranger 3.0 and the best I can get is 20mpg without the boat (20Ft shawnee) and with it 16mpg. Oh and a 5 speed. I wish now I had went to a half ton.

I am 6ft tall and 240lbs, the ranger is to small.

Ya know, I can fix that for ya... :big_wink:

[DLM84]

Well guys I got to talk to a Friend of mine that lives on a small farm bordering the Sack river over by schel city way. He said they were using I-4's to pull their river boats with. He thinks 2 wheel drive will work fine on those little boats as long as it has a auto locking differential on it.

The boat I am talking about are 10' maybe 12' little john boats, Rated max capacity is some where around 500 lbs. Also the other boats I was looking at were in the same range as these boats. My current "boat" is a old used 2 man canoe but it really sucks. Its probably gonna get the boot as soon as some one in the family has a garage sale, instead I think I will get a Angler style kayak for regular pond fishing stuff.

I think it will work well over in Schel Osage wild life reserve on those ponds of theirs.

As for all this "by the time this" and "by the time that" what do you guys think you are doing? I said I wanted to save gas because this would be a Daily Driver, can't get a second car. So get that out of your heads. Also I don't need 3k lbs towing for a boat that will float 500 lbs at most. The ramps at these conservation areas are not steep at all. Some of the ones at stockton are to shallow I think. People's tail pipes end up getting stuck in the water before they get the boat half floated some times. Its that way on the one closest to Stockton City. You need big tall 18 wheeler style tail pipes over there.

[FishinCricket]

As for all this "by the time this" and "by the time that" what do you guys think you are doing? I said I wanted to save gas because this would be a Daily Driver, can't get a second car. So get that out of your heads. Also I don't need 3k lbs towing for a boat that will float 500 lbs at most. The ramps at these conservation areas are not steep at all

Well with an attitude like that, I'd be surprised if you get any more advice on this thread.. lol

Look, I own a John boat (16ft, stripped down) AND hauled it behind my daily driver 4 banger for four years.. (not to mentioned my adore mentioned business expertise in the field), so I prolly don't know what I'm talking about..

Good luck.

[DLM84]

Well with an attitude like that, I'd be surprised if you get any more advice on this thread.. lol

Look, I own a John boat (16ft, stripped down) AND hauled it behind my daily driver 4 banger for four years.. (not to mentioned my adore mentioned business expertise in the field), so I prolly don't know what I'm talking about..

Good luck.

Well I am just saying their are a lot of guys that don't know what they really need to do the job aka "Good Enough" and so they talk them selves into a big block v8 and all the bells and whistles. I said I am not looking for all the bells and whistles nor do I want a 15-20 MPG rig either. I just noticed every one who said "Don't go get a 4 banger" was either hauling a small yacht or in the Branson area (do they even have flat spots down there? Kidding) so they could really be actually needing it. I can under stand that but their are this other guys who are "you don't want a four banger cause you might want a bigger boat latter and by the time you get that you will need a v8 and then you will want the big block for good measure and by the time you do that you probably ought to get the 4x4 tooo, hhehehe" These are the folks I went "WTF" at. I told you I am looking at 10-12' john boats, 500 lbs max rated capacity. Nothing more. Not 20' mini yatchs so you see I don't need a top of the line heavy duty towing rig.

I started this thread to figure out what exactly I actually needed to do the job, not get talked into the biggest gas guzzler on the road.

[Haris122]

Just to piggy back off this older thread, my dear to me Oldsmobile Alero seems to have hit the end of the road (was just about 7k short of 200,000 too). And while I'm trying to troubleshoot and identify the cause, and hopefully figure out that the problem is actually not as serious as it seems, I've also been trying to figure out what my next vehicle might be, if I can't fix it within a reasonable amount of time.

My first branching off question is whether I would get a truck or a regular car. I'm a big fan of little trucks, since my dad really got a lot of use out of his for diy building projects, and furniture moving and such, but at the same time I'm also for more eco-friendly fuel efficiency and I'm kind of disappointed that I'd barely get any better mileage out of the most efficient common light truck I can afford if bought new or lightly used (think 4cylinder, 2wd extended cab Canyon/Colorado), as I would out of my 14+ year old Alero if it were running like normal (low 20's city, 26-27 highway). So I'm trying to figure out what you guys think my best choice would be? Whatever I get would also be my work commute vehicle, which is where fuel efficiency is a big deal (I live about 35-40 mins and probably 30 miles from work). I also have a lot of random fishing and other hobby related stuff that I carry in my car at all times, so I don't have to drive back home when I don't have much time, to the point that just about all the space in the backseats, and the trunk is kind of used up, and my fishing rods are constantly leaning along the front passenger seat into the back. One of the pro's of the truck would be that it would help me haul my kayak around more conveniently, as well as a deer if I got one during deer season and accompanying items to get it out of the woods. I'm pretty much just a rifle hunter and the deer scenario would basically just come up one week a year, though I hunt public land and drive an hour and half each day down 44 to get to it that week, and while scouting it out. The kayak situation would definitely be another story, and I think I would use it a bit more frequently and further away if hauling it didn't involve strapping it to the car roof and hoping it doesn't come loose somehow. In the past it wasn't as much of an issue since I only had a 9.5' regular kayak I modified for fishing use, but since, I've got a 12' Shadow Caster and man, it's heavy to put on the roof, and it sticking out more past the roof also makes me more leery about taking it out when it's windier, cause driving at high speeds is not comforting when you see the wind lift up the front of the kayak even if just a bit. Putting that on the truck should be easier to do, but it would still stick out quite a bit past the bed, seeing how that's 6 foot, and the kayak 12. Though with a few straps it would probably be a lot more comfortingly secured, since the wind wouldn't be having as much an effect on it, with the cab of the truck cutting through the wind/turbulence first. Another pro for the truck would be that I could potentially get a small boat and trailer later on (how big of a boat you guys think would be safe to tow with those?), and that I wouldn't have problems getting building supplies right when I want to, such as fencing material and lumber and such. On the flip side driving just to wade or bank fish spots more than an hour away would be better with a regular or small sedan. I guess I'm trying to weigh all the pro's and cons appropriately, so that's why I'm posting this.