GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Anyone ever Tow a small boat? I see the owners manual states 1500 lb towing rating. The Hidden hitch says its good for 2000 lbs. I might buy a boat that weights about 1900 lbs boat/trailer. Any thoughts?

They make those tow ratings for a reason, not to sat I have never exceeded a tow rating. Here are some potential problems to watch out for. Your towed weight compared to vehicle weight is getting a little close. this will show up as the trailer driving the car. Your auto transmision/engine may overheat at highway speeds or with a manual transmision, the clutch may burn/glaze when pulling boat up the ramp. If the trailer had brakes it would be a big plus, otherwise it's going to be tough to stop. And last thing I can think of is the need to retourqe the mounting fasteners between the hitch and the unibody. This is a problem anytime you put a hitch on a unibody regaurdless of towed weight. You may want to rent a u-haul trailer and load it to the same weight just to give it a try before buying the boat. Good luck.

John, Thanks for the reply. The Vibe would be an interim tow vehicle for a year of so when my company car PT cruiser gets replaced with a company Ford Escape which will then become the primary tow vehicle(200 HP V6). All towing will be local(less than 10 miles each way) so i plan on babying it.

I have a waverunner that I may tow this summer with the Vibe if I decide to keep it. Total weight of the boat + trailer is under 1000 lbs, though. I haven't bought a hitch for my Vibe yet so I can't say from experience what it would be like. Towing it with my former Mustang was not much of a problem, but it was a fairly torquey V6. Considering that the Vibe GT has little low end torque and a propensity to eat clutches, I am rethinking the whole boat thing. I don't use it that much (I think it still has less than 10 hrs on it and I've only had it out 5-6 times), but it really is fun. I'm thinking of selling it and using part of the money from it to buy the classic Cadillac that I'd really like. Cars are really more my thing I guess.

I towed my Jet Ski last season and it weighs about 1000lbs. I had no problems with it. The boat launches around here are real steep and that wasnt even a problem. If you have a clutch dont let a friend try to to pull it out, my friend did a number on mine