I found a boat HULL (Just a bare Hull) of a 36' Fountain cigarette style boat. It used to have twin engines, but it now has none.... I'm not sure of the wieght, but I'm wondering if my 99 stepside might pull it? I've got to move it (if I buy it) about 40-50 miles down the interstate.

But the bad.... My truck has a 4.6, it does have a transmission cooler, but to make it worse, has a 3.08 rear end.

 

That don't weigh much without the engines. Even less if the interior is out also. Sounds like an expensive project. Marine engines and outdrives are not cheap, and you need two of everything. I'm thinking a couple of 540Bulldogs and Bravo outdrives............

 

Shouldn't be a problem - just turn OD off and make sure your ball mount has the right drop for the height of the trailer tongue.

If you fix it and then want to tow it, trade the 99 in on a Super Duty.

 

Yup - towing it home with the 4.6 will be one the easier tasks ahead.

 

Although the boat weighs a lot less without engines or stern drives in it, you may still have a problem. If it's on a trailer designed for it, without the engines and drives, you're going to have one heck of a tongue weight problem. Your 4.6 will be marginal at best in towing that boat even under the best of conditions. If you go by the book, you'll be waaay over what it's designed to tow - and more importantly - stop.

 

3:08???? Wow, thats an axle ratio I'd expect to see in a car or something, didn't realize they went that low in F-150's. What's your highway mileage like?

 

It should be relatively light, especially no engines and I take it no gas? We drove a F-350 dually s-cab pulling a 33ft Donzi, twin 502's and a full tank of gas, plus that tri-axle trailer made by Pacific wasn't light at all. From San Francisco to Detroit basically no problems. Going over the Rockies was a trick, but do-able with the v-10. You gotta know our boat weighs ALOT more than yours, even with the bigger truck. Even when your boat has engines and gas etc, you should be pretty good, just stay away from steep ramps

 

I'll say it again guys - and I work for a Fountain dealer - he's going to have a HUGE tongue weight problem. A properly designed trailer takes the weight of the boat - as it's distributed in the boat - into account. When you take the heaviest item(s) out of one end of the boat, the weight balance changes significantly. Yes, his boat weighs less than your Donzi, but your Donzi's weight is properly disributed on its trailer.

We once towed a fully equipped 35' Fountain from New York State to Florida with a (brand new) 1997 F-150 extended cab 4x4 with a 4.6 liter motor. I believe it had the 3.55 rear end in it. Let me tell you, we made it, but the poor truck had it's little tongue hanging out.

 

I understand what your saying 2stroked,
any F-150 will tow 3,000 lbs but when 1,500 is on the tongue you got a new ballgame.

Of course, 1500 wouldn't be on the tongue IF two V8s were sitting behind the trailer axles.

 

Think of it as the big kid being close to the pivot point of a teeter toter and then the smallest kid of the class on the other end.

In this case, the trailer hitch will be the pivot point and with most of the balancing weight of the boat being removed, it would cause more weight to be transfered to the rear of the truck making it squat and possibly make the front too light.

 

Gotcha there, forgot that part because while yes, the weigh was on the axles of the trailer, it was still tongue heavy. The rough roads of Detroit made you feel how heavy too (snapped the tow strap). It seemed level enough with a 2" drop ball mount, but maybe more was needed. I wonder how a good weight distribution setup may help, if even an option or possibility given trailer setup. He should be ok to go 50 miles cautiously once in a blue moon though, no?

 

Just to give you guys an idea how much of a change not having some weight in the back of a boat can make, let’s use my boat as an example. I have a 22’ Progression high performance boat that’s fully vacuum bagged for light weight. The hull weighs just 1,250 pounds dry. The modified (240 HP) Mercury outboard weighs about 400 pounds. The whole deal sits on a heavy-duty single axle EZ-Loader trailer. I’d guess the whole boat / motor / trailer weights in at about 3,000 pounds. Even with a full load (56 gallons) of fuel, my tongue weight is about 80 pounds.

Last winter, I removed the power head (approximately 200 pounds) and sent it down to Diamond Marine for a rebuild. So, I removed just 200 pounds from the other end of the trailer. It took two of us to put the trailer back on the ball because the tongue weight had gone up that much. Oh yea, and although my F-150 could easily pull the boat, you really noticed the extra tongue weight. So, imagine what a 11,000 pound Fountain with approximately 2,500 pounds removed from the other end would be like.