Tow vehicle for 190 Bay?

[mudd-mann]

Hey guys with 190 bays or equiv. I am looking to get rid of a couple gas guzzlers and want to know what is the smallest vehicle/engine that any of you use to pull this boat? I currently have a Ford Expedition with 5.6 V8, which does a great job, but 12 mpg is tough on the pocket. I have looked at Toyota Tocoma, Nissan Frontier, and the Explorer Sportrac all with V6-4.0 engines, but don't know whether they can handle the boat. Ford would give me the best trade, but the Sportrac has the lowest hp rating of any of the 3. Most of my travel is Mid-NC to the NC coast, but an occasional trip to the foothills of NC. Any help with this decision would be appreciated. Don

[Cincinnati]

The Explorer Spot Trac is the nicest looking of the bunch and has the right tow rating and crew cab. I would weigh the benefit of downsizing on gas with the cost of changing vehicles. That Expy is a much nicer vehicle for the family! I've got the 04 F150 with the 5.4L crew cab and it is clearly overkill for my 190 Bay. I could tow twice my boat with that truck. But the truck itself is wonderful. What a vehicle!

[Putershark]

I had a 02 Tacoma Pre-Runner 3.3 V6 and pulled our old 03 210 with it. As long as you stayed around 60 and were in no rush (here again it is pretty flat in Florida) it was OK, but took a major hit in gas mileage when towing to around 13.5 MPG. In other words, the point of negative returns from working that small engine so hard to move that 21 footer.

I now have 05 Tundra D cab which as a very small 32 valve VVT V8 (4.7 liter) which does great both in town and when towing for such a large truck. I have tracked every tank of fuel on a spread sheet and average almost 20 on the highway, 17 in town and 15 when towing our 190 bay "if" I stay below 65 (overdrive) on the highway.

I have made the following changes to help get such mileage over the stock truck and they are....


1. I have hard folding bed cover (so I can still see the boat when backing down a boat ramp with the tailgate down) to help clean up the air flow over the bed while on the highway.

2. I have all the windows tinted so the A/C does not work as hard.

3. The truck is white (same reason as #2)

4. K&N air filter installed.

5. And until I get 15k on the engine (broken in at that point) I put in some STP oil treatment (Stay Together Please) every 3k or so even if it is not due for an oil change... After such I will switch it to a Synthetic Oil.

6. I have my tires about 2 to 3 psi higher than what is called for on the door sticker (around 37) to help reduce my rolling resistance.

7. As I stated above, I also track every single tank of fuel burned to see which fuels give me the best ROI (Return on Investment) and found out that the 2 cents per gallon less for the Sam's Club fuel "costs me" more in lower fuel mileage! So unless it is really a lot less per gallon, I pretty much always put in Chevron 87 AND Chevron is the only fuel that goes into my boat due to their superior detergent package (Techron) to help keep everything all nice an clean on the inside.


So I would be careful about changing unless you are going to see some real positive gains and would consider some performace upgrades to your present ride before changing UNLESS you are really due for a new ride like I get every 5 years or so


Dave

[mudd-mann]

Thanks for the info guys. What's this about the K&N air filter? Is it something that really works to improve gas mileage and will it work on my Expedition?
I just sold my old '87 Chevy pickup and would like a 4 door pickup. That's my main reason for changing rides, but I don't want to do it and not be happy with the change. I have had weak pulling vehicles before and don't want that problem again. The Sportrac would be my first choice, but 205 hp is pretty low. Tacoma has 245 hp. That appears to be enough for the 190, but once you buy it's too late if you're wrong. Don

[Putershark]

I would equate using the stock air filter to trying to jog with your hand over your mouth... Same goes for the exhaust system, but I like my trucks to stay all nice and quiet and my days of headers and cherry bombs on my off road racer are long gone besides, all that noise just kills the sound of the Smooth Jazz oozing out of my JBL speakers

My wife had a 04 4 runner with the 4.0 V6 and it got as bad or worse MPG as my full sized Tundra. Here again with the 4 Runner, you are dealing with a heavy brick of a truck and an engine that is working hard to move it... She traded hers in for an Access Cab Tundra (this way I could finally have my truck back) and she loves it. She spends about the same for fuel, less for insurance, and has better power to pass... If I could afford such, I would put her in a M1A1 Tank to keep her safe but yes, I feel better knowing that she in riding in just that much more metal surrounding both her and my step daughter.

Really though it is bottom end torque and not horse power that moves weight. The MPG advantage of the Toyota V8 is its small displacement, but it has variable valve timing and 32 valves to make up for the fewer cubic inches. We also have to remember that with the bigger trucks come bigger brakes (one of your limits on towing weights) and even though the 190 is not huge, bringing it all to a whoa in a panic stop is both quicker and safer with full sized brakes doing all the work.

Now you can install a K&N Filter on pretty much any engine, but I would not do such if you are going to trade it in. The critical thing though is to “track” your fuel burn rates to see if the money you are spending for both fuel and engine improvements is giving you any returns? For even if it is tiny 1/10th of a gallon increase then in time, that change will pay for it's self in better performance. Now I have a spread sheet I can send to you that does all of its own running calculations of you need one.

Dave

[Lazy Loafer]

Just my 2 cents, and I will avoid getting complicated with the pros and cons of modifying and/or switching vehicles for the purpose of enhancing fuel efficiency. I pull my '03 190 Bay with a 1987 Dodge Dakota SE P/U, 2WD, equipped with a 3.9L V6, rated, as best and can tell at 125HP. The truck certainly is no powerhouse, and its mpg while towing is little concern since the distance from home to the ramp is only 20 miles. All I can say is that it pulls the 190 adequately along 2 lane blacktop on flatland (I live in southern NJ) and on the Garden State Parkway at 60 mph. I come up the ramp out of the water without problem. I do sense that if I were to try to climb hills that everyone following me would be cursing that sob in the front who was holding them back. For me getting a new tow vehicle was a non-issue. I had the truck already-low mileage at 50,000-and could afford only one thing. Either I buy a new truck or a new boat, and of course there was only one answer to that question since the truck runs fine and didn't need replacing.

[k9reno]

My first tow vehicle was an explorer sport trac. I was pulling a 210cc with 1/2 tank fuel and fishing equip. I towed over 6000 miles the frist yr with it and had no problems. I had to work a little in the mountains in WV and NC and that one monster incline in Tenn. but it did get the job done. The main reason I moved up to an F150 supercrew V8 was that I wanted the truck to be my last tow vehicle and I didnt think the tranny would have the needed life span pullin my 210. I dont know the exact weight differnace but I dont think you should have any problem with the 190 bay.

[Cincinnati]

Originally Posted by k9reno

My first tow vehicle was an explorer sport trac. I was pulling a 210cc with 1/2 tank fuel and fishing equip. I towed over 6000 miles the frist yr with it and had no problems. I had to work a little in the mountains in WV and NC and that one monster incline in Tenn. but it did get the job done. The main reason I moved up to an F150 supercrew V8 was that I wanted the truck to be my last tow vehicle and I didnt think the tranny would have the needed life span pullin my 210. I dont know the exact weight differnace but I dont think you should have any problem with the 190 bay.

Well there you go - someone who actually pulled a bigger boat with the Spot Trac. Any gas mileage stats on that Reno?

[k9reno]

Unbelievably I get the same milage with the boat on with both vehicles. I got an average of 10 mpg with both pulling at the speed limit and that includes climbing mountains. The milage was not near what I had hoped for or what I hear people talking about. If Icould afford to do it again I would porbably try an F250 superduty deisel

[Cincinnati]

That more or less confirms what I've read - that a smaller motor working harder uses just as much gas as a bigger one working less.