Some advice on Hitch

[stever40]

Well done @stever40 ! Glad to hear you decided to err to the side of caution. You won't regret it.

Meanwhile, this board continues our tradition of costing our fellow members more money than they had planned to spend.

Thank you Biglar. I am sure I will be spending a fair amount of time here and money

Kind of ironic as 90% of me wants spring here now so the family can enjoy the boat and I can learn what I need and don't need. (Not that all of you wont give me hints). The other 10% of me wants winter to come back so I can put some add-ons in the boat. Maybe I should just do it at the same time!!

 

[itsdgm]

Thank you Biglar. I am sure I will be spending a fair amount of time here and money

Kind of ironic as 90% of me wants spring here now so the family can enjoy the boat and I can learn what I need and don't need. (Not that all of you wont give me hints). The other 10% of me wants winter to come back so I can put some add-ons in the boat. Maybe I should just do it at the same time!!

A word of caution.

Not sure which "school" you subscribe to but Once you open up the checkbook (old school), pull out the plastic (new school) or Paypal/EFT (modern camp) for boat mods it's almost impossible to stop

 

[Mgarciah]

HI, this is my first post here, and I don't want to open a new thread, I have jetskis for years and now I'm thinking to buy a Scarab 215 within the next month or two, but I have a question, I tow our jetski with one axle trailer (no brakes), they are two seadoos (GTR and GTX) which combine weight may be around 1900lbs plus trailer which I guess may be 800lbs for total of around 2700lbs, I use a BMW x5 to tow them and worked perfectly, sometimes you even forget that you are towing, but here comes my issue, we have some steepy ramps to drop our jetskis and some have gravel, no pavement or concrete, here I usually slipped a little, Scarab 215 2016 plus trailer should be around 4000lbs, this scarab trailer seems to come with surge brakes, are these brakes would help me to avoid slip?

 

[txav8r]

Welcome aboard @Mgarciah ! Glad to have you with us! Costa Rica? We had another member that was from central america, but I don't remember for sure, maybe Panama? Let me answer a few of your questions. The first thing to do is figure your GCVW, this is your combined weight your tow vehicle can handle, the next is the weight of your vehicle, and the boat. If you can add 4000 pounds to the vehicle and stay under the GCVW, your fine. As to slipping on a ramp, that is an issue that drove many boat owners to have a 4x4 vehicle for towing. I personally have a Chevy Silverado 4x4 pickup truck and have never slipped on the ramp with it. Surge brakes are an adequate braking mechanism that can get wet and still deliver braking ability without corrosion fears. Surge brakes use the trailer weight and vehicle speed to apply brakes. When your vehicle slows, that allows the trailer to press against your vehicle, compressing an actuator, and applying the trailer brakes. Yamaha uses them as do other manufacturers. I have had two different Yamaha jet boats with two different manufacturers of trailers, and both used UFP (Unique Fabricated Products) products on their trailers. UFP is the parent company of products that trailer manufacturers use, the axles, brakes, wheel bearings, springs, surge brake actuators, and bearing greasers. There are other manufacturers of these products, but UFP is a big player in the market. Welcome again to the forum, glad to have you with us!

 

[robbo3]

Look at the BMW forums about towing loads with the X5, if you have the diesel or v8 not as much as a problem than with the six. That said, my town vehicle is similarly sized and I haven't had an issue. Slippage can also be attributed to the condition of your tires.

I beleive that surge brakes will only help when going forward due to the actuator compressing. They would not help backing down a ramp.

If it's real slippery, try a block behind a wheel.

 

[itsdgm]

Hello and welcome aboard @Mgarciah. Glad that you found us and decided to join. I don't have any experience towing with that vehicle so I can't help you there. I can tell you that surge trailer brakes won't help hold you on the ramp. They have to disengage while backing in order to get down the ramp and only activate while driving forward and the boat/trailer surge forward while slowing down. Hope that helps you out. Good luck with finding the right boat.