Trailer Towing Capacity

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Great Lakes Grady

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Greetings! I'm a relative newbie to this message board, although not brand new to boating. Some background information first, followed by a question.

I grew up fishing on Lake Michigan, my dad had a 1978 Sea Ray SRV 240. It was a great boat for salmon fishing and handling the chop that Lake Michigan is famous for.

Now as I prepare to retire, I'm considering purchasing a boat, one that I can trailer and use on the Great Lakes. The 24'-26' class is what I'm looking at. I really like the GW Freedom 235 and interested in learning more about the new Freedom 265 too. Other boats I've researched include the Boston Whaler Vantage 240, Cobia 240 DC, as well as the Pursuit DC 246 and 266.

My Ford F-150 has a trailer towing capacity of 7,600 pounds, so I know I'm good to go with any of the 24' models, but the 26' models might be cutting it close.

I'd love to hear what your thoughts and experiences are with GWs (and other brands), particularly those who boat on the Great Lakes.
 
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As mentioned in the other threads, as well as just common sense overall, a boat is going to weigh considerably more wet than you think it will, and it's especially going to weigh more than just the dry weight plus a few add-on's. As mentioned in the other thread, a 235 Freedom has a maximum weight of 6,400 lbs, of which that is just the boat and doesn't include the weight of the trailer. I've got an aluminum I-beam trailer for my 228 Seafarer and it weighs I believe 975 lbs, of which I imagine one for a 235 Freedom and above is going to weigh even more than that. A galvanized trailer is only going to weigh more on top of that. So, I'd either be considering A. A smaller/lighter boat or B. A bigger tow vehicle. Considering that a 235 Freedom has a max weight of 6,400+ lbs plus a 1k+ lb trailer, that's going to put you at essentially your maximum towing capacity of 7,600 lbs, if not even more than that, which I honestly wouldn't recommend doing. If you're trailering less than 10 miles or so and doing so on flat, dry concrete at lower speeds then that is one thing and is up to you to decide on whether you'd like to risk that or not. If you're doing anything more than that, as mentioned I'd definitely consider a larger tow vehicle, as I personally wouldn't want to be trailering over the maximum towing limit for my vehicle, especially if there was an accident/incident involving said tow vehicle along with liability issues.
 
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