Towing with a Ford Ranger?

I tow with a Ranger with a V6 3.0 and in my opinion, I need a hemi! Just not enough juice to pull up the hills around here.

True story — back in 1992 I was talking fishing with a guy I work with. This was before I owned a boat and he mentioned that he had a boat and his sister lived on a private lake but we could put in on “her launch” and get some nice panfish, etc. Of course I took him up on his offer.

I pulled up in his driveway and saw his nice little 14′ and 25hp combo trailered up and hooked to one of these:

Sure enough his little festiva towed us to the lake that day. While we didn’t look cool, we got in and out that day just fine. We even caught some fish.

Thanks for all the advice guys, I still haven’t made up my mind,

Gills and Specks, how do you like your Mazda? I have an 87 B2000 4 cyl. 2wd 5 spd with the “optional” power steering, I love that thing, about 24 mpg, runs like a champ, don’t have to worry about scratches, dings, only problem is, the box has disentegrated to a skeleton, I think it’s about as biodegradeable as toilet paper, but the cab is rock solid, so I know what my summer project will be.

My brother in law has a 3.0 Ranger that he uses to tow his 16′ lund and he seems to do just fine with it. It is a little bit sluggish going up hills and passing, but if you go with a 4.0 you should do just fine with a smaller boat.

If you get a good enough deal maybe you could change motors right away and put in a Chevy 5300. Should tow real good then.

GUNDEZ-71

I use to tow a V14 Alumacraft [bench seat style boat] with a 1988 Horizon and it towed fine. Boat was light enough. Nate has a Ford Ranger with a 3.0 motor and blew the motor towing an enclosed work trailer on the highway. He had to replace it with another 3.0 motor. I was going to buy a Ranger but wanted the 4.0 motor so more power but went with the AWD Chevy Astro Van instead as it has a strong 4.3 motor and offers sleeping room. His Ranger does tow a boat better than an enclosed trailer though. The enclosed trailer bucks the wind big time.
Thanks, Bill

I was interested in your post because I recently bought a 2003 Ranger to pull my rig which weighs 2000lbs. It is a 4X4 equipped with a 4.0 L. V6 engine and the 5000lb tow package. So far it’s been o.k. but I haven’t taken any longer trips yet-namely Mpls to Mille Lacs. My biggest miscalculation was not taking into consideration the width of the truck compared to the width of my boat (Lund 16 Pro Angler) and have found that it can be a bit scary in tight situations.At the time I was looking for a vehicle, I was also considering the Dodge Dakota. It does have a V8 and is a wider truck for not that much more money. Kind of an inbetweener truck-not really full size but larger than the rest of the mid size trucks. I ended up going with Ford because Consumer’s Reports rated Ford better for repairs.If I had it to do over again, if I couldn’t go with a full size truck-F150 maybe-I’d take a more serious look at the Dodge Dakota.Good Luck and Good Fishn to ya!