well me and a couple of friends went to a camp at Toledo Bend, a really huge lake on the Louisiana/Texas border, and we had a 22 foot Stratos boat w/ a frikin 3.0L V6 2 stroke 200 HP, that thing hauled major ***. well a guy w/ a 4x4 tahoe launched it for us cuz the landing is really steep and gravel. but a couple days later the weather was gettin bad so we decided to pick it up, and he wasnt there, so my friend(who the boat is for) said "oh you can pick it up" and i was thinking, um no. but we did any way. i started spinning on the way up and BARELY made it, while he kept saying "put it in 4 LO", and i would laugh every time. well we got it up and i told him my truck was 2wd, he couldnt believe it haha, but yeah the ranger came through, will have pics of my truck w/ the boat in a few days, gettin the disposable camera developed. but we had a great time, also had a jet ski there, i HAVE to get one of those, so fun.......sorry so long

jd

 

a 4.0 SOHC can do A LOT of things man.... nice story!

 

psht idk Q... my moms 4.0 can barely pull my damn boat... coming up the ramps with my light 19 foot aluminum boat it whines and can struggles like a baby girl... i had no problems with my truck before i got it lifted.. got to love the ohv engine eh?

 

Yep...

I like my 4.0

Nice story tho...

 

Nice story!

Don't you love it when people think your truck is 4WD? For some odd reason many people think that my truck is 4WD...I can't help but laugh.

 

haha yeah, ppl always think its 4wd......we have a 19 ft bass tracker w/ a 60HP on it and my truck gets it fine, but its aluminum and the boat i pulled up was fiberglass, that makes a big diff.

jd

 

Well the sticker doesn't help, at first glance I thought you were 4x4 too!

 

so thats wut the 2 is for. ive been damn hung over confused tryin to figer out wut the hell an fx2 was. i even asked about it a few times somewhere on here.

 

Are they really that bad towing? Looking to pull about 3k lb plus people in the cab?

 

Towing a boat, even a large rig like that, should pose NO problem for you.

The Ranger with a 4.0 SOHC is rated to tow over 4,000 pounds. No bass rig will ever weigh that. Most rigs, including trailer, are just at (mostly under) 3,000 pounds. I tow boats with my 3.0 all the time.

Lake ramps require a certain finesse about them. There's nothing to it, though.

 

I used to routinely tow a 17' Glastron fiberglass tri-hull w/ a Johnson 50 HP outboard plus a long weekend's worth of equipment and stuff w/ my '99 XL Sport w/ the 2.5L I4 and a manual trans. The thing did just fine, even up in the foothills of the White Mountians. By 'did just fine' I mean it made it up the hills and was usually able to keep highway speeds, although it often required downshifting. OD (aka 5th) was often moderately useless, and my MPG figures droped quite a bit, but it did the job.

This is partly why I was so surprised to see the towing specs on my brand new 4.0L V6 powered 4x4. A lot of folks tell me that Ford is overly cautious w/ the specs and the truck will gladly tow more, as long as it isn't every day and you take it easy. All I ask is it be able to tow up to a 18-19' fiberglass inboard (like the one my dad just bought).

Hell, I used to tow that same Glastron outboard w/ a 1986 VW Jetta 1.8L I4!

Like John said, ramps are the biggest problem. I used to get lots of 'looks' from people at the ramp when I pulled in w/ my lowly Ranger. Once I even got aproached by a guy who insisted I'd never be able to get the boat out of the water. He volunteered to use his Chevy full-size to yank it out, then we'd transfer the trailer on level ground. I almost took him up on it, but then decided to give it a shot. W/ a little fancy clutch work and some white nuckles the boat came up the ramp though, which is more than I can say w/ some other setups I saw that day.

The worst combo I ever saw was a guy w/ a Dodge conversion van. I'm pretty sure the thing was a V8, and it was definitely RWD, but he just had too much boat. It was a 2x' cabin cruiser type w/ god knows what for an inboard. He probably had the power to tow it, but just couldn't get traction on the slippery ramp. He had his entire family standing on the trailer neck and back bumper of the van trying to put weight on the rear axle, but it wasn't happening. He just ended up spinning tires and making noise.. Traction is a similar problem for us w/ pickups as well. I for one am excited to have 4x4 as a backup plan. 4x4 plus the big gripy AT tires should make ramps cake.
Me too! I was half excited as I expected to hear a towing report from someone w/ an FX4 or LII. My father has a new boat (18' inboard) and I'm planning to tow it this summer. I'm a bit skeptical about how my trusty LII will hold up..