Cafe vs Gun Weight
 

What is the realistic weight of a Cafe Racer and a Top Gun on trailer?? Say mid 90's non stepped hulls. I know alluminum vs steel makes a difference. Just trying to get rough figures right now. My truck will tow 15k and I want to stay at or below that.

I'd say about 26,000#. Why are you trying to tow both at once???





I couldn't resist.

LOL... Good one. Not to mention one would be really flat.. A true flat deck.

I think I read some where on here that a top gun weighs about 14,000 trailer and the cafe racer is just a little less. I think the bigger question is what are you going to pull one with? Most people pull Guns with 3500s or F-350s (diesel), or bigger.

My Cafe Brochure says 9600 dry weight stock - I've seen other brochures as high as 10,000 for the Cafe.

Add

100 for swim platform
100 for hydraulic steering/Tie Bar
200 for a pair of blowers
100 for other non-stock running gear (sea strainers, extra props, etc...)
100 for "other stuff" Anchors, Tool Box, Lines.

Add 1300 for fuel
Add 2000 for aluminum trailer, 3000 for steel

Add 200 for coolers and liquor.

I'm nudging up on 14k pretty quickly.

Assume a gun weighs about 300lbs more.

I tow with an F350 Dually Crew Cab and will upgrade to a bigger truck as soon as possible. It's a lot of weight to truely feel "comfortable" with.

My current truck is an 03 Dodge Ram 3500 heavy duty with the 5.9 cummins HO. Its rated to tow 15k. Ive pulled my buddy's 89 Formula 357sr1 with it and you know the boats there. Its almost at my limit on a steel trailer. So, I figured the Cafe should be close. The gun might be a lil too heavy. The whole reason for buying the Ram was to be able to tow it myself when ever i wanted to. No sense getting a boat that is too heavy for what I have and need to rely on borrowing a truck once again.

I put my Cafe on a truck scale.

12,200 on the trailer, 1,300 on the tongue (13,500 total).

Almost no gas, steel trailer (15K lbs rated triple axle) - add a couple hundred pounds for the blowers.

I like the stability of the Dually, but a lot of guys tow these boats with SRW 1-TON trucks like yours...

I couldnt justify buying the dually. As much as it would help when towing, I spend more time driving the truck around city streets without anything behind it. what I plan on doing is getting a second set of rims and running stiff low profile tires. This will make the ride harsher but will take away lateral sway due to having shorter sidewalls. Believe me, I'd love to be able to have a F650 or Gm/Chevy 6500 just for towing the boat. Unfortunately, my truck is a multi use vehicle.

Only problem with the shorfter tire is that all the streaght of the tie is in the side wall. So by shrinking it you are potextially taking away some of the streaght area. Plus with a lower profile that are not forgiving on any type of imperfection in the road. One good hole and you have a pinched wall that leads to a bubble. Once the side wall is comprimised the tire is junk and unsafe.
-Mike