Minimum tow vehicle need to pull a ....
 

What is the smallest tow vehicle that could be used to safely tow a 43' Scarab?

Roby

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1Ton Daully!

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Hey Roby did u put miracle grow on it or did ya have the little woman rub real hard?????????



CM (Y)

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Rob,

I would say at least a dually... :D

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What is the total weight of the boat and trailer? Gooseneck trailer or not may also sway the decision.... How far do you plan on towing?? I know some guys that use trucks way under rating for the boat, however they only tow it a mile down the road to the ramp..... they would think twice about towing it on a long trip....

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Yep, at least a one ton dually... and not an older one... The newer trucks have much better trans and brakes....brakes...

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I would guess that the 43 Scarab would be comparable to our 45 Apache. We had a F-450 dually, but sold that to upgrade to a medium duty tow vehicle. Our dually was OK for local towing and would make it from point A to point B on long trips, but that boat and trailer combination was above the weight rating for the truck. With the truck being overloaded, I was worried about an accident, even if somebody else ran into us. If the police caught one of us overloaded at an accident, they would have a field day writing tickets.

When we were in the accident towing the race boat (we were rear ended and not at fault) the police went over our truck and trailer from end to end and even weighed it with a set of portable scales. Luckily that boat was fairly light and we were legal everywhere they looked. I wonder, if they went through all of this when we weren't at fault, what would they do if the accident was our fault? That's why we upgraded to the bigger truck when we got the Apache. We wanted to keep things safe and legal.

Around town and for local towing a 1 ton dually will get you there, but for anything else I would consider going a little bigger. If you shop around you can find a one or two year old medium duty truck for not much more than the price of a new dually. When we bought our Peterbilt, it was a little over two years old, but it had less than 3000 miles on it! That's not a typo. These trucks are out there if you look around a little.

The bottom line is that you need to consider how far you are going to be towing, exactly what kind of weight you are looking at with boat and trailer and whether you are willing to take the risk of being overloaded if the situation ever comes up. Also take into consideration the safety of your boat when towing with an overloaded truck. We all have a lot of money and time invested in our boats and it would be a shame to see one damaged in an accident that could have been avoided.

So now that I am finished preaching, post some pics of the Scarab so that we can all drool over it! :D

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I would look at a freightliner Fl50 60 70 series or the peterbuilts, with the freightliners the new body style has came out M2 and the older body styles are starting to get cheap.

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Just get a semi-- about a 2002 or 2003 with about 400k miles for less then a new dually.

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Yeah get a big old Peterbuilt to haul that thing around with, I have a CDL, just call me and I'll run you out to the water!!! :drink:

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I would recommend an F-650 or even 550. A dually will work but you will have to work hard when driving and stopping.

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That was exactly my feeling.

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Rob in TX you can also get a used class 8 rig do some minor things to it real minor and tag it as a MH cheaper insurance and tags.