Spirit of Gratitude
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2009
- Messages
- 334
- Fluid Motion Model
- C-288 C
- Hull Identification Number
- R2924
- Vessel Name
- Spirit of Gratitude
- MMSI Number
- 338105727
I wanted to give anyone out there that may be thinking of towing a Ranger 29 my feedback on how it went for me.
I tow Spirit of Gratitude with a 2005 3/4 Ton Dodge Cummins diesel truck. When we first took delivery of our boat four weeks ago I insisted on towing it myself to water for the first time from the factory in Monroe. Andrew was very accommodating on that decision.
I spent more time over the winter wondering how the truck was going to perform under the test. The last thing I wanted to do was to have to buy another truck.
I towed my other boat all over the western states and Mexico. I was very comfortable with it. It had an 8.6 beam and was around 10,000 lbs.
Knowing the Ranger 29 was going to be wider and heavier, I really did not know what to fully expect because towing something that size was a first for me. I did lots of research on my truck and made sure that I was not asking too much of it. All that checked out fine.
We hooked up the boat to my truck and the first thing I noticed is that the back of the truck did not go down much. So the tongue weight was set very well. I have not made any upgrades to my suspension.
The break controller I had in the truck worked just fine with the trailer set up. I went with the Float On trailer due to the fact that it is 1400lbs lighter then the EZ Loader. The float on trailer came with a break controller, but I never opened the box. I will keep it as a spare.
As we pulled out to go to the launch ramp and headed down Hwy 2 towards Everett, the next worry I had was how would it be with this boat being so much wider then my last. This whole oversize load thing weighed on my mind a bit also.
Well as we were going down the hwy with a bit of morning traffic my first thought was I really can not tell much difference between this boat and my last one, which did not need the oversize load sign. The stopping power of the electric over hydraulic breaks was awesome! Never once did I feel I could not stop the rig.
This is what brought the next big smile on my face 😀 . The number two worry was put to rest. I thought to myself this is no big deal. I think I built it up much bigger in my mind then it really was.
The next step was to put her in the water. I have done a lot of boat launching in my life and the Ranger 29 was really no different then any other. You just go through all your launching steps and go for it. The launching went very well. Another big smile on my face 😀
I had a chance to tow it back to the factory a couple of times while we were there for our three week sea trail, to have some other systems installed (which I may add went very well, and we found nothing of any major concern with the boat). Howard and his team did a wonderful job building our boat and we had no complaints. The little things that did come up were handles very quickly and with ease.
I got very comfortable with launching and loading the boat by myself. Now let me add that it is always nice to have someone help but as I said before I have done this a lot in the past and was ok with doing it by myself. Howard was always willing to come down to help but after the first time or two I was good to go on my own and did not want to bother him. After all he has a plant to run, although I think he likes the excuse to steal away for a bit. 😉
Well the time came for me to get ready to bring our new baby home. Getting the permits was as easy as making one phone call to a service that will handle all the ones you need for a fee. I needed one to get me through four states. It took about five min on the phone and they faxed them over within a couple of hours.
The cost to go back to Colorado was $106.00. They charge a $30.00 fee for that service on top of the permit cost.
This too brought another smile to my face. 🙂
Now it was time to go tackle those mountain passes. As I hit my first one I was very glad to see the Dodge just pull the grade at 50 to 60mph with no big deal. Going down the grades was also easy with the great breaks that are on the trailer. I really never needed to hit them much for the rig would naturally want to slow down on it's own when I would let off the gas.
Their was a very minor bit of sway at times if their was wind or bumps. It never felt like a very big deal to me.
I put the rig through about every test I could and it passed with flying colors. I went over snowy slushy passes that were not restricted to oversize loads when I checked and thought that maybe they should be once I committed to going over.
The wet and somewhat slushy roads were not a big deal but when I approached the summit of the pass just outside of Provo Utah it was snow packed and a white out. This got my attention! I pulled over at a pull out and waited for a bit.
I was not sure how much further the summit was and at this point I was thinking what the heck did I get myself into. :shock:
I noticed that big Motor homes towing cars and boats were still flying on by. The semi trucks were not even chained up. Well after a bit of contemplation I decided to carry on. Keep in mind that I now know exactly how much weight I am towing now, for I stopped at a flying J and put the boat and trailer on the scale and weighed it without the truck.
I had emptied all the water and waste out of the boat before leaving and only had 15% fuel total on board. I did this on purpose, for why would you want to tow all that extra weight. Full fuel alone would be a extra 1000lbs. Ad water and waste and you have close to 1800lbs on extra weight. Better to tow lighter in my opinion.
The total weight of the boat and trailer was 13,920lbs. I have to say that it was a bit heavier then I thought it would be, but the truck did not mind it so neither did I.
The summit was only a couple of more miles up the road and then the roads became just wet again. This was my last day of travel and it was the most stressful. This is only due to weather I had encountered on my home stretch. It was blowing and snowing or raining most of the last day. It was not sticking to the road, so that made it a bit easier.
If I thought that the wind was pushing me around to much then I would have pulled over and waited it out. It to was not a real big factor. It just keeps one alert.
The trip took only 2 1/2 days. I traveled only during day light hours due to the oversize load restrictions. I could have put a flashing yellow light on the truck and trailer and traveled at night but for the first trip I elected not to.
I will in the future now that I am comfortable towing such a load. Baby steps! but I never stay in baby shoes very long. 😉
In summary, I feel that I will tow this boat anywhere. All of my worries are gone, and have been replaced with the experience. I am very please how well the whole trip went. I will be towing the boat through Mexico and wherever our hearts desire.
John & David Livingston has truly built a trailerable trawler that can be towed with a 3/4 diesel truck. This it truly the boat and set up we have been looking for. We now feel that we have so many possibility's before us. I know we are going to have a blast exploring many new territory's 😀
My hat is off to the whole Ranger team from the top all the way down for representing this boat as it truly is. Never once did I feel like I was being told one thing and something else was really true. My experience speaks for it all. These guys are successful because they are real and true to there customers. I am not sure if you will find that with most of the other boat builders out there . They truly stand on there own and should be proud of what they have produced.
In closing, I want to say again that I have towed for many years and know what to expect and what to look for. If you are a first time tower and are starting out with a Ranger 29, I would highly recommend learning all you can about towing; how to adjust your break controller and what to listen and feel for while towing. Like anything else when just starting out, educate yourself by talking to people who are knowledgeable and approach it with respect. If you do this and you have the mind set that you can do this, then you will be just fine and the world will open up to you. 😉
Thanks for putting up with such a long post!
Stuart&Bridget....... Spirit of Gratitude
P.S. Fuel burn on the Dodge was about 11.5mpg on average. After all were are talking about close to 14,000lbs
I tow Spirit of Gratitude with a 2005 3/4 Ton Dodge Cummins diesel truck. When we first took delivery of our boat four weeks ago I insisted on towing it myself to water for the first time from the factory in Monroe. Andrew was very accommodating on that decision.
I spent more time over the winter wondering how the truck was going to perform under the test. The last thing I wanted to do was to have to buy another truck.
I towed my other boat all over the western states and Mexico. I was very comfortable with it. It had an 8.6 beam and was around 10,000 lbs.
Knowing the Ranger 29 was going to be wider and heavier, I really did not know what to fully expect because towing something that size was a first for me. I did lots of research on my truck and made sure that I was not asking too much of it. All that checked out fine.
We hooked up the boat to my truck and the first thing I noticed is that the back of the truck did not go down much. So the tongue weight was set very well. I have not made any upgrades to my suspension.
The break controller I had in the truck worked just fine with the trailer set up. I went with the Float On trailer due to the fact that it is 1400lbs lighter then the EZ Loader. The float on trailer came with a break controller, but I never opened the box. I will keep it as a spare.
As we pulled out to go to the launch ramp and headed down Hwy 2 towards Everett, the next worry I had was how would it be with this boat being so much wider then my last. This whole oversize load thing weighed on my mind a bit also.
Well as we were going down the hwy with a bit of morning traffic my first thought was I really can not tell much difference between this boat and my last one, which did not need the oversize load sign. The stopping power of the electric over hydraulic breaks was awesome! Never once did I feel I could not stop the rig.
This is what brought the next big smile on my face 😀 . The number two worry was put to rest. I thought to myself this is no big deal. I think I built it up much bigger in my mind then it really was.
The next step was to put her in the water. I have done a lot of boat launching in my life and the Ranger 29 was really no different then any other. You just go through all your launching steps and go for it. The launching went very well. Another big smile on my face 😀
I had a chance to tow it back to the factory a couple of times while we were there for our three week sea trail, to have some other systems installed (which I may add went very well, and we found nothing of any major concern with the boat). Howard and his team did a wonderful job building our boat and we had no complaints. The little things that did come up were handles very quickly and with ease.
I got very comfortable with launching and loading the boat by myself. Now let me add that it is always nice to have someone help but as I said before I have done this a lot in the past and was ok with doing it by myself. Howard was always willing to come down to help but after the first time or two I was good to go on my own and did not want to bother him. After all he has a plant to run, although I think he likes the excuse to steal away for a bit. 😉
Well the time came for me to get ready to bring our new baby home. Getting the permits was as easy as making one phone call to a service that will handle all the ones you need for a fee. I needed one to get me through four states. It took about five min on the phone and they faxed them over within a couple of hours.
The cost to go back to Colorado was $106.00. They charge a $30.00 fee for that service on top of the permit cost.
This too brought another smile to my face. 🙂
Now it was time to go tackle those mountain passes. As I hit my first one I was very glad to see the Dodge just pull the grade at 50 to 60mph with no big deal. Going down the grades was also easy with the great breaks that are on the trailer. I really never needed to hit them much for the rig would naturally want to slow down on it's own when I would let off the gas.
Their was a very minor bit of sway at times if their was wind or bumps. It never felt like a very big deal to me.
I put the rig through about every test I could and it passed with flying colors. I went over snowy slushy passes that were not restricted to oversize loads when I checked and thought that maybe they should be once I committed to going over.
The wet and somewhat slushy roads were not a big deal but when I approached the summit of the pass just outside of Provo Utah it was snow packed and a white out. This got my attention! I pulled over at a pull out and waited for a bit.
I was not sure how much further the summit was and at this point I was thinking what the heck did I get myself into. :shock:
I noticed that big Motor homes towing cars and boats were still flying on by. The semi trucks were not even chained up. Well after a bit of contemplation I decided to carry on. Keep in mind that I now know exactly how much weight I am towing now, for I stopped at a flying J and put the boat and trailer on the scale and weighed it without the truck.
I had emptied all the water and waste out of the boat before leaving and only had 15% fuel total on board. I did this on purpose, for why would you want to tow all that extra weight. Full fuel alone would be a extra 1000lbs. Ad water and waste and you have close to 1800lbs on extra weight. Better to tow lighter in my opinion.
The total weight of the boat and trailer was 13,920lbs. I have to say that it was a bit heavier then I thought it would be, but the truck did not mind it so neither did I.
The summit was only a couple of more miles up the road and then the roads became just wet again. This was my last day of travel and it was the most stressful. This is only due to weather I had encountered on my home stretch. It was blowing and snowing or raining most of the last day. It was not sticking to the road, so that made it a bit easier.
If I thought that the wind was pushing me around to much then I would have pulled over and waited it out. It to was not a real big factor. It just keeps one alert.
The trip took only 2 1/2 days. I traveled only during day light hours due to the oversize load restrictions. I could have put a flashing yellow light on the truck and trailer and traveled at night but for the first trip I elected not to.
I will in the future now that I am comfortable towing such a load. Baby steps! but I never stay in baby shoes very long. 😉
In summary, I feel that I will tow this boat anywhere. All of my worries are gone, and have been replaced with the experience. I am very please how well the whole trip went. I will be towing the boat through Mexico and wherever our hearts desire.
John & David Livingston has truly built a trailerable trawler that can be towed with a 3/4 diesel truck. This it truly the boat and set up we have been looking for. We now feel that we have so many possibility's before us. I know we are going to have a blast exploring many new territory's 😀
My hat is off to the whole Ranger team from the top all the way down for representing this boat as it truly is. Never once did I feel like I was being told one thing and something else was really true. My experience speaks for it all. These guys are successful because they are real and true to there customers. I am not sure if you will find that with most of the other boat builders out there . They truly stand on there own and should be proud of what they have produced.
In closing, I want to say again that I have towed for many years and know what to expect and what to look for. If you are a first time tower and are starting out with a Ranger 29, I would highly recommend learning all you can about towing; how to adjust your break controller and what to listen and feel for while towing. Like anything else when just starting out, educate yourself by talking to people who are knowledgeable and approach it with respect. If you do this and you have the mind set that you can do this, then you will be just fine and the world will open up to you. 😉
Thanks for putting up with such a long post!
Stuart&Bridget....... Spirit of Gratitude
P.S. Fuel burn on the Dodge was about 11.5mpg on average. After all were are talking about close to 14,000lbs