Trailering a 260DA?

Ford F250, at first it looked small when I picked it up at Peter's Marine but it towed it fine and with the Venture Trailer w/surge brakes it stopped very easily much to my surprise.

Good Luck
 
In my opinion, the most important thing is to not get complacent. I tow my 270 twice per year, 22 miles one way with a Dodge duelly(cummins) and I still get nervous. Everything mechanical can fail. I used to haul heavy equipment and had gvw's of 180,000 pounds regularly, and could really feel a 10,000lb difference in a load. In a pickup or suv, it's probably the like feeling a 1000 lb difference. Keep your speeds and following distances according to the combo's ability to stop.
 
I tow my 260 everywhere in fact i had it towed from texas to vancouver island last yearwhen I purchased it. I love it. I tow it with a dodge 3500 diesel with a 6 inch lift. Id recomend at least a 2500 and Id get a diesel. No worries then, just load it up to the max.
 
Small question i'm buying a 260da 2004 and i want to pull it with a 2008 Jeep grand cherokee 3.0 diesel need your opinions THANK
 
honestly I have towed my 260 with a 2000 Grand Cherokee V8. Enough power as long as you keep it under 60 MPH. however there is not enough of a wheelbase and the jeeps suspension is not set up for that kind of load. I do allot of heavy/awkward towing so I feel more conferable than what most people do when towing things. For the average person I would not recomend towing with a Jeep CRD, however if you are very skilled and you do not need to travel far it would be adequate IMO.
 
Even if i have the towing package an torsion bar on the trailer to put more weight on the front of the jeep.
 
Small question i'm buying a 260da 2004 and i want to pull it with a 2008 Jeep grand cherokee 3.0 diesel need your opinions THANK

honestly I have towed my 260 with a 2000 Grand Cherokee V8. Enough power as long as you keep it under 60 MPH. however there is not enough of a wheelbase and the jeeps suspension is not set up for that kind of load. I do allot of heavy/awkward towing so I feel more conferable than what most people do when towing things. For the average person I would not recomend towing with a Jeep CRD, however if you are very skilled and you do not need to travel far it would be adequate IMO.

I would not want to tow my boat with a Grand Cherokee. One wag and it'll spit you off the side of the road. It's not always about just getting the boat moving, it's about stopping and will the boat move you?
 
I would not want to tow my boat with a Grand Cherokee. One wag and it'll spit you off the side of the road. It's not always about just getting the boat moving, it's about stopping and will the boat move you?


That is why I don't recommend it to anyone who is anything below the most qualified. you are right about the brakes, that's why it is extremely important to have a proper setup in both your rig and trailer. Anytime the load weighs more than the vehicle you will increase your risk of going into the ditch greatly if something were to happen. One thing to take into consideration where you are towing. If you are climbing steep hills and towing around sharp curves you will need a much bigger tow vehicle. Where I live it is as flat as can be and the roads are as strait as can be, so tow vehicles do not need to be as strong as they would in the mountains.
 
Small question i'm buying a 260da 2004 and i want to pull it with a 2008 Jeep grand cherokee 3.0 diesel need your opinions THANK

small question, big answer: NEVER. The Jeep is rated 7400lbs, the 260 is 6200lbs dry, plus wet and trailer. I would be surprised if the combo weighed less than 9000lbs. Some vehicles can reasonably exceed their tow rating if the manufacturer was conservative in their specifications but this doesn’t seem to be the case for the Jeep. I have pulled trailers with a short wheelbase type and it is a terrifying experience. Be safe, MM
 
I would not like to be the one to test an insurance claim for a vehicle being used to tow a load above the manufacturers rated limit. I could imagine the glee on the insurance companies assessors face if he found that tid bit out.
 
Andy
I get that, but again the flat roads don't compensate for the texting teenager that doesn't realize that just because he can fit his Mom's Prius in between you and the car ahead of you, then he slows quickly to turn into Taco Bell, that you can't stop that fast. Great brakes on the trailer help yes, but 8500 lbs will wag a Cherokee's a*s before the little undersized tires knew they were trying to stop.
 
I would NOT ever try to pull a 260 DA with a Jeep Grand Cherokee, even if it does have a diesel in it...Nothing less then a F250 or a 2500 chevy or Dodge.. Come on man you have to stop the rig and sometimes fast.. then there's expressway hills, even slight hills
 
When I towed it with the jeep it actually stopped faster than it did with the Dodge 2500 I usually use (Disk brakes vs Drum)(electric vs hydraulic)(ABS vs Non-ABS). The reason I used it was because My truck was broken down and I wanted to take the boat out for the weekend. the ramp was 10 miles down the road. 55 MPH speed limit for 5 miles then it was 35 MPH speed limit for the rest. It is not Ideal mostly because of the wheelbase, but performance was braking surprised me. If somebody it looking to use a Jeep to put the boat in the water in spring and take it out if fall and they do not need to travel far. It is worth the thought. If you plan on using it every weekend, it is not the best Idea.
 
My recent towing experience,

I just took delivery of an '05 260da with a tri-axle aluminum trailer/2axle surge brakes. I'm pushing the 10k tow limit on the truck (1/2ton ram1500.) The dealer/marina was very helpfull and set up the trailer with optimal weigh distribution. They made specific recomendations and even checked out my set-up before I hauled it away.
I towed it 400 or so miles the first time towing. I upgraded the tow hitch to a 10k lbs frame mounted hitch (a must do!) and have the transmission cooler/tow package. The tri-axle trailer has surge brakes and does not want to sway or veere off course. With all that said, if properly equiped a half ton pick-up truck will do the job. I wasn't breaking any speed records and could feel the trailer braking harder than the truck (pulling it back). I will only be towing it twice a year. (in and out of the marina)
It's all about suspension and chassy. I think a 1/2ton truck will work if (properly equiped) but the cherokee is just not going to do it. Diesel or not, the cherokee is 1/4 the length and less than 1/2 the weight of the 260DA on a trailer.

Just my experience but I would strongly suggest a minimum 1/2 ton set-up.
 
The issue is not do you have enough pulling power but do you have enough stopping power in an emergency situation. The answer for that is NO. I have not had any issues pulling my 260 da but I do pull it with a 350 Crewcab Diesel. But before I got into boating I was into horses and thought I could pull a 10K horse trailer with electic brakes with my f150. It definetly pulled it but we almost got in a bad wreck when we were running 50 mph trying to make a light and some idiot changed lanes and slammed on brakes to stop at the light. We slid up to the intersection(and all the way thru it) with all 4 tires on the truck and the trailer locked up and the car turned right so we didnt hit them. So we went out and got the f350. For me it is the safety factor for your family and every other family on the road.
 
The issue is not do you have enough pulling power but do you have enough stopping power in an emergency situation. The answer for that is NO. I have not had any issues pulling my 260 da but I do pull it with a 350 Crewcab Diesel. But before I got into boating I was into horses and thought I could pull a 10K horse trailer with electic brakes with my f150. It definetly pulled it but we almost got in a bad wreck when we were running 50 mph trying to make a light and some idiot changed lanes and slammed on brakes to stop at the light. We slid up to the intersection(and all the way thru it) with all 4 tires on the truck and the trailer locked up and the car turned right so we didnt hit them. So we went out and got the f350. For me it is the safety factor for your family and every other family on the road.

That's some good braking to be able to lock everything up.
 
I think the new Sierra 1500 and new F150s can tow up to 10500lbs..wouldnt these new gen 1/4ton would handle the job?
 
It's so hard to say what will and will not work. I had a 1/2 ton dodge with gas 5.9 and a chevy 1 ton with a 5.7 at the same time. The 1/2 ton just flat out did better on fuel, pulling and handling. Stopping was better with the 1 ton but it had 2 more tires on the ground. I'm in construction and pull tractors and my 35ft RV from dallas to Pueblo Colorado with my 1/2 ton out running the 1 ton while carring more on the 1/2 ton. My rv and 1/2 ton weighed in at 17,182 lbs. The weight of the tow vehicle doesn't have to do with handling as much you would think. The tractor part of a 18 wheeler often weighs in at less then 1/3 of the total. Wheel base length, brakes, and a ballanced load all have to be right. In order to ballance my load I put air bags on the back of my truck and you wouldn't believe how much better braking and handling you can get by just leveling things out. When I was a kid we had a little jeep cj-5 and a 18 ft sea ray. that cj-5 had a v8 and plenty of power but was way to short and often got a little wild. On the other hand we pulled it with a cj-7 that was only 7 inches longer and it did just fine. I also had a 16ft skeeter boat fly over my car and into another lane when I was just going a few blocks. Boat was not tied down on the back of the trailer and a construction crew just oiled the road for asphalt. No flag men and signs and at 30 mph I slammed head on into a parked dump truck. guy didn't even know I hit him. car was totalled, trailer bent, boat was just scratched a bit from the trailer winch but not bad. The boat landed beside the dump truck in the other lane. Point to this story is the dump trailer gave the the stopping power but I was lucking anther car wasn't passing or someone could have had a boat in there car just because I didn't tie it down because I was only going around the corner.
 

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