The tow rating on most ATV's is for the stopping power ... if you are going to try to contonl a 19 foot boat down a ramp ... I want to be FAR AWAY with my camera.

 

i pulled a horse trailer with my 250. also, many sport quads and i pushed a car that was stuck going up my road in a snow storm. i put a tire between my front bumper and the rear bumper on the van and i helped it out. i had chains on it though.

 

Pulled two cars out in a snow storm. Made me happy. As i was hooking up, a guy came bye with a 4x4 chevy and was watching. he watched me yank them out and he came up to me saying "that thing is unbelievable". he said he thought for sure he would have to do the pulling.

 

I worked for a boat and atv dealer a few years back, the shop was about 3 feet higher than the ground with a 30 foot access ramp to the shop door, poured from concrete with a rough finish. I hooked up to a triple axle pontoon trailer with the pontoon on it I think it was a 28 footer, with a Rubicon. The Rubicon would not quite back it into the shop without spinning out. I hooked to it with a Traxter and it would barely make it up the ramp, but did with effort.
Otherwise, most single and double axle trailers with boats on were a snap with the Rubicon. The biggest I pulled with it was a 21 foot aluminum boat on a tandem axle trailer, that had a lot of tongue weight, rather easily ....

Hope this helps you

----- Gimpster -----

 

Hi All,

Thanks for the responses. Some are boosting my confidence - others are making me even more nervous than I already am about attempting this. My plan is to tow the boat with my pickup to a relatively flat area and then hook up to the Rubicon and attempt some small uphill and downhill stretches - gradually working my way up to the actual hill that I will ultimately need to descend.

To Gimpster: from your experiences at the dealership lot, would you think that my biggest challenge will be going uphill, or controlling the load going downhill. My boat is on a single axle trailer - I might have over estimated the weight to be on the safe side as I can move the boat around by hand quite easily on a level gravel parking lot. Would you happen to recall the total weight of the pontoon boat/tri-axle trailer combination? I would guess a rig like that would be pushing over 6,000 pounds to be on a tri-axle trailer. When you say that most single and double axle boats were a snap with the Rubi, did that include backing them up and down the 30 foot ramp?

I'm trying to do the math for comparison of your situation vs mine. From your description of the shop ramp, it has a 10% grade which means its on a 5.7 degree angle so the straight-line force to push or pull any load is about 0.1 times the load (plus of course the friction forces of the load, which is the rolling resistance on level ground, but I'll ignore that since it will help me on the downhill, hurt me on the uphill). So if you could push a 5000 pound load up that ramp (4200 for the boat, 800 for the ATV plus driver), that's a straight-line tractive force of about 500 pounds being supplied by the ATV. If my boat weighs 3500 and my Rubi and I are another 850 for a total of 4350, then going up a 15% grade, the Rubi will need to supply a pure pushing/pulling tractive force of about 645 pounds. That's equivalent to the Rubi carrying just me up a 49 degree slope which I think would be do-able (its actually not even that bad since going up a 49 degree slope, the traction will be reduced to 66% of what it would be on an 8.5 degree (15%) grade.

Well, it all sounds good on paper, but there are just too many unknowns. Hopefully my buddy will be able to help me out. He has a Ford Ranger 4x4 pickup. So for practice, I could just pull him around in his pickup which I think weighs around 3600 pounds or just a bit more than my boat. If I can do that I should be good to go with the boat - and as a backup, we can always hook up his truck to the back of the boat trailer when going down the big hill.

I'll let you all know how it turns out when I get back after the weekend (if I'm still alive!!!)

Thanks again,

Marty

 

I can suggest a few thing if you want to pull your boat, but keep in mind the stopping power of the lighter unit pulling a heavier unit concerns.
When ai pulled units around, in and out of the shop, or at sport shows with an ATV, I had problems with things like getting the boat trailer tongue lowered to the low ball mount of the ATV, loose surfaces, tight turns with tandem axle trailers, and going over curbs etc...
Going into and out of the shop was not really a problem but I had to be careful and take it easy.
I have rigged customers units to have a safety cable extended to within the operators reach on that type of brake lock up/ breakaway type tongue set-ups. The customer could pull the cable to lock the brakes on the boat trailer to stop it in time of need. I have also wired toggle switches on the ATV to connect to the trailer brakes through the vehicle wire plug, so if needed the customer could flip a switch to lock the trailer brakes to stop the boat and trailer in time of need. I would highly suggest doing something like this to your unit if you plan on pulling the boat with it. Another thing I would do is increase the tire pressure on the ATV to around 7 lbs when used to pull the heavy load, then deflate them to normal pressure when not towing to keep them from enlarging in the sunlight. It sounds like you would not be over loading the rear axle with your boat on the trailer if you are moving it around by hand, but check how much the tongue weight changes when it is as low as the ATVs ball hitch, to make sure. And like I say, be carefull of wet docks that may have slippery surfaces from water, algea, and gravel. I have had customers pull boats in and out of docks with 450 foreman before, but most have been 17 foot boats.
Like I say, moving boats in and out of the shop, I had limited problems with the slope. And it was do-able, as long as I was not hurried and careful doing it.

----- Gimpster -----

 

An old 6X14 gambrel shed that was built on an old trailer frame 4x6 floor frame on 14"wheels .
My AC 400 had no problem pulling . [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

lol, what did a red need live in it? wait, yur form mass. 2. we dont have many rednecks, i thought u were form like far away like everyone else.

 

I'm a Mass redneck alright [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img],Bellingham MA next to Milford, Medway,Mendon.
I had to prove to the guy's at the gun club that my new Arctic cat atv had some power ,I don't think I had 20 miles on it yet ,I had to move the shed about 50 yard's . That shed in now in my back yard ,and is currently the home for my Quad,I had to build an 10X12 addition on the back side .
where in Mass are you from?

 

from granby. western mass., near springfield.

well, im not a massachusetts redneck, but i like jump the 846 bobcat sometimes and go fishing with m80's. and dont ask about the all the junk in my backyard...