Can HONDA CRV tow????

[mwheberger]

I own a 19 foot glass boat, NITRO, and considering purchasing a new Honda CRV (non 4wd). Do you think this can tow my boat? I am also considering a new Toyota Tacoma 4cly, also non-4wd, is this fine? Please help out with this!

[adchunts]

Do NOT try to tow your boat with a CRV!!!

My wife has a 2008 CRV, and it is a great grocery getter and kid hauler. However, it does not have the weight, horsepower, or brakes necessary to tow your boat. I also believe the tow capacity of the CRV is 1500 pounds. Furthermore, you do not want to attempt to pull your boat out of the water with a front wheel drive. You will end up just sitting in one place and spinning the front tires (seen it happen more than once).

Of the two choices you mention, the pickup is by far the better choice.

[spinningreel]

V8, don't matter what brand, look for one with a tow package.

[lak100]

First, follow all vehicle tow ratings. The CRV will not support 3500 pounds. As to a 4 cyl truck, I doubt that it will rate @ 3500 pounds either. The 4 cyl will not pull that boat safely. I pull a 20 ft Champion, dual axle with a 6 cyl Nissan Murano and have had no problems. Murano has almost 60,000 miles of which 15,000 or so are towing. Most of my towing is on flat land though I do go to the Poconos with no issues. If you have a lighter weight vehicle, make sure brakes on trailer and give yourself plenty of distance for stops, and don't expect drag racing from the stoplights. One last thing...the Murano has CTV transmission and does not hunt for the right gearing. Works great.

[tcesni]

The CRV will pull a jet ski or a 14 foot john boat with a 6 horse kicker and that is about it.

[POP R]

I have a 05 toyota tocoma 4wd. I have towed my basscat pantera 3 anywhere I want to go I put in in 4wd lo pulling up the ramp but otherwise it pulls great. Granted its not a v8 but it will get me to the river. On the plus side I get 25mpg when I dont have the boat behine me.

[lak100]

not looking to argue and if you can tow with your Tacoma, fine by me.

Please note that the original poster states that he is looking at a 4 cyl, NON-4 wheel drive vehicle. You indicate yours is a 4 wheel drive, is yours a 4 or 6 cyl?

this web site

http://www.toyota.com/tacoma/specs.html

shows a 3500# capacity for 6 cyl; it does not state capacity for 4 cyl.

Hey I pull my 20' glass with a Murano so it's not that I'm a big truck guy, all I was trying to do is make sure the original poster looks at the stated capacities.

[Lpolk]

I would definitely check the towing capacity of the vehicle and also the weight of each. I would consider a full size pickup depending on the boat weight and your ramps. I won't go less than a full size 4x4 because of my launches and the distances of travel. That would eliminate all doubt. V8, don't matter what brand, look for one with a tow package 19' pretty heavy boat

[ReelDoc]

There is one GIANT difference between a 2WD Honda CRV and a 2WD Toyota Tacoma. The CRV has FRONT WHEEL DRIVE and the Tacoma has REAR WHEEL DRIVE. FWD is not the way to go on a boat ramp because you transfer much of the weight off the front wheels pulling a boat up a ramp. That's NOT good for traction.

FYI - my 2000 TR-20 is 19 1/2' and it weighs well over 3,000# fully loaded with gas and tackle. I personally would NEVER try to tow it with a any 4 cylinder vehicle, especially not one with FWD.

[CWCW]

I have a 1/2 ton F150 with the smaller (4.6) V8 and i wouldnt want to pull my 16' Tracker with anything less than what i have. If you have a 19' glass boat, go with at the very least a V6 tacoma with a tow package. Anything less will struggle and cause damage down the road.

[SoonerFan]

I towed an 18' aluminum Tracker that weighed less than 2000 pounds for a long time with a 6cyl 4 wd Jeep Grand Cherokee and did just fine. I traded the Tracker and bought a Nitro 591 that weighs probably 3500 pounds. The Jeep had a towing capacity of 5000 pounds and it towed the heavier 591 just fine....for a while.

Then I started having transmission trouble ending up with me having to have the transmission rebuilt. The owner of the transmission shop was an old guy who pretty much told it like it was. He told me that those tow ratings are really a bunch of BS and only tell you that the vehicle can pull and stop with that load. It doesn't tell you if the vehicle is actually mechanically capable of doing it reliably for any given length of time. He showed me the difference in the clutch plates that was in my 6 cyl Jeep and they were about the size of the little plates you get a piece of pie on. Then he showed me the clutch plates from a transmission for a V8 and they were more like the size of a small pizza pan. The difference was obvious. He told me that he could rebuild the tranny but if I kept pulling that heavy boat with that 6 cylinder it would fail again. He was right...I got about another year or so and maybe another 10,000 miles out of that rebuilt transmission and it started having trouble again. That's when I traded for my Silverado....with the 5.3 V8.

If your going to do a job then you need to have the proper tools to do it. You would try to frame a house with a tack hammer...don't try to pull a heavy load with an economy car.

[Superpro]

answer, NO! Go out & buy a full sized SUV or a pickup truck

[lucky13]

how about a ford or chevy


Modified by lucky13 at 2:18 PM 1/21/2010

[frontier]

Id say no with that much weight the honda suspension will hate you!!!! Any decent motor will pull that amount. Toyota 4cyl tacoma with real solid axle should work great. With real truck you can always swap out shocks add beefer springs. Truck is more solid frame with cab put on other rigs uni body type. If you just pull to lake short distance a jeep wrangler will work with proper hitch,tires,shocks just dont plan on any quick stopping! You might want to pickup used jeep cherokee or liberty.

[ih8work1]

I am 65 years old and retired. I was born on Wellsley Island in the thousand Islands and have spent my whole life fishing. After the military, I went to work in the early 70's in the auto industry, selling trucks at a dealership in Edmond, Ok. The difference between our dealership and 95% of the others is we had a real truck department and all salesmen had to complete a correspondence course on how to put together a truck for a certain job. Every vehicle has a weight limit on towing for a reason. On vehicles considered trucks, there are 2 important numbers: GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating, the weight of the complete truck full of fuel, oil, and loaded and GCWR(gross combined weight rating or the combined weight of the truck (tractor) and trailer. There is an old saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. After doing a lot of research on this, I found that the CRV will not pass minimum braking standards without trailer brakes to stop more than 1500 lbs. It will easily pull 2500 lbs as although part of the car is based on the Civic, It still has over 180 hp. If you put this in perspective, in 1977 a Chevrolet 305 V-8 had 170 hp and a very weak m-20 turbo hydromatic. The only way to get the big transmission was with a 454. You could put a 454 in low gear and floor it and even without shifting, it would automatically shift itself. That is without starting in drive. That was commonly called the turbo 400. Talking personally to a honda engineer, he told me that if you were to put surge brakes on the trailer and put it in D3 if you were in hilly country, you should have no problem. A lot of people worry too much. The vast majority of people don't tow a boat 1,000 miles a year. One thing Honda does is keep the advertised towing capacity low so they can sell more Passports and Ridgelines. If those weren't available, you would probably see a much higher towing capacity. I also have a 94 Toyota pickup with a 4 cyl, automatic with a 2,000 lb capacity. I have 165,000 miles on that and have had no problems pulling a boat. What people don't seem to admit is your vehicle isn't going to do a job well at say 1500 lbs, but a few hundred pounds more struggle. You should be more concerned with how much weight is in it.

[Bamaman]

We bought an Explorer XLT V-6 this year, and it's fully equipped including 3 row leather seating and the navigation system. It's a really, really nice vehicle for $32K.

I noticed that they had the same fully equipped vehicle with cloth seats--minus the blacked out glass, etc. The entry level model is priced about the same as many CRV's at around $27K. As far as what you get for the money, that model Explorer is a great value in a vehicle.

The 3.5 engine gets 25 mpg at 75 mph, and it's got plenty of power @ 290 hp to pull a bass boat. And as someone that's had over 100 new cars of all types, I am impressed with the vehicle.

[dwbeck2]

A CRV is not even in the ballpark to tow a 19 foot boat. At the very least you are going to need a mid-sized SUV with a big V6 and factory installed tow package or equivalent. A tow package on a vehicle isn't necessarily a hitch. Often it includes an upgraded transmission or engine cooler, brakes, and or suspension.

I doubt the Tacoma with the 4 cyl will do the job either. The poster above with the Tacoma makes no statement to the weight of the boat being pulled. I doubt you would even be able to maintain your speed on the freeway going uphill for any distance with the 4 cyl. The tow ratings on the vehicle are there for a reason...SAFETY. You need to look at the trailer tow specs of the vehicle you are considering buying. I'm guessing your glass boat and trailer fully rigged, with a full tank of gas, and all your fishing gear and misc equipment will easily be in excess of 3500 lbs.

Just because you have enough hp to move the boat doesn't mean it is suitable for towing that given amount of weight or that the engine, transmission, breaks, or suspension is durable enough for repeated trips. All your asking for is trouble down the line with safety or the longevity of your vehicle.

[Warhawk]

I had a 2wd, 2.7L 4 cylinder Tacoma. Used it to tow my Stratos 176XT, glass boat but I'm sure it was lighter than your 19 footer. My Tacoma did fine everywhere except on the steep hills here in the Ouachita mountains where I live. On flat ground it was absolutely fine. Boat ramps were no problem at all.

My wife is on her second Honda CRV, they are a nice vehicle but I wouldn't tow with one.

[jc1992]

With a 19ft nitro I would be looking at a 4wd v6 or a 2wd v8. But I have done a lot of researching on vehicles as im buying a new one soon as well and all I have is a 17ft7 raycraft but im still going to get the truck with the v8 because it is built to handle more weight. Besides you never know when your going to have to pull something heavier

[Tommy O.]

I tow with a GMC Sierra with a 4.3L V6 and it does well for me even in hilly terrain. I wouldn't be scared to to tow my boat or your boat anywhere with my truck. My previous truck was a single cab S10 with a 4 cylinder. There is no way I would tow either both with it.