Hi New Member with some ?s

It almost seems the 4800 pounds would maybe be the bare hull. No motor and no water gas batteries etc.
I pulled an 08 23' C-Dory Venture (5500 pounds on a trailer_ it was loaded moderately with a Chevy 1500 with 4 wheel drive for about 5000 miles. The motor was ok but I don't think the transmission much cared for the weight. Even on slight hills the downshifts were not pretty. Our 5.3 V8 had to be spooled up (higher RPM's) to make power. It was a 2001 with only a four speed automatic. We bit the bullet and bought a new 3/4 ton 4x4 diesel in 2009. That has proved to be a good decision as we now have a larger boat that on a trailer is about 10 to11 thousand pounds. Our truck has no problem pulling it. Pulling close to 10k is time to consider at least consider a diesel 3/4 ton. There are minimalists who have done it with lighter trucks and with 2 wheel drive but I believe they later saw the light and moved up to 3/4 ton. If you are not towing a lot the gas engine will be ok but a lot more thirsty that a diesel that is equipped with a transmission made for towing. Over 40 thousand miles the difference in 4 or 5 miles to the gallon can add up to more than you would think. The diesel purchased new or used with 4 wheel drive will hold their value pretty well. Longer wheel based trucks ride nicer and track straighter. Harder to park not good for a daily driver.
D.D.
 
Hi Havitall,

Sounds like you may be set on the 25 or 26 (and they are lovely boats), but just to toss an idea out there: A loaded-for-bear 22 Cruiser on a tandem trailer will weigh in somewhere between 4500# - 5000# (for most folks, although I'm sure there are some slightly lighter and slightly heavier). These are scale weights.

I wanted either a 22 or a 23 and went with the 22 because of the towing weight (23 is about 1,000# more, and most of the vehicles I wanted to tow with are happier in the 5,000# range, so it was "just fine" vs. "on the edge").

Just a thought since you already have the truck and don't have the boat yet. 'Course maybe it's time for a new truck and a new boat :mrgreen:
 
I would say go get yourself a new truck if your chevy is old. My old 99 suburban 1/2 ton tows the CD 22 ok and that's it. There is no way I'd put a CD 25 behind it - unless it was a situation like Bob noted and the ramp was a very short distance.

Trucks have come a long ways. I'd tow CD 25 without hesitation with my 2015 F150 Super Crew as it has tons of power, payload to spare (3300 pounds), is rated to tow nearly 11,000 pounds, and has superb brakes. It isn't a 1 ton, but on paper sure is plenty capable of an 8,000-9,000 pound trailer. It tows the CD 22 better than any truck I have towed it with. Of course a diesel would pull anything better, but would cost WAY more. I looked at them......nice trucks but outside what I will pay for a new truck.
 
It looks like only the 22 angler and 22 cruiser weights have been updated on the spec sheets of the C-dory site. Its old and inaccurate Website # 46,768,629 and like the rest of them, it should be used as one, and not your only reference.

The difference between base weight and towing weight for those two are 2400 and 2375 which seems basically reasonable for added motors, fuel, and trailer weight. Now notice the difference on the 19 angler is only 1350lbs with a base weight only 50lbs less than the 22 angler. Adding motor, fuel, and trailer is nearly identical so how did the 19 shave 1100lbs in the outfitting process? It didnt.

And if anyone thinks you can outfit a 25, 23, or 26 for those "difference" numbers below, please don't buy a tow vehicle yet.

From the spec sheets and more harmful than helpful.

19. 22a. 22c. 25c. 23v. 26v
Towing - 3000 4100 4300 4800 5000 5300
Base. 1650 1700 1925 3600 3200 4120
Difference 1350 2400 2375 1200 1800 1180
 
Your truck will do the job just fine. Any American V-8 will pull the boat without trouble. A 5.3 is fairly new (<15 yrs) so it'll do well. Stopping it is the problem, so get electric/hydraulic brakes, You may need an equalizer hitch.

Be sure that you shift to as appropriate gear, even if it's an automatic, manually when it needs it. Just reach up and pull the lever when you come to a hill.

Just to prove my point, here's a pic of what I towed a 25 up and down the west coast. It's a '63 Chevvie with a 350 v-8 and a T-700 trans. Did the job just fine over the mountains between Oregon and California.

Boat_Truck.jpg
Here's what a loaded 25 weighs>

Boat_Weight.jpg

Boris[/img]
 
So what's the problem? You've got a new truck, it can tow a 25 without any trouble. Just get electric/hydraulic brakes and an equalizer hitch; any equalizer hitch will do.

Judy got me a new truck; She wasn't happy with the '63.

Boris
 
Now that we all know the bigger C-Dory's weigh in closer to 9000 lbs, just what is the tow rating for that 1500? Seems that will be a start on answering the question. :wink:
 
We have an older Rossy which is, I believe, a lot heavier than a Brat. I have no idea how heavy it is (ignorance is bliss) but the trailer is rated for what I thought was a lot less than the boat weight (we have a single 130 hp motor). My wild ass guess is that it weighs close to 10,000 lb, but that would seriously overload the trailer if it really does.

Having said that, I have experience in dealing with overloaded trailers from my wood hauling days and this trailer has exhibited no signs of distress but we do keep the tire pressure at the max. We have surge disk brakes (what it came with).

We do not have equalizers or anything - just a ball and have had no stability issues (excluding very strong winds).

We have one of the newer chevy 1500 (the ones with the auto 4 wheel drive and 4 cylinder switch) which is rated for 10,000 lb towing.

We have pulled our boat from ohio to FL, Maine, and Georgian Bay without issue (and there are some big hills in WV). We do not push it - we do not make any real effort to maintain a speed (pretend we are a semi) and know stopping time is seriously extended.

The only issue I have heard of with this truck was from another engineer who used one to pull his race car. He disabled the cylinder switching because he said it was blowing oil out the unused cylinders. That hasn't happened to us - yet, but he did have one of the earlier ones - maybe they fixed it.

More useless information.

John
The Mighty Wench
 
We have an older Rossy which is, I believe, a lot heavier than a Brat. I have no idea how heavy it is (ignorance is bliss) but the trailer is rated for what I thought was a lot less than the boat weight (we have a single 130 hp motor). My wild ass guess is that it weighs close to 10,000 lb, but that would seriously overload the trailer if it really does.

Having said that, I have experience in dealing with overloaded trailers from my wood hauling days and this trailer has exhibited no signs of distress but we do keep the tire pressure at the max. We have surge disk brakes (what it came with).

We do not have equalizers or anything - just a ball and have had no stability issues (excluding very strong winds).

We have one of the newer chevy 1500 (the ones with the auto 4 wheel drive and 4 cylinder switch) which is rated for 10,000 lb towing.

We have pulled our boat from ohio to FL, Maine, and Georgian Bay without issue (and there are some big hills in WV). We do not push it - we do not make any real effort to maintain a speed (pretend we are a semi) and know stopping time is seriously extended.

The only issue I have heard of with this truck was from another engineer who used one to pull his race car. He disabled the cylinder switching because he said it was blowing oil out the unused cylinders. That hasn't happened to us - yet, but he did have one of the earlier ones - maybe they fixed it.

More useless information.

John
The Mighty Wench
 
Hey John,

Welcome aboard. Each person has to make their own decisions on what to tow with. Some run what ya got, others like to have a vehicle that is made for the job. We bought our GMC Sierra HD2500 after we ordered the CD-25, and before we took delivery of the boat. After we found out from other owners just how much the CD-25 on a trailer actually weighs.

For some clarification, a "Brat" is a member here; the boats are C-Dorys. I've not seen a Rosborough with a single 130 hp. The rf-246 is definitely heavier than a C-Dory 25. Will your Rossi get on plane with 130 or is that displacement speed only?

Jim B.
 
My post caused a lot of discussion on how much these boats weigh, mostly the 25' cruiser. I went to the Honda outboard specs and they had test results of their BF-150 on a C-Dory 25 cruiser. Under Test Conditions they give the total weight of the boat tested as 5,314 lbs and that's with 2 adults on board. I imagine the boat was bare bones with only 5 gallons of fuel and a single battery, no electronics, cushions and anchor removed. I'm thinking remove the 2 adults and you've got a bare boat weight, including engine of around
5,000 lbs. To that add all your goodies, extra batteries, personal effects and of course the trailer.
 
Unfortunately these "Tests" are all unrealistic in the real world use(I include Boat Test.com and the Honda performance tests). They are new, polished bottom, very light boats. Also these are not "Weighted weights" They are using the factory number of 3640 lbs for the hull.

If you look at the performance (and similar for the Boat Test), you find:
RPM, MPH, GPH, MPG

2000
6.8
1.2
5.7
2500
7.9
1.9
4.2
3000
9.0
2.9
3.1
3500
14.9
3.8
3.9
4000
18.0
5.2
3.5
4500
23.0
6.3
3.7
5000
26.9
8.1
3.3
5500
31.3
11.0
2.9
6000 (WOT)
35.4
14.5
2.4

I don't know of any one who gets 3.7 miles per gallon at 23 mph! Also 35.4 mph for WOT is very optimistic for the average C Dory 25 top speed.
 
We have a 2015 Chevrolet with the optional towing package, Just towed from Michigan to the St John's River gathering and did 2600 miles. We have a 25 with a 150 Honda. The only problem that we had was going into a very strong head wind all day the first day. Averaged 7 miles per gal. on the way home did much better and averaged 11.7 mpg. There was plenty of HP in the hills, however, passing was a problem on the steep hills. Having said all this, I will most likely go back to a 2500 diesel or a 1500 with the 6.2 engine. I currently have a 2004, 2500 GMC that I was towing with but felt that it was too long in the tooth (ie, high miles) to make the trip to Florida. I also have a 2008 GMC Yukon with the 6.2 engine. The Yucon has coil springs in the rear and this does not lend itself well to towing heavy loads.
 
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