Biggest towable boat

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mateyboy

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Hi Guys, seeing as the goose with the golden egg got shot en route to me, the hope of buying a 40'er for now has gone, so in the meantime I'm looking for a boat with trailer and have the following requirements, any ideas would be welcome:

Vehicle is rangerover 4.4 auto so I think can tow 3500kg max (experienced with towing & launching)
Ideally 4 berth but 3 min for weekends away
Diesel ideally but I appreciate petrol would be cheaper to buy
£20-30k ish budget
10 year oldish max
Good range for far away trips
22'min and as big as I dare! 28'??


I have a warehouse so can keep the boat there, so no relentless mooring fees & the boat is out the water for cleaning & easy maintainance.
I've looked back a couple of years on the 'towing' threads and Maxum 2400 seem quite popular.
cheers, Martyn
 
mateyboy said:
Hi Guys, seeing as the goose with the golden egg got shot en route to me, the hope of buying a 40'er for now has gone, so in the meantime I'm looking for a boat with trailer and have the following requirements, any ideas would be welcome:

Vehicle is rangerover 4.4 auto so I think can tow 3500kg max (experienced with towing & launching)
Ideally 4 berth but 3 min for weekends away
Diesel ideally but I appreciate petrol would be cheaper to buy
£20-30k ish budget
10 year oldish max
Good range for far away trips
22'min and as big as I dare! 28'??


I have a warehouse so can keep the boat there, so no relentless mooring fees & the boat is out the water for cleaning & easy maintainance.
I've looked back a couple of years on the 'towing' threads and Maxum 2400 seem quite popular.
cheers, Martyn
Click to expand...

hi Martyn.... a sealine s24 will tick all your boxes and more............(but i would say that would,nt i )......click on the website below, if nothing else, it should give you food for thought..had mine new in 2001 and still going strong with kad 32.....if you want to know anything in detail PM me....
 
Hi,

my boat is 29ft LOA with twin diesel, and weigts 3Ton without trailer,
so I am at the maximum towable weight with a big 4 wheel drive.
(3,5T total weight) you're OK with your car !
we trail the boat about 10000km/year, Kroatia, Holland, SOF, .. UK, without any problem.
Use kranes aswell as slipway's for launching.

we have chosen a Karnic, for the huge deck space (for diving),
and the only boat in that segment with a twin diesel option.

for general cruising, you could look for:
Maxum and Sealine,
but also:
Bayliner!!, Regal !!!, Rinker !,Sea ray, Four wins,
challenge is to find a diesel in your budget, but not impossible
US boats usually have petrol engines
look for a boat with a mid cabin, then you can sleep minimum 4
pay attention at the beam,
max beam on the road without special license is 2.6m

on here you see some pics of my setup
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249511
 
mateyboy said:
Hi Guys, seeing as the goose with the golden egg got shot en route to me, the hope of buying a 40'er for now has gone, so in the meantime I'm looking for a boat with trailer and have the following requirements, any ideas would be welcome:

Vehicle is rangerover 4.4 auto so I think can tow 3500kg max (experienced with towing & launching)
Ideally 4 berth but 3 min for weekends away
Diesel ideally but I appreciate petrol would be cheaper to buy
£20-30k ish budget
10 year oldish max
Good range for far away trips
22'min and as big as I dare! 28'??


I have a warehouse so can keep the boat there, so no relentless mooring fees & the boat is out the water for cleaning & easy maintainance.
I've looked back a couple of years on the 'towing' threads and Maxum 2400 seem quite popular.
cheers, Martyn
Click to expand...

bayliner 2556 I reckon is the biggest you can tow without permits. It's a baby flybridge so has loads of space for the size of boat, is the max towable beam etc.

Can't get one less than 10 years old though.....
 
Here is a list of possibles that meet your criteria. Beware I bought a new boat in 2000 (Four Winns 268) that was technically legal, but 2 years later I had added nearly 600kg of additional kit and it was well over 4000kg.

Bayliner 245 (Or 2455)
Four Winns 248
Sealine S24
Maxum 2400 SCR (Or SE)
Chaparral 240
Regal 2465
Searay 240
Larson 240
Crownline 242
Glastron 249
Rinker 250
Doral 250 (Diesel is too heavy)
Monterey 242

I'm sure I will have missed a few as well.Diesel will be at the top end of your price range, petrol should be cheaper. I dont want to start the usual Petrol V Diesel argument but its really important to check the performance of the oil burners, at this age and size the only engine available was usually the KAD32. This just didnt (IMHO) give enough performance for a Sportscruiser loaded with kit and people.

Which is 'best' - no idea ! They have 2 basic layouts, cabin door port or cental, similar cockpits and the same engines and drives. My advice is go and see as many as you can, you should find the one you prefer.
 
From vague memory, between 2000/1 and 2003/4, Bayliner had a narrow-beam 265 model which, I was told, was designed to be towed and used in the way that you're looking to do.

It had good accomodation for it's size but the relatively narrow beam meant that it only got an RCD category C rating.
 
I've now got a sticky fingerprint on my latop where I tried to squash your signature insect.

Thank you! :o

Also, think about height restrictions: An S24 radar arch folds almost flat, whereas some of the baby flybridge options would be substantially taller.
 
cheers chaps some interesting ideas, love the karnic btw Bart, could even get me into diving I've often pondered that also!
The Karnic reminds me of the Boston Whaler & wellcraft coastal type boats I've seen on occasion, but they generally have twin o/boards quick & thirsty and easy to blow a good £300 in a day blasting round, or its the 170hp put put put at a third of the cost.
mmmmmm........I'll get there
 
Sorry about my last Post I didn't wish to offend anyone re the 170 hp thing when folk are taking time to think & post.
 
mateyboy said:
The Karnic reminds me of the Boston Whaler & wellcraft coastal type boats I've seen on occasion, but they generally have twin o/boards quick & thirsty and easy to blow a good £300 in a day blasting round, or its the 170hp put put put at a third of the cost.
Click to expand...

mateyboy said:
Sorry about my last Post I didn't wish to offend anyone re the 170 hp thing when folk are taking time to think & post.
Click to expand...

no offends in your post mate,
you just point out the possible extremes,
you don't say that you can,'t have good boating with the 170HPSealine

I'm very happy with the twin Diesel 190HP in my Karnik 2660, lot of oemph and acceptable consumption,
but RenéJK friend and forummate on here, he has only 1 x 160HP (chipped to 180HP) in his Karnic and he has had lots of happy boating time aswell.:)

sidenote: ReneJK's Karnic is 2ft and a few 100kgs smaller than mine: model 2460 versus 2660
 
If you are towing with your Rangey and towing long distance, make sure you have modded to allow torque converter lock up in any gear plus have a good trans oil cooler. Otherwise on a big tow you'll fry your oil and box.
I believe you can have air brakes fitted to the rig (a la trucks) that will allow you to tow more than 3.5tonne legally, but at this size I believe trailer width and load width is more your problem...

Agree with others - explore your prospective launch sites carefully at different tide states - this will be your limitation (don't come to Brixham, you won't make it around the corners ;-)
Good luck!
 
Hi JP, never thought of the torque converter consideration, nothing's straight forward is it? If anything the idea is to get the boat in locally and do all the travelling on the water, hence the need for a fast, economical & long range set up if there is such a thing.
landlockedpirate listed a lot of boats and I fancy several of them but I'm looking into the sport fish type to see if they're any lighter on the trailer and fuel economy wise.
Does anyone run two big outboards at all? any advice/theories?
 
We have towed an S24 around the Med for a number of years (in the past) Vehicles were a Vauxall Monterey(Izuzu Trooper!) 3.1 litre and a Shogun 2.8 both great so you will have no problem.
We had a load of trailor punctures, I suspect trailors are designed on the limit so go for a good one (even consider 6 wheels).
 
mateyboy said:
Hi JP, never thought of the torque converter consideration, nothing's straight forward is it? If anything the idea is to get the boat in locally and do all the travelling on the water, hence the need for a fast, economical & long range set up if there is such a thing.
landlockedpirate listed a lot of boats and I fancy several of them but I'm looking into the sport fish type to see if they're any lighter on the trailer and fuel economy wise.
Does anyone run two big outboards at all? any advice/theories?
Click to expand...

I towed my 25 footer with a 3.9 Disco. It was not an enjoyable experience, so I ended up berthing her. It is a big rig, and I was only comfortable at 50 mph max, despite being an experience 4x4 driver, so you might want to compromise on size otherwise the towing part may deter your enjoyment.
 
mateyboy said:
I'm looking into the sport fish type to see if they're any lighter on the trailer and fuel economy wise.
Click to expand...

There is a 2007 twin OB Karnic 2450 sportfisher for sale in Italy, (with twin Suzuki :))
http://www.mondialbroker.com/detail.taf?B=190095&K=BPS

there are some more 2450 and 2650 on the market, if you're in to OB sport fisher type, just google Karnic and model number
no experience myself with OB's, only that I know that Suzuki and Yamaha are good.
 
FWIW I agree with those who've said that whilst you CAN tow a boat this big, it's very tiring and stressful towing something that big....

In my opinion, the max you'd want to tow for long distances or often is 20-22 ft and about 2000kg ish - any bigger than that, towing it a couple of times a year to the marina and back, or away on a weeks holiday for example, that's fine - but towing it every weekend - not sure I'd fancy that even with a Rangie or similar.

Remember too that a 2800kg boat, will need a 700kg trailer - the guy who said he towed a 3000 kg boat must have been well over 3500 with the trailer, kit, inevitable fuel/water etc.

It's not about what you can legally tow, but about what's comfy to tow a long distance.
 
BartW said:
There is a 2007 twin OB Karnic 2450 sportfisher for sale in Italy, (with twin Suzuki :))
http://www.mondialbroker.com/detail.taf?B=190095&K=BPS

there are some more 2450 and 2650 on the market, if you're in to OB sport fisher type, just google Karnic and model number
no experience myself with OB's, only that I know that Suzuki and Yamaha are good.
Click to expand...

With twin 175HP outboards and a 300 litre tank, she'll be rather thirsty and not have much range.
 
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