First towing trip with new Ecodiesel

Took the boat to my parents house to put some rails on it and other goodies. About 100 miles round trip. Truck had plenty of power to get it up and moving and easily maintained speed in 7th gear. Its still not fast by any means, but the 8 speeds are much more appreciated with the load than they are empty. Didn't check the fuel mileage as it was only 100 miles, but the instant readout fluctuated between 15-17 mpg while towing.

Outside temp was 81 degrees and the trans temp would run the same after I reached cursing speed and the oil and water registerd 5-10 degrees over normal which I hear is normal.

Only gripe is with the reverse gear. I read that the reverse gear is equivalent to the 2nd forward gear in ratio... when it came to backing the boat up my folks steep driveway I was turning 2k rpms in reverse... that sucked. Boat is 24' long and as far as boats go I feel its pretty heavy.

Dang that's a long boat!

Never knew the boat was gonna be THAT big. Our TT is 30 foot from ball to rear bumper. This boat is 31' from ball to motor. I had to revise the plans for my garage a couple days before concrete was poured, so glad I made the last minute call to get an exact measurement on the whole deal. Driving around with this boat is literally like pulling a travel trailer you need trailer mirrors to see the sides.

I just pulled my brother in law's Nauticstar 231 coastal from Houston to Austin and that thing is a beast but the Ecodiesel sportsman 4x4 did very well averaging 16 MPG. That Star is a HEAVY HEAVY boat and backing it down the narrow ramp I used at Lake Buchanan was a serious challenge.

Carolina Skiff with a Zuke? Is it four stroke?

Nice rig and I like the


Freudian Slip?

Yeah has a 150 hp Suzuki 4 stroke. We replaced a 19 foot skiff with a 24 like them both quite a bit.

Took the boat to Rockport this weekend 100% towing mileage was 14.1 mpg. Other than needing to learn more about the bay and bad weather everything went great.

Speed?

65-70 mph

I noticed if I backed it down to 60 mph all the temps dropped a few degrees and the fuel mileage was a mile or two per gallon better, but we were headed home to make a funeral viewing so hypermiling had to wait for another day.

Was pretty impressed with the truck fought a head wind both ways. I am interested to see what the temperatures run in the 105 degree heat of summer. Everything stayed well within acceptable temp ranges, but the outside temp was only in the mid 60's. Fluid temps below:

Water: 210
Trans: 199
Oil: 224

I will have to look and see what my normal water and oil temps are after the truck is all the way warmed up. I know my empty trans temp runs 192 all the time, but don't recall the oil and water other than the oil usually runs about 10 degrees hotter than the water.

Reverse gear is still wwwaaaaayyyyyyy to F*#&(ING high! I don't know what the designer of this transmission was thinking when they put the reverse ratio in that they did but they surely weren't thinking about trailers or backing up hills!

Samsonworld,

I have been really pleased with my truck and ecstatic about the fuel mileage; however, I will openly admit that when it come to speed and pure muscle the ecoboost will walk all over the ecodiesel every day every time any which way but fuel mileage.

That said I also have the 3.55 gears instead of the 3.92's. I have talked to a few people pulling 34-35' TT's with a truck like mine and I think they are nuts.

Just gives me a better idea on the mileage. 14mpg at 55mph not so good. 14 at 70mph is pretty good imo, especially in wind or hills.

ps - I think I'm nuts for towing 35' with a half ton.

nice rides!

Thanks, have enjoyed both!

That's a heavy boat.

Would not want to pull that with a half ton a gasser would struggle with that.

How do you like the boat? What's your speed with the 150?

Do you have trailer brakes on the front axle of that rig? My only real concern with towing it with that truck would be stopping power.

Was also wondering if your truck has a tow/haul mode that locks out higher gears as appropriate (like on hills).

That boat's probably around 5k lbs loaded and has a low profile. Not light but well within the limits of most half tons.

Have not taken the boat to full throttle yet, it planes out fast, can stay on plane under 20 mph. At 4k rpm it runs 27-28 mph, which is about perfect for us.

I would say you could pull it with a 1/2 ton gas, but its going to make it work. I put the ecoboost and ecodiesel in a different group because of low end power, but you will still know the boat is back there with either. Have pulled the boat with an 04 duramax... you know its back there. Short tripping it have no fear, but if you were planning on towing to the coast every weekend I would recommend something bigger.

Trailer has surge brakes but they are disconnected because you cant back the boat into my garage or even up a slight incline without them locking up. Keep a towing following distance and it does fine. I felt comfortable with it how it was with no brakes... but hated the slop in the tongue from the brake actuator.

Truck has a tow/haul mode, it carries each gear out further than normal and is supposed to run more line pressure and less slippage. I towed with and without tow haul on and the temps ran cooler with tow haul off because tow haul was wanting to caries gears to 2500-3000 rpm where it would shift at 2200-2400 without tow haul and not lug. I towed it in 7th gear which turns about 2k rpm at 60 mph or 2250 at 70 mph.

Ill agree and disagree. Most claim their 20-ish foot bass boat weighs 4500-5000 lbs and ive pulled a few of those, this boat is noticeably more to pull.

What's the make?

Of the boat? Its a Carolina skiff 24' DLX.

Im not debating the weight, but it catches a lot more wind than a bass boat does. Its a squeeze getting it through my 10 foot wide garage door, its as wide or wider than our TT. Also the boat rides higher than it looks in the picture with the truck sitting on the gravel pad and boat in the grass and well lets just say its not an aerodynamically shaped boat

Actually lighter than I thought. 1,870lb hull weight plus motor, fuel, gear and trailer. Not sure if that includes seats or console? I think it'd weigh in under 5k lbs but only way to know for sure would be scales.

http://www.carolinaskiff.com/

Maybe about the drag. I know I got a lot more wind resistance from a 20' pontoon than I ever thought possible.

That is the weight of a bare hull. It doesn't include the front or rear deck, console, leaning post ice chest, or fuel tank. That weight basically gives you a huge empty bath tub.

I would like to take it to a scale and weigh it soon.

Not that it makes a huge difference either but looking at the specs on it again I noticed we put a 28 gallon fuel tank instead of a 19.

Your surge brakes should release if you have the reverse wire hooked up to the truck. All bass boats that have surge brakes release as long as the reverse light wire is hooked up.

I was going to ask the same thing. Is your plug on the boat a 5 flat?

Yes boat is a 5 flat. How do you hook up the reverse wire? We have 7 pin connectors using an adaptor never thought had to hook anything else up?

This is our first trailer with surge brakes everything else has electric or no brakes.

If your trailer has reverse lights on it, check and see if they are coming on when the truck reverse lights come on.

Thanks will have to check that out. Not sure if it has backups or not.

Sometimes you'll have to change the 7 plug adapter, they come apart and aren't always wired the same. I changed my 5 flat plug to a 7 round, easier than using the adapter.


The 5th wire tells the backup solenoid to release (and backup lights) the pressure while trying to backup.

I like this idea nobody I know has a 5-flat plug, I think im gonna convert our 5 flat to a 7 round too. We have towed it with 3 trucks that all have 7-rounds and are set up for electric brakes and none of them work, im thinking they wire in our flat to round converter must not be connecting the right wires.

Red, the brake is different. It's a hydraulic setup, it works by applying pressure to the hitch. There is no electricity at all, that's why you can't back up. When you back up it puts pressure on the hitch causing the brakes to lock up.


You need the backup wire to turn the backup solonoid off and then it wil back up like normal.

Right, our trucks are all set up for electric brakes on our other trailers. I bought a male 7 pin plug this weekend going to hook set it up on the boat and make sure I get the brake reverse wire hooked up to the back up lights from the truck.

Thanks for the advice.

Here is an easy way to test it using the 5 flats. It's also a temporary fix or work around till you get it resolved

1) with boat hooked up and plugged in, put truck in reverse. If the brakes lock, continue on.

2) with truck in park, unplug the 5 flats. Look at the wires coming out of the back of the one for the trailer. Turn the plug 45 degrees and plug the end with the blue wire into the end plug of the trucks plug with the yellow or Brown wire

3). Turn on lights for the truck and try to back up.

If it works the problem is with the trailer. If not the problem is with the truck. It's typically a truck issue and the trailer reverse fuse is blown or missing

Thanks KD, Going to do some looking around to see if I can find the issue before I go cutting stuff, but want to wire it up with a 7 pin anyhow. The 5-flat/7-pin adapter we have is not very tight and some of the lights intermittently work until you push it together again.

Just to be clear... with what I mentioned you just push the plugs together in the shape of a cross with the trailer blue to the truck Brown or yellow. This applies known power (truck lights) to the trailer blue wire which is backup.

No cutting with what I mentioned.

Right, im going to cut the 5-flat off and rewire it into a 7-round... after I figure out where my missing link is so we don't need an adapter at all any more.

I have a 2015 EcoDiesel and trailer a 19ft Basscat with ease. Doing 70-75 I get 18-19 MPG. I have never felt a lack of ability to brake or power. I do have a steep drive way to back up into my garage but easy does it and there is no problem.

Question... What speed is cursing speed? Sometimes that is about 30mph for me....

The surge brakes work as intended on my EcoD with no modification. For some reason on our other trucks they don't have power to the center stud on a 7-pin when you put it in reverse. Need to do some looking on that, but don't have any of the trucks at my disposal.

I dun't spel vary gud

I know some gals that hold the record for this! Can only make out an occasional curse word but get the idea real fast!