Towing with a 92X ???

[OL Crony]

i've owned my explorer now for many years and have never had to tow anything with it until recently. i just bought a boat and have several questions.

what is the trailing capacity of my X?

i have been using the bumper and it seems to work alright. alright meaning that nothing catastrophic has happened - knock on wood. ;-)

do the safety chains hook up underneath and behind the rear bumper in the slotted holes?

on either side of the ball are two little holes, at first i thought that was where you hook up the safety chains, but of course they can't be, they are way too small.

thanks for your input.

az

 

[bmxking5]

Depending on how big your boat is, you should consider getting a class III hitch. I found mine on ebay for $50+$15(shipping).

 

[TheRookie]

How heavy is your boat? both gross and tongue. The bumper is not a good tow point for anything except light weights. I routinely tow 3200 lbs with a 300 lb tongue with a class 3 hitch. If you are going to be towing get a hitch. Keep your tranny out of OD and make sure tranny fluid is full and clean. The a4ld hates towing

 

[sonik]

Capacity depends on the body style (2 door or 4), transmission, 4wd or not, axle ratio, and hitch. Could be from about 1700-5600lbs. 3.73 ratio with an automatic trans are the highest. The two holes are for safety chains.

 

[jayhawkexplorer]

Check out etrailer.com. I found a sweet tubular Hidden Hitch class III that is hidden behind the bumper, except for the hitch receiver. It looks much cleaner then the cheap U-Haul square ones.

 

[OL Crony]

i just looked up the specs on the boat and trailer. i believe that if i am reading it correctly, i have been towing around in the area of 4500 lbs. i don't ever plan on going far, just from storage to the launch, which is about three miles one way in the city. i have been babying it out of fear and ignorance.

my body style is 4 door. i have been keeping it out of OD. i do have full and clean tranny fluid. i still don't know what those slotted holes are underneath and behind the bumper. i don't know what axle ratio i have, nor which transmission, but i did on the initial tow get it all up to about 55 mph and had no problems that i could detect. i do know that i have a tranny cooler that came with the truck - stock i am sure.

another concern that i have is pulling the boat out of the water. i have heard many a story about people have such troubles and having to install posi-traction. what is that and how does it work?

any follow up info that anyone has is greatly appreciated.

az