Towing with Chevy Venture minivan ??

[ALX357]

Question for someone that has this particular vehicle and boat.........
I have a Chevy Venture Minivan, weighs about 4, 500 #, has 6-cyl, 180 HP motor, Front Wheel Drive only, automatic transmission, factory installed air compressor load-leveling system in rear, new street tires, and proper frame-mounted Draw-Tite hitch.....
1) What can I expect from this combination when towing a Mac 26X stock trailer with inoperative surge brakes?
2) When launching on average ramps inland lakes
3) What if i got the surge brakes fixed, would that be much better?
several sources advise me that the surge brakes are going to stop working about 6 months after they are fixed anyway..... ??
PLEASE ADVISE SOON, before i buy boat out-of-state and have to tow it with this vehicle.

[jsserene]

The first thing I would do is fix the brakes before you trailer the boat. The best repair would be the disk brakes conversion. http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... tId=126121 I did this myself on my last boat trailer. It takes about a few hours. The boat and trailer will weigh at least 3500 lbs. However, the Chevy Venture is only rated for towing 3500 lbs with factory touring suspension, otherwise its 2000 lbs. http://www.chevrolet.com/venture/specs.htm. This rating is for 2004 models. Olders ones should be the same. Plan on the rear of the van to sag even with the load levelers . The Venture should pull the boat up a ramp fine, but I would be very careful about long distance.
Good Luck, Jeff

[Chip Hindes]

Agree with Jeff; get the brakes fixed. The Venture will be marginal to unsatisfactory towing the Mac under any conditions, but with a front wheel drive vehicle towing a heavy boat trailer with no brakes, it could be treacherous.

Boat trailer surge brakes are, by their nature, subject to some pretty nasty abuse. They require regular maintenance, including as an absolute minimum, freshwater flushing immediately after every saltwater dunking. If you neglect this, they won't last six weeks, let alone six months. Even those used only in freshwater or flushed religiously must be exercised regularly to keep them running free, even if it means just driving around the block a few times every few weeks. If you don't do this, you can expect you will have to dismantle and clean, if not rebuild them every Spring. Don't expect to leave the trailer sitting motionless for six months or a year and then hook up and have the brakes work.

If you do these things, they will work for years without any other special effort. Mine did, even before I added an axle and switched to aluminum/stainless disc brakes on all four last fall. Besides the salt water resistant materials, the discs and calipers are fully exposed and should be way easier to maintain. I'm still going to flush them after every saltwater dunking, and exercise them regularly. The conversion to discs is about $100 per wheel plus $50 for additional parts. IMO well worth it.

In any case, using their tendency to fail as an excuse for not having brakes doesn't make much more sense on the trailer than it does on your tow vehicle. To put it politely, it's faultly logic. If the surge brakes fail, you fix them. Period.

[Zoran]

One of the guys from our club is using Venture as tow vehicle. But I also know that he has towing package installed. One of the things I know are in the package are shocks that will pump up to level the vehicle. I am not sure about brakes but I believe that transmition cooler is installed.

But on the other hand do not listen me, I am the guy that tow with honda Civic

Zoran

[ALX357]

thank you'all for the replies to my towing-with-Chevy-Venture-minivan questions.... very helpful.

here's another question ... uh, three....

Did Mac make all the 26X trailer brakes from the same source, brake type, fittings etc. for the life of the mfg. run ?
Or were there changes/inprovements over the production years?

What is the source, car brake parts eg. Chrysler, Ford, etc. or were they a specialty company. and.....

Do i get brake parts (rebuild kits/replacements) from MacGregor, or from their source, or "where frum" ?

[jsserene]

I would not replace the parts only but replace the whole assembly. You can get ones made specificaly for boat trailers. Boaters World and West Marine carry them. The Mac trailer has the 10" brakes.

http://www.boatersworld.com/webapp/wcs/ ... at2=343686
Or at West marine

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... toreNum=17

Another thing about the assemblies are they are easier to remove and install than replacing the pads, springs etc. Only 4 bolts and the brake line after you remove the drum.
Jeff

[lake norman mac]

I have heard a few people recommend getting a transmission cooler for heavier towing needs. About how much does a transmission cooler usually run?

Is this something that the dealer would install or do you have to take it to a specialty marine shop?

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

I got my (large) tranny cooler for about $125 at Aamco I believe (they sell a smaller version for less). Dealership wanted about 3X that amount. It is for my Honda Minivan with 3.5L engine.

As for brakes, the original assembly was very thin metal and didn't look like it was made for marine use at all. I got a much sturdier set of drum brakes at a trailer shop which seem to be holding up much better. The place gave me a spray can of this very thick anti-corrosive stuff and said that if I spray them down every 6 months, they will last a long time. Unfortunately, its been about a year now since I've gotten them and I haven't sprayed them down yet...but I plan to do it in the next few weeks so I'll have some more info shortly on the durability.

[teddadbear]

I've towed my '97 Mac26x up to 500 miles in a day; it cuts my highway miles per gallon from 28 to 14 or 15, but that's understandable given the boat and trailer nearly doubles the weight. To minimize rolling resistance and tire heat, I make sure the trailor tires are at their max 50 psi when I start out. I bought Goodyear Aquatred 3's for van traction and keep them at their maximum 44 psi to minimize rolling resistance and heat as well. Despite having the factory towing package installed with its beefed up cooling, I also monitor the engine coolant temperature. If it gets much above 210F, I switch off air conditioning and even turn on the passenger compartment heater to bleed off heat from the coolant. Last fall, when the lake level had gone down, the portion of the ramp used for the van to pull out the boat was covered with green slime, as it had been underwater just a few weeks before. That caused the tires to have very poor grip; the van's factory traction control system prevented the tires from spinning but the van wasn't going up. I switched off traction control and spun the tires to move up into the dry section of the ramp. Next time I'll just stop, bleed off 1/3 of the air pressure from the front tires to increase the surface area in contact with the ramp, and hopefully proceed without burning rubber. On my trip home from buying the boat, the brakes on both wheels successively smoked and were removed. I still found the van drivable and reasonably safe feeling, though the stopping distances are much longer, perhaps doubled. As I start a towing trip, I tell myself going into a turn, "slow and wide" to help prevent driving over curbs. Be prepared for puzzled looks as you tow the Mac, with its trailer nearly 30 feet long and 9 feet tall, with your minivan, "just" 17 feet, 6 inches long for the extended version and just over 5 feet tall.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Yea, I think you are right..the Mac looks abnormally large behind any automobile or light truck. I think you would have to tow it with a big motorhome or a heavy commercial truck in order for it to look "right"

[Don T]

Hello:
Part of the problem with front wheel drive at the ramp is weight distribution. The front wheels have less weight than normal with the proper tonge weight. If traction is a problem you can add some of your movable ballast (people) to your front bumper and/or use "poor mans posi." If you find one wheel spinning use just enough pressure on the brake peddle to cause both wheels to drive. This requires only enough to fool the differential into acting like both wheels have near equal traction then just add throttle. You can do the same with rear wheel drive, using the E-brake. I had to do this with a freind's buick at Washington Park. He used the south side ramp that was covered with gravel and slime.