MacGregorSailors.com

Hi all. I would like to buy a mc26 but my car has only 1700kg towing capacity . Con i tow the mac with my car ?

Hello
The answer is no. You will end up at a minimum of 2000kg. With a motor and some things in the boat more likely 2100kg.

What kind of car you have?

Maybe the new tatoo22 could be perfect for you?

Thank
I drive a Volvo xc60
tattoo 22 may be too small

I say yes

1700 being 3747lbs

Boat 2500
Trailer 710
60hp engine less than 300
Specs from here http://tattooyachts.com/factory-specifications/

3500 ish

So it will

I used a minivan with a 3500lb max and had no issues

Others here use a Buick Lesabre car or a Ford escape

Of course it would be preferable to use something with 5000kb rating

G

I tow just fine with a 3500lb rating. Stops and steers fine. I dont push it for the transmissions sake. i also have no problem coming out of the ramp with fwd. if i was going to drive more than an hour distance, think id rent a vehicle for transmission's sake. Its relatively flat here by east coast US standards.

If you go here http://www.macgregor26.com/specificatio ... ations.htm

It shows Empty boat is 2550lbs
Trailer is 575lbs

3125lbs + motor

Etec 60 http://www.evinrude.com/en-CA/engines/E ... _60_INLINE

240lbs

Total 3365lbs

Leaves you 382lbs for gear

G

hello bene
I never beleve that you go with 1500kg with a 26m incl. 60hp motor!

Maybe you will find this in some papers.

But I guess the question was how it is in real live.

Every time when I went weighting boat/trailer, I got more than 2000kg.
This is the same what I could read here in the forum.

It can be different when you have a car with tongue weight 300kg. But this will not be with the volvo.

I've towed more with less, and less with more, but how good the setup is depends on the terrain, distance, and frequency. If you're towing cross-country, over mountains, on a regular basis, I wouldn't. If towing a mile from your marina to a storage lot, I wouldn't give it a second thought. Most folks are somewhere in between. I know that's not much of an answer, but there's a lot of info missing. Filling in distance and road type (highway vs local roads), terrain (mountains, hills, or flat), and frequency would help.

Oh, and it's not just 'can the vehicle physically move the load'; it's also about 'how long will the two vehicle last' when towing loads like that. A particular vehicle may be fine for how you tow, but not last very long doing it. Or a few bucks spent may make all the difference, like a transmission cooler, a power steering cooler, and even a load distributing hitch. Does the trailer have working brakes?

And FWIW, the wheelbase of that vehicle is about the same as my Highlander (5k tow rating), which is kind of short for highway towing. Our Honda Odyssey tows it much nicer, as the wheelbase is at least a foot longer, and the track is much wider. My also doesn't weigh as much as a similarly equipped , by the way.

hi folks

I think it is very important to say, that a m26 including a 60hp motor and a good trailer is not a 1600kg thing.

What everybody is doing later is an other business.

Of course every car can tow more than in the paper.

But one of the week things of the MacGregors is the weight infos, the trailer winch and the trailer papers:
Also 1900kg, what the factory trailer can do, is in real life too small.
I tried to get new papers that the trailer frame can do more when adding a second axle. MacGregor did not get any paper, just stayed on 1900kg.

So I had to look for a trailer dealer, thad put his own brand/name on the trailer and guaranteed the weight of 2500kg as a tandem trailer.

I hope that tatto will do this better becouse it makes so much hassle for nothing.

Maybe it depends where you life, but in these times it is very important that all the papers are ok.

In Europe the police takes out caravan and boat trailer drivers and put the axle on a weight. After this, it is not important what tattoo or MacGregor has written on the homepage... If your laod is too high, you pay lot and move not 1 meter....

So with my old mercedes 300TD w124 1987 I am just in the limits with 2050kg tow wight, and I am happy the trailer now has 2500kg in the papers.
Interesting is also, that the HP of the car is not the most important thing: Even the old car towed it easily 1000 of miles with just 113 hp, not any problem at the ramps with automatic gear

Crossing the Alps (St. Gotthard tunnel...) slows the tempo down max 50kmh... But the 10min. extra to reach the mediterranean is easy...

Of course the horsepower is not really related to towing capability. That just makes it more comfortable. Brakes and suspension make tow capability.
Its all about the ability to control it. Ask any trucker that missed a down shift when cresting a steep hill with a heavy load.

I hear its a lot harder to get away with unsafe trailering within europe/UK. In most of the US, especially the southern parts, unsafe towing is the standard. In the Deep south, theyll pull 3 or so cars from auction behind a midsize sedan. Ad they'll do it for a couple hundred miles. Just tying one car behind the next with some chain.

See a lot of trailers around here with axles. Even see people riding on flatbed trailers round here. Securing loads almost never happens outside the commercial transportation industry.

Hi Island808
Well I agree in most what you wrote.

Of course todays cars oversize all to have fun.

Looking back 30 years you can see interesting details.
If I take my old mercedes w124: Mercedes gave 2100kg to the cars that had autogears and autadjustement high of the rear axle.
Even if you ordered a very small diesel with 60hp. You ride slow but save.

And concerning the brakes: Why shall they be bigger with trailer? The trailer braks with the own trailer brakes!!!
Again with the old mercedes exemple: The cars with small motors had the smaler brakes (but also big tow weight). Just the big motors had bigger brakes, but same towing weight.

Normally you will not have more stress on the car brakes, becouse with the trailer you ride more relaxant.

And: Do you know why older mercedes G had higher towing weight? The new ones just have 2000kg, but many hundred hp.
For safety reasen they do not want to give to much towing weight becouse the motors are so big so that the people start to drive toooooo faaaaast with trailers....

Feval75 wrote:Hi all. I would like to buy a mc26 but my car has only 1700kg towing capacity . Con i tow the mac with my car ?

I think it is also important to point out the question was "can I"

Not that one should or should not

I use a Durango with a 5.7 HEMI now

Not because I had to, but because I needed over 6500lb rated vehicle to tow another toy.

My Durango is rated at 8700+

I agree with what others have pointed out, terrain, how far, how often, wheel base, torque vs hp, all wheel drive vs just front or rear, boat load, climate, the list goes on

The important thing to remember is just because the numbers line up, and it looks good on paper, does not mean it is an optimal situation

Can it be done, sure

But keep in mind your situation and all the variables involved

Even with my heavy Durango, large wheelbase and all that engine, I still know there is a 26 foot boat behind me with lots of freeboard getting pushed around back there.

G

thank you all. I think I might have surprises by weighing the boat. I Will try to find other solutions.

Feval75 wrote:I think I might have surprises by weighing the boat.

Most folks do. The operational weight, outfitted for actual sailing and spending any time on the boat other than looking at it at a boat show, is always surprisingly higher than the published numbers.

Depending on your needs, simply rent when needed?

Feval75 wrote:thank you all. I think I might have surprises by weighing the boat. I Will try to find other solutions.