Hey guys,

Im looking at buying a 5metre aluminium hull boat and was just wondering how well my model magna will pull it, and will it struggle back up boat ramps of any kind?


Cheers Heppy,

Proud owner of 2000 TJ Solara. :mits:

Really depends on weight but my wagon happly tows my 15' fibreglass boat, this is not light and does not struggle in the lease

I would probably have to say a combined weight of the trailer and boat 800Kg? Think it would still pull it quite well?

I think in SA you need trailer brakes for anything over 500kg, not sure if it's the same in NSW. Might be worth looking into.

NSW is 750 with no brakes the you need trailer brakes. If the trailer is NSW rego and over 750 which i think it will be it will have mechanical trailer brakes already.

Towing on the road will be no worries. Its all about the ramps you use and the tide for a FWD. if you will have any troubles on a ramp it will be low tide as its slimmy. its all about just being a little careful and not droping the trailer wheels off the edge of the ramp at low tide.

I have towed our 18ft fibreglass boat short distances with our TH magna before and it towed fairly well, I would definitely recommend brakes, its not really about getting going, its about stopping suddenly when you need to...

As for the boat ramps, I have found that in a lot of situations, fwd can actually be better than rwd, at low tide ramps can get slippery, but they will always be less slippery the further from the water you are. I have been at the ramp many times and seen falcodores towing smaller boats slipping all over the place trying to get traction as the water laps at their back tyres, then pulled our bigger boat out of the water easily with the magna :D

Will be easy, been pulling near 1 tonne of wood in my brother's mirage so in terms of power there will be no problem for your v6.

From what I've seen FWD cars are worse than RWD cars at pulling boats etc on slippery surfaces uphill - this is simply because when the car is nose-up the weight shifts to the rear wheels and off the front (drive) wheels.
This is what Wikipedia says about FWD (in part):
# In some towing situations, front-wheel drive cars can be at a traction disadvantage since there will be less weight on the driving wheels. Because of this, the weight that the vehicle is rated to safely tow is likely to be less than that of a rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive vehicle of the same size and power.
# Traction can be reduced while attempting to climb a slope in slippery conditions such as snow- or ice-covered roadways.

Front wheel drive will be fine. If it's an auto then fit a transmission cooler & check to see if your towbar is rated to 1500kg. FWD has the advantage of locking the front wheels whilst the transmission is in park/in gear if a manual. This leaves the handbrake to hold the rear wheels so effectively all four wheels are braked/locked when doing a solo launch/recovery without having a driver sitting in the car with their foot on the brakes. A rear wheel drive has everything happening on the rear wheels ie: transmission locks rear wheels when in park/gear plus handbrake on rear wheels = two wheels locked unless the driver sits in the car with foot on brake pedal. I've seen the Rye boat ramp on Port Phillip Bay silted with about 20cm of sand right where the rear wheels park. Two cars, 1 commodore VT wagon & 1 magna 2nd gen V6 sedan were recovering 5m fibreglass boats at the same time. Both boats loaded on OK, magna drives away slow with minimal wheelspin, commodore got bogged & sat there wheel spinning. Was towed out 15 min later by a guy in a Discovery. Have also seen pics of a VE Commodore at Mornington ramp that slid / launched itself on the slimy stuff & ended up in 1.5mtrs water during a solo jet ski launch.

Cheers