rritch

I am going to be towing a 20 ft boat in a couple weeks about 150 miles. Boat, trailer, fuel, etc is right around 3500 lbs. I have a 16 2.7 SCREW with max tow, but the single axle trailer does not have brakes. From what I have read I do not "think" it will be a problem at that weight, but I know that at least some states require trailer brakes over 3000 lbs. I will be towing mostly on interstate and what is not interstate is flat. This is a family members boat that they tow with a 98 Expedition and he says he has never had any issue with no brakes. Does anyone have any real first hand experience with this scenario? I am not trying to be rude, but I know there are a lot of theoretical arguments against it because there are laws against towing over 3000 without brakes, I am not interested in theory, looking for first hand experience. Your experiences good or bad would be appreciated.

Some additional info - My truck GVWR is 6500 GCVWR is 12,800 and the trailer tongue weight is about 250.

doyall

I previously towed a 2000# dry boat and probably 750# single axle trailer (close but no cigar) many a mile without trailer brakes or incident. The 2000 Lariat with which I towed had beefier brakes than the standard model but I can only speculate at what difference they may have made. Just maintain your situational awareness.

Byard91

I towed a similar set up with an older S-10. I didnt have any problems with it but I didnt really feel safe. Kept it under control and gave plenty of stopping distance. Got rid of that and got a SCAB 4x4. Towed the same boat and had no issues. Brakes were actually on the trailer. Since it was used in salt water, I had a hard time keeping them working. Finally got upset and just took them completely off. The full size truck handled it well and I didnt have any issues stopping.

storageman

I had a 19' Deep V boat No-Brakes (Larson est 2800lbs) with a 1967 Chevy Chevelle 500 miles ea way for 5 years and never had a problem. In reality, most trailers <4klbs should not present any issues with any 1/2 ton truck.

PAMedic13

I had an 88 extended cab with 8' bed and 5.8. Bought a 21' cuddly on a single axle trailer. Toeing it home I had to go down a long 2% grade with a stop sign at the bottom. Luckily there was no one approaching from either direction . I heated the front brakes that the rubber seals on the rotors melted. I had surge brakes in stalled before I towed again . be safe and get the brakes.

Duke460

OCMike

iTrader: (1)

Only thing I would add is to make sure you have fresh grease in the trailer wheel bearings. Bearing buddies are great but there is no substitute for disassembling the hubs and packing the bearing with a good quality waterproof grease.

Mike

Scott91370

No brakes on my 22' pontoon that I towed a lot with my 2001 quad cab Ram and a few times with my F-150. Didn't have any issues with either truck.
Just don't push it ad when you get done with the trip add brakes to it.

Mark Miller

You have Max Tow Package with a 2.7L Eco Boost?

BlackBoost

It's pushing it safety-wise (pun intended) and it's do-able, but it might not end well if you have to do any emergency braking... People on the road are not considerate of others who are towing. I can't count how many times someone cut in front of me and put the brakes on to make an exit just because they didn't want to go behind me and I'm purposely leaving lots of space in front of me. I personally wouldn't pull it without brakes, but I have busy city driving to do, and the places I go also have some pretty steep hills, and I wouldn't want a trailer pushing my truck downhill with only truck brakes (jack knifing is very possible).

I can only assume he meant the tow package. The best I was able to get was the tow pkg + payload pkg which helped a lot. Max tow was not avail, at least not for 2015. His is a 2016 though so I can't 100% confirm that.