Towing right at vehicle's suggested capacity...a bad idea?

[williemon]

I’m like ski Pablo. I tow my 01 vlx with my 06 Honda Pilot all wheel drive. I have also towed it with an 02 Honda odyssey mini van fwd. weight of my boat and trailer is 4100 to 4200 pounds give or take. I’ve towed 3 hours with the mini van to get the boat home when I bought it. Not too bad in my area of western Georgia. On a regular ramp, the van and pilot do fine. On a steep ramp, with half a tank or less fuel in the boat van was ok. With more fuel, on pulling out,  once the van pulled out part of the way, the tongue of the trailer was weighing down the van hitch and it lightens up the front of the van so the tires lost grip. Had to go get the pilot to pull the boat out. With the pilot awd, it is much better. Never had any issues. Towed with pilot on a 3 hour one way tow for a weekend to a big lake in Alabama. No issues. Tow back home was fine too. I tow every weekend during the season with the pilot to my local lake. About a 15 minutes tow. Also tow 40 minutes several times during the season. It works but it is not my favorite way to tow. Been using the pilot to tow since 2014. Having done it, your setup would probably work, but it is not the best setup. I did have 14 years experience towing an I/o boat in the same area with an 1990 4 runner, but that boat was half the weight of my vlx. A front wheel drive vehicle , like the odyssey van I had, towing at full load in the rain is also not fun. The awd pilot was much better. I’m currently looking at getting a strong truck to replace the pilot. The pilot has a short wheel base like an explorer has. A longer wheelbase tows better, rear wheel drive or all wheel drive is better, larger tow capacity is better. I get by with the pilot but don’t want to tow more than 30 minutes away with it. I’d really rather have a bigger, longer wheelbase tow vehicle but for now this is all I have. I have also had wife and kids drive in a small chase vehicle during the long tows or when we have lots of gear or friends coming along to ease the burden on the pilot. Just some food for thought. 
After rereading your post, is the explorer awd/4wd and a v6? If no to one of those and that drops it out of the running. You probably would also need a good stacked plate transmission cooler. I use one on my pilot and on the van when I had it. Keep good tires on it as well. If you could, and if it were me and I could, I’d factor in a larger vehicle if you want to tow more than 30 or 50 miles regularly. If only a couple times a year, like to a slip, then keep what you got. It will probably do it. My boat lists for 2999 or 3000 pounds dry I believe . On single axle trailer with half tank fuel, gear, tower, it’s roughly 4200 pounds. 

Edited October 31, 2023 by williemon

[Soon2BV]

You need to look at the max combined rating as well as the towing limit of the vehicle.  

Vehicle, passengers, fuel, food, junk + trailer and boat.  

If you want confirmation on the boat and trailer, you can go to a truck scale and get weighed.  They will give you a weight for each axle.  Then go back on without the trailer. you can do the math to get the boat and trailer weight, tongue weight, and tow vehicle weight.  All 3 matter. 

[dalt1]

13 minutes ago, Soon2BV said:

You need to look at the max combined rating as well as the towing limit of the vehicle.  

Vehicle, passengers, fuel, food, junk + trailer and boat.  

If you want confirmation on the boat and trailer, you can go to a truck scale and get weighed.  They will give you a weight for each axle.  Then go back on without the trailer. you can do the math to get the boat and trailer weight, tongue weight, and tow vehicle weight.  All 3 matter. 

The Cat Scales I use have 3 weigh platforms. I put both truck axles on the first one. Use a jack stand under the tongue where the ball hitch is on the middle platform. (I don't use the Trailer jack as it is 4 feet behind the hitch) The tandem axles on the rear platform. Gives you all the #s you need.

[Soon2BV]

18 minutes ago, dalt1 said:

The Cat Scales I use have 3 weigh platforms. I put both truck axles on the first one. Use a jack stand under the tongue where the ball hitch is on the middle platform. (I don't use the Trailer jack as it is 4 feet behind the hitch) The tandem axles on the rear platform. Gives you all the #s you need.

Thats cool.  The CAT by me won't let me unhook on the scales - too busy.  so I had to weigh, find a place to leave the trailer, and come back.