Towing capacity

I am new to boating and will be towing my boat home this fall for winter storage.  The boat and trailer combo weights approximately 4500 lbs.  Do I need a truck to tow this weight or will an SUV do the work?  Should the vehicle have a six or eight cylinder engine?  Is 4WD a must?  Any insight is appreciated.

Dave  

The most important thing to check is the towing capability of your truck or SUV. 4WD is useful, especially if you're going to be near water (never know when it might be extra muddy).  

You can see which vehicles can tow 4500 pounds at :

http://www.comparevehiclespecs.com

Cheers,

Rick  

4500 lbs is a decent enough weight to be towed by any truck or truck based SUV. When looking at vehicles their stated max towing should be above 4500 by a decent amount to leave you some cushion in the cabaility. 4wd should be looked at based on where you live and how you drive, most boat ramps are pretty user friendly, 4wd certainly helps but reduces the max towing weight by a few hundered pounds which isnt a big deal. A lot of stout v-6s would do the job like the ones in the tacoma (4.0 liter) and if you opt for a 4 liter v6 in the ranger and the like. An explorer, trailerblazer would be just fine or a compable vehicle. Again i would stay away from anything car based, in terms of an SUV and a rigdeline or chevy colorado arent the best choices for the load, in my opinion. If you are looking to buy, the rates on a new truck or truck based suv are good condsidering the "gas guzzlers". In terms of price id look at vehicles from the big 3, toyotas 4 runner wold work too but could get pricey. One more thing look at wheel base, the longer the wheel base the easier it would be to tow a vehicle in 120 in range give or take would do. Also consider a vehicle that can haul all the days supplies for a boating trip too, either towing it in the boat or in the vehicle, thus that might raise the towing numbers.