Towing a jet boat ?

[AndyC]

Well I guess I'm really nuts. I just went to look at a 00 Sea-Doo Speedster jet boat, in my friend's Marina. I was wondering I've heard of people on the list towing boats, any problems? This is 17' and weighs 1710 lbs.
I had to see what kind of deal the bank's going to give me on a borrowing a cash. Who know once I talk to the guy maybe he's already sold it. If I end up getting this I'm going to have a toy sale, I'll need to unload so stuff :)
Most likely I'll be getting a hitch from Tone to use since I really don't care for the looks of the Dalan ones either way the hitch is needed.

Thanks,

[Joe_Black]

If you like that take a look at the Yamaha! You'll spend more time in the water and less in the shop, just ask any former Bombardier owner.

On the towing, check this LINK (http://www.vehicross.info/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=12648#post12648) for the recent thread on this very question.

[AndyC]

Hey Joe, I have a 96 HX Sea-Doo and a 99 GP800 jetskies. Yea I know about the Sea-doo motor :) I've never had a problem with my yamahas. This Speedster has the Mer 240EFI motor in it:)

Thanks,

[IsuZOOM]

I own an '00 Speedster! It weighs 2,400 lbs BTW. I made the decision not to tow it with the VX as it's longer than the VX and would be dangerous going more than 25-30 MPH. Plus the trailer doesn't even have brakes.

[Tone]

That should tow just fine and you’ll hardly know it is back there. As long as it is under 3K lbs, trailer brakes are not essential but always nice and you can safely tow it at 55-60, longer trailers tow just fine at speed. Backing with a short wheel base, long trailer does require a good deal of skill to keep from jack knifing the trailer but go slow and practice.

Enjoy the SeaDoo - great boats! Yamahas are good too and a lot of rental places use them as they seem pretty bullet proof.

[Joe_Black]

Never had any trouble towing 26 foot trailer with my Trooper RS which is same wheelbase as VX. As Tone mentioned, things happen a lot quicker when backing. I look at it as more manueverability! LOL!

I used to run a Yamaha in amateur IJSBA racing and never did anything to it beyond riding it and cleaning it. The SeaDoo guys on the other hand...

[psychos2]

i towed a 22 ft donzi classic back from cape cod mass. it towed just fine @65-70 mph. probably close to 4000 lbs. i think the short wheel base helps when backing up. the shorter the trailer, the harder it is to back up. shawn

[Heraclid]

Hey, I support what Joe initially said... once upon a time Bombardier (it's French - Bom-bard-ee-ay) fired me, although I can't blame the whole company for that fiasco. However, before that they shut down all operations at the Colorado Springs office without any warning whatsoever - the employees showed up like it was any normal work day and found out they had an hour to get their stuff and get out. So I know I wouldn't buy from 'em. Plus, all their execs are French-Canadian a**holes who look down on Americans. Sorry, but it's true.

They spent a ton of money building a new 5-story office building for CFD (consumer finance division, which financed the SeaDoos & SkiDoos) and then before long shut it down, and I don't know what happened to all those folks. If you ever cruise thru Jax on I-95 you can see it. They tried to get into all sorts of other things like mortgage finance, which was floundering and represented only like 1 or 2 percent of their business and what did they do? Cut CFD here and kept MFD (mortgage). They had three different presidents of Jacksonville operations while I was there (2 yrs). They're also into aerospace (LearJet, Canadair) and railways (high-speed transit systems and railcar leasing).

[AndyC]

Thumbs down for Bombardier on that one.
Since this is a used jet boat that's ok then :) I have a Seadoo jet ski too but that was used when I purchased it. As for SeaDoo themselves Don't know -- a ring let loose in that motor and trashed it. Seadoo first denied the repair ( was a few days out of warranty) So I had to contact SeaDoo customer relations and walla they agreed to repair it minus $300. Well that worked good for me. The SeaDoo's are fast but that comes with a cost. My previous Yamaha was pretty quick but the Seadoo's would beat it. I never had to work on my Yamaha motor though. That was why I purchased another Yamaha jet ski and also Yamaha snowmobiles :)