[Shotimes] Towing with the SHO

[Ron Porter]

Many years ago, I tried to "ski" behind the "high-performance" version of
that 4-cylinder (140 HP vs 120, IIRC) in an 18' boat, and it would not pull
me up on my slalom ski. I had to drop one, and even then it wouldn't get the
speed that I was used to.

And this was when I weighed 175 #s or so.

The 188 HP 302 Ford I/Os were barely adequate in an 18' boat....which is
pretty much the minimum size for an I/O setup.

Ski boats (and all boats, really) need gross quantities of TORQUE. During my
visit to Jomar a few years ago, I learned that the street/strip folks are
getting around to what the boat guys learned years ago about big cubes and
cams with massive lifts to produce big torque numbers as low in the rpm
range as possible.

With a Class II hitch, a 3,600 # boat wouldn't worry me. I would just expect
to be changing clutches a bit more frequently.

Ron Porter

-----Original Message-----
From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of Donald Mallinson
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 5:20 PM
To: shotimes@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Towing with the SHO

I have a class one hitch on my '89 that was on it when I bought it, 
bolts through the spare tire well and clamps onto the bumper shocks.   I 
have towed a 1000 pound little box trailer with it and it does fine.

I bought a Class II receiver hitch from U-Haul that bolts to the body 
"frame" rails on the sides of the spare tire well,  and towed the same 
little trailer with my '96 SHO V8.

Although you might be able to get a 3500 pound load down the road with 
your SHO, I would not advise it for a long time or for any mountain 
duty.  I also put a medium sized tranny cooler on my '96 SHO before 
towing that little trailer to the Maryland convention.  It has paid for 
itself I am sure.  My fluid is staying red and fresh smelling (at least 
for ATF) after convention duty and a years worth of driving and track 
duty.  BUt I do change fluid every year before convention time, just to 
be safe.  Never had the tranny on this car spew out fluid like some have 
done at the convention track events.

Since your comment was putting the SHO engine in a rowboat....unless it 
was a really BIG rowboat, the SHO engine should have WAY more torque 
than required!  Heck if my 18' I/O with a Chevy II 4 cylinder could pull 
me up on skis (OK, that was some years ago and more than a few pounds) 
then the SHO engine in a similar boat would perform just fine.  
Obviously a Mustang 5.0L would do better, but it all depends on how big 
the boat is and what duty is will be asked to perform. 

Don Mallinson

Ron Porter wrote:

>>I seem to recall someone was towing a fairly good sized boat with a SHO. 
>>Anyone remember who that was and what they were towing? Just for S&G I'm 
>>thinking about taking the Boat down to Auburn and leaving it on the 
>>property we bought. And maybe sliding into Indy with the SHO. So if 
>>anyone recalls let me know.
>>Dave
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