[Shotimes] Towing with the SHO

[Dave Pillsbury]

I was never a big fan of that engine and one of the boats we were 
interested in had that engine I passed quickly. The SeaRay I almost 
bought had the 302 with the Mercruiser outdrive but the over all weight 
was more then the WellCraft and it was a foot and half shorter. The 
WellCraft is running a 460 Ford with some "mods" Bigger cam ported heads 
Dual 4 bbl intake with a nice set of Marine Holleys on it. And it sounds 
so GOOOD! It should be able to get my fat ass up on a ski again I'm 
sure. With any luck it will be sitting in the water this weekend for my 
first full weekend of boat ownership............again.
Dave

Ron Porter wrote:

>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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