Ayefour

Looking to pull a conservatively 5000lb boat and trailer package an 06 Malibu VRide. The tongue weight seems to be a bit heavy since it’s a single axle trailer. My Atlas suspension is bottoming out. I’m looking to get into a Q7 prestige with air ride. Any real world concerns with towing this package. I’ve seen on the forums a lot of camper pulling where weight was fairly easily movable front to rear. Also seeing if there is any experience pulling a similar sized watercraft 21 ft?

ephone1

I pull a boat & tailer that totals 7000k pounds. I bought a Q7 to replace our original tow vehicle - a Yukon XL that neither my wife or I really wanted to drive due to it size and truck-like qualities. I was really worried that towing with the Q7 would be a challenge compared to the Yukon, but I can objectively say the Q7 tows better than the Yukon. I even get better gas mileage when towing. Air Ride is a must for towing heavy - it keeps the back end level.

2kwik4u

My boats not quite as big as yours. 19ft Yamaha. About 3,200lbs all in.



My '17 Q7 Prestige tows it exceptionally well. Better than the fullsize.pickup I traded in on it. Air suspension and 4 wheel steering are game changers for towing. Plenty of power for towing in the MidWest and SouthEast. Tons of stability. We've been all over, including a 10hr tow to Destin last summer. Never felt unstable or overworked. My trailer doesn't have brakes and the Q7 has the best stopping equipment I've ever towed with.

Only issue is that the hitch rattles like dammit and you can hear ALL of that in the cabin. Get an anti-rattle device (I run a threaded pin with a nut in the drawbar), and grease the ball liberally with good bearing grease. That will take about 95% of the noise out of the cabin.

Tongue weight rating is 700lbs on the Q7. Should be enough even for a tongue heavy boat in the 5k range.

Consider running your setup across a CAT scale. Weigh once with the boat attached, and once with just the vehicle. Cost me $12/weigh last year. All done from smartphone at a truck stop. You can do some math with those two measurements and figure out your exact tongue weight. You want it to be somewhere around 10% of total trailer weight. As low as 8% and as high as 12% is OK though. You can typically adjust the tongue weight on a boat trailer by sliding either the bow stop fore/aft or sliding the axle fore/aft. Depending on how the trailer is built.

calculi

Disagree with you there. If you go with a premium model, you get much better cargo capacity. My premium has a 1374 capacity.

Toss on some airbags (just over a hundred on Amazon) and you’re in a better position for towing. These forums have lots of info on adding them.

2kwik4u

Soooo.......Airbags from the factory aren't a must for towing......But if the coils aren't good enough, get some airbags from the aftermarket?!?!?!

Meaning that you'll probably want airbags for towing? Right?

I've been towing for several decades now. Anything with air suspension is superior to steel suspension under changing loads.

Zapper

Can you elaborate on what you mean re much better cargo capacity? I was under the impression that premium, premium plus and prestige models all had identical cargo capacity. I think I might be misunderstanding what you're saying... Thanks!!

Dark Kauphee

My '18 Q7 Prestige did not have factory air suspension and I towed my 5k travel trailer all over Florida. It squatted a lot, so I added the after market air bags that you can find several threads about. It worked fine, and it did not squat as much.

I traded up for '19 Q7 Prestige with factory air suspension and just returned from a 10k mile, 3 month summer vacation driving from the east coast to the west coast and back again. Towed like a champ without any issues. Average mileage was 12mpg.

Both instances worked great for towing a 5k travel trailer. I do love the factory air suspension though, but that's my personal preference.

Playr158

older post but.. steel springs and a 22 5' sea ray.
~5500-6000 pounds and does it like a champ

AlbertQ7

I tow a 7000 lb, 30 foot travel trailer with '18 Prestige with air suspension. Even in the mountains of Utah, I'm blown away with how well the Q7 tows. People struggle towing that same trailer with a F150. I've towed my brother's G35 boat (bigger than your Malibu I think) with tandem axle trailer over a mountain pass without any issues. I have the adaptive air suspension and swear by it. Can you tow without it? Yes.... but if you have the option of getting it, I would recommend it. Besides towing, I like the adjustability of the air suspension and use the various settings quite often.

I agree with one of the postings above that it will be worth going through a weigh station with your setup. You can go through unhitched and hitched and get a good estimate of trailer tongue weight. You can also make sure you are not over your rear axle gross weight rating. I've always thought boats tended to run lower tongue weights compared to travel trailers, but maybe I'm wrong. They certainly are easier to tow since the boat is more aerodynamic and has a lower side profile so it doesn't get affected by crosswinds nearly as much.

2kwik4u

This is far easier than I thought it would be. I did it in May of '21 when I got my Q7 as I wanted to check tongue weight and total weight, and needed a reason to do a test tow with the new ride without the family.

Here's what the data looks like.



It's honestly super super simple. Download the app for the CAT scales. Wait your turn and drive across. Make sure you have each set of tires on a different scale. Then stop and request your weight. Drive over to the back of the parking lot and drop the trailer, then do it again with just the vehicle. Between those two measurements you can calculate vehicle weight, trailer weight, tongue weight, and weight splits. The math is easy and it's good peace of mind to know where you're at weight wise.

Also.....it's pretty dang accurate. Scale was within 20lbs of what I measured with an actual tongue weight scale in my garage.