my brother is wanting to buy a small suv and being the nice ford bother i am pushing him towards a escape. but hes wanting to pull my parents pop up camper (about 3000 lbs) and a small boat. now i know the hitches on them are not big like my F150's but they make adapters, so any thoughts?

 

take the GCWR subtract the curb weight and you get the towing capacity

 

Max towing capacity is 3500 pounds (includes everything in and attached to the vehicle) and tongue weight is 350 pounds.
I tow nearly 3000 (18 foot bass boat with 150 HP outboard) and my Trib is adequite, but no margin of error. Brakes on the trailer would help.

 

A 4x4 v-6 escape will pull 3500 pounds all day long. The factory is conservitive with thier tow rateings because of warranty issues. As long as you stay at that magic 3500 number, or under, you'll be fine, and even if you go a hair over, I won't tell, if you won't ha ha. As DoctorCAD says, trailor brakes are a big plus. GOOD LUCK!!

 

ok thax ya'll

 

You'll tow best with the O/D turned off. The hitch is set up for a 1 1/4" tow bar. Don't get crazy and you'll do fine, especially with the boat.

 

ok cool il tell him that cause he never has towed nothin in his life lol

 

He'll be wanting more horsepower, even from the V6, if there's any hills on the way. Just not enough low-end in my opinion for that kind of weight. It can be done, but I'm not sure how fun it will be. Adequate? Yeah. probably, but issueless? Even something with 50 more HPs is debatable for me if he's gonna be travelling in any kind of mountainous(or even hilly) terrain at all, which seems the norm for campers and boats.

If the power suits him, I'd definitely swap out the stock rear shocks for the KYBs. Huge improvement, and inexpensive, can be installed quickly yourself. Brakes on the trailer ain't a bad idea neither.

The factory tow package comes with a 1 1/4 inch class 2 hitch and adds an engine oil cooler, a tranny cooler is apparently standard on any auto-equipped model. It works great for my bike rack.