Anyone Tow with a Ford Flex Eco-Boost?

I was just curious. I would love to get one for the wife. It would be nice to be able to put the boat in the water with that instead of driving my Diesel F250 70 miles each way to move the boat a total of 400 yards.

From what I can tell the Flex with the Eco-Boost can tow 5000lbs. I have a 2005 Sanger V215, so it should work just fine.

I bought a Flex this year, if you want the eco boost, you have to upgrade to the Limited and with those packages comes back seat TV's,Nav, all wheel drive, and for my situation a ton of $$ for things I did not need. And you can just pony up and get the Titanium edition and that doubles what I paid for the SEL front wheel drive. Regardless...the Flex is alot of car for the $$, nice job Ford !

Interesting idea. What about the water level when putting the boat down the ramp? Do you think it would fill up with water or does it have enough ground clearance?

Actually, if you get an all wheel drive SEL with the 203A package the Ecooboost is standard. Timmy brings up a good qeustion, I'd say it depends on the steepnes of the ramp you frequent. For me it wouldn't be a problem but I could certainly see it being a problem on longer more shallow ramps.

I think becasue of where I launch (super steep ramp) the rear tires wouldn't even make it into the water. Back in the day when we towed with a 1993 linclon town car and launched at Clearlake, CA only the rear tires would get wet up to the bottom of the lug nuts. So I bet the flex would be just fine. Especially with the all wheel drive.

All I saw was a tow rating of 4500 pounds for the Flex. Your Sanger has got to be a good 1000 pounds more than that.

I don't know if that other string about boat and trailer weight ever came to any conclusions, but my best guess is a 3300 pound boat and 1300 pound trailer plus tower, stereo, gear...is gonna be about 5500lbs.

Now, since you are just moving to the ramp that is 400 yards away from where it is stored, I'd say you would be fine with just about anything (notice I said..."just about"...). Beware of the CHP if you tow it into town for gas..

While i can't speak for the Flex, I will say the CHP doesn't care or even notice imo. They have no idea what's rated and isn't unless it's a blatant safety issue. I see the same people towing to my lakes all the time in the same vehicles and some of them I would never even consider, especially the guy towing the Sanger V210 with a '66 Ford Thunderbird!

Yeah most of the time a tow rating will only come into play in the event of an accident.

You should be fine for short trips. My dad's got a Flex Ltd that has the ecoboost and awd and it is able to tow our old tige 22v that i believe is 3800lbs before the tandem trailer. It has pulled out the boat on the local ramp that is fairly steep as well as greasy. I think stopping power (i.e. breaks and overall heft) is the main area where it would be lacking. Side note, you should be able to get the limited without tvs; my dads was off the lot and had navi but not tvs.

I think we need to have a dedicated section to the Ford EcoBoost on Wakeworld. :-)

Ha! Yeah, in this instance its more can the Flex handle it.

I think we will be getting a Flex for sure in the next year or two. I love the versitility.

how do you think your fuel economy will be while towing??

I wonder what the MPG would be as well. I just like the idea of 17 mpg around town with something that can move the boat anywhere, cool

I bought a used 09 Flex Ltd 6 months ago for the wife and It is one bad a_ _ ride. I prefer to drive it over my Super Duty for most running around. It gets good mileage, has tons of power and the ride is incredible. Our LTD does NOT have Tv's or navigation. Sadly, it also did not have the tow package and I have done tons of research on it and spoken to many dealers. Portions of it can be bought and added like the hittch &, wiring harness but the trans cooler is a problem and not avaialbe. Tasca Ford has the best prices, on accessories so be sure to check their Ebay store. I bought all my rubber floor and hatch mats from them very reasonably. Towing a short distance would not be a problem if as stated above the ramp is sloped so water does not get into rear hatch area. I have gotten as much as 26mpg driving from northern Oregon down I5 to Sacramento averaging 70-85 miles an hr by the way. The all wheel drive is sweet in wet conditions. BE very careful of the Curt or Reese aftermarket hitches. I have read on the Flex forums they are terrible and have alot of give to them.
Rick

I bought a '09 Flex Limited when it first came out and agree with others here. It is a fine ride. Sadly, the Ecoboost engine was not available that year. We do have it in the SHO and what a motor!!!! Just bought a SAN 210 and that puppy weighs 3,800 dry. We will be well over the towing capacity so sadly we will be saying goodbye to the Flex. Looking at either the Ford Expedition or the GMC Denali XL. We could also do the new Grand Cherokee but I'm still a little leery of Chrysler products and think the extra space in the Denali might be useful. Only drawback is much like boats, the darn things are really expensive.