I have towed boats that were over towing limit and the answer is yes you
can.
Very carefully and over a short distance. You SUV will survive it
(probably). The issue is overall weight of the assembly that may be too much
for your brakes and stability in case of emergency breaking.
Can you move it from one location to the other say 20 miles away? Yes. Not
recommended for more then that. Towing capacity is never calc. "on the dot"
and with 5000 lbs in your car specs you can safely assume that a true
"border point" towing capacity of your SUV is about 7000 lbs. But this is
where the game starts to be dangerous... Keep that in mind. Casual towing to
the vacation spots has to be taken off your list. GMC Safari has 6500 lbs.
towin' capacity and is the lightest vehicle you can use (with factory
installed tow package). Otherwise use a pickup truck rated for over 8000
lbs.

In no way I'm encouraging you to tow but knowing that finding and arranging
for boat towing is a true pain in the a** I'm giving you a cautious advise.



"sfcarioca" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hey all,

I'm considering buying a 1999 Bayliner Ciera 2655 (I know, I've been
warned about Bayliners, that's besides the point :-) )

I own a Volvo XC90 AWD SUV that is rated to tow 5000 lbs.

- When looking up the boat on www.nada.com, it said that its "net"
weight is about 5400 lbs. That's hard for me to believe... are those
weights in nada correct?

- Also, on www.nada.com, there is no ciera 2655 except for the
sunbridge model. However, the boat I'm looking for doesn't look like a
sunbridge. Is the model simply missing in nada?

- Does the net weight in www.nada.com accurate? Does it include a
trailer? What does the "net" mean in net weight... what is the "gross"
weight?

- Is it a very bad idea for me to try to tow this baby with my Volvo?

- are there other useful websites for getting towing info?

thanks for your help!