Towing Camper without Max Tow

[Fastwake]

Who in the hell pulls there TT around full of water. Lol lol lol

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[SwampNut]

Who in the hell pulls there TT around full of water. Lol lol lol

Full? Or partially full? I'm sure as hell not emptying a partial fresh tank, and pretty much always just dump at home. So yeah, me, sort of.

 

[Jaxmax]

I do, going to kayak tourenaments, such as Jamaica Bay, NY. no electric. no water, no showers, just hundreds of kayak fishermen on an old sea plane base (Floyd Bennett field) runway with about twenty porta potties. So full fresh tank, two batteries , couple kayaks and equipment, my Suburban did well with my 1995 Prowler 19LE at 3400 lbs dry, looking for a lighter camper and praying that Jamacia Bay comes back from Covid.

 

[SwampNut]

We also boondock, so at the very least the last many miles of a trip would be with full fresh water, and then, with gray and black going to return.

 

[wannajeep]

Who in the hell pulls there TT around full of water. Lol lol lol

Depends on whether or not water is available at your destination.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I no longer have that to consider - sold my trailer a few years ago, but I went to places where there wasn't water. Primitive camping at antique engine shows. If you had a long enough and heavy enough cord and got there early and got one of the half dozen or so outlets - you had electricity, but it was a club owned property and we were lucky to have state park type "toilets" (stainless steel troughs, and holes with wood seats)
You took water with you, and had to haul your waste back to a rest stop that had facilities to empty out.

 

[xpcdoojk]

Well...sometimes miracles DO happen. I started out out by asking my wife, "Remember how we talked about downsizing the camper...?" She actually took the news well.

We won’t be doing any serious road travel with a camper for another couple of years when I retire, so in the meantime we can either tent camp or keep the distances short with the current monstrosity close to empty of cargo. I can certainly stow the gear in the bed of the truck. However... if the trailer is 4500 and the truck curb weight is 4600 or more, and my wife and I tip in at 500...that only leaves 400 or less for gear...10,000 GCWR. I am putting a winch on the front bumper. Pretty tight...However, we would camp at campsites anyway - no need to tow water of any color.

When I retire, we get the smaller camper and keep it’s overall Combined weight under 4500 lbs., including waters. That should serve us for 2 or 3 days boondocking - which is probably the most we could stand anyway.

Does it sound like I’ve rationalized this enough? Does this sound right? Why would they make a vehicle max tow weight that barely leaves room for passengers? Why does the manual transmission make the capacities 2500lbs less?

Have you considered a trailmanor trailer. They are generally lightweight and they are pretty comfortable for actually using as a camper. https://trailmanor.com

I was going to buy one of those until I decided I just had to have an Airstream. The heaviest trailer they offer is only dry weight of 3200# with a tongue weight of 490. Since they are a convertible trailer, they are only 24 foot long closed and 31 opened. They fit in many garages with the swing hitch. Smaller sizes are available and they weigh even less. Fairly hard to find, but there are some on dealers lots around the country. The smallest ones are 18 feet closed and 25feet open with a dry weight of 2600# and tongue weight of 320 or less.

The upside of these trailers is they are relatively roomy compared to standard trailers with most of the features of the bigger heavier trailers.

Just a thought.

jc

 

[SwampNut]

I found the exact opposite with every trailer from Airstream. They all weighed and cost much more for any given space. We have a slide-out, so that makes a big difference, if you compare to small trailers without one. It's been a while since I shopped it, but at the time an Airstream of the same weight had 30% living space, and one with the same living space was a few feet and over a thousand pounds more.

Quality may or may not be worth the price. They are about double the price of others. But the weight/size for a given space pushed me out of looking further at true cost.

 

[xpcdoojk]

I found the exact opposite with every trailer from Airstream. They all weighed and cost much more for any given space. We have a slide-out, so that makes a big difference, if you compare to small trailers without one. It's been a while since I shopped it, but at the time an Airstream of the same weight had 30% living space, and one with the same living space was a few feet and over a thousand pounds more.

Quality may or may not be worth the price. They are about double the price of others. But the weight/size for a given space pushed me out of looking further at true cost.

If you are talking to me. I did not say Airstream are light. I suggested Trailmanor. I am, personally, going to buy an Airstream when I reach retirement sometime in the next 2 years. It has nothing to do with weight or cost. It is purely personal desire. I think for the money Trailmanor offers a lightweight offering that compares well to bigger trailers. They are not as cheap as a lot of other cheap crap for sale either. I think pound for pound Airstream is very expensive, only out expensived (is that a word!) by Bowlrus. Which, also, tempts me.

BTW Bowlrus are light, and could probably be towed by any Gladiator. Of course, the price of entry starts near 200K. I could easily be driven by that personal lust as well.

jc

 

[Cnewell]

Ok, time for an update. We've towed 3 times with no issues (knock on wood). The camper is 3380, so I'm probably around 3900 loaded up. The break controller is a big help, glad I added it. Getting around 10.5 MPG. I'm very pleased so far! We're having a blast!

I’m headed into a very similar situation. Your thread helped me a lot. Thank you.

 

[ArmyMP]

The bad news is modern manual transmission's are not what they was in the past, the one's being made now are to maximize MPG if anything. "Muncie" and like is gone. You, I and many more might not like it. I'm not going to say manual transmission is dead. But it's not getting R&D that automatics have been for heavy duty use (USA and Europe) OTR trucks are using automatic transmission even. I've been towing with the 6 speed manual in my LJ up to 5k I do have trailer brake controller for it too. The manual it said no need to change it, I have been changing it every few years at least. That transmission was considered a light duty one.
Late models light duty clutch low clamping force for less driver effort AKA easy drive-ablity. The last part is possible the manual transmission problems on JL/JT's ???

South Bend still makes amazing clutches and custom clutches

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