My wife and I are aiming to break all of our belongings down as minimally as we can in order to be able to live on the road for a while (for a multitude of reasons.)
Within our budget and needs, we’ve decided on a NuCamp 320 teardrop trailer, which clocks in at ~2k lbs unloaded, 3,000 lbs max load. Her, myself and two pups all weigh 300 lbs together. Optimally, we’d like to start with just the vehicle first, and trailer later on as an upgrade.
We were initially looking at a toyota 4runner to pair with this given the advertised 1550 lbs of potential cargo capacity and tongue weight of the hitch. However in practicality, we saw no more than a max capacity of 880 lbs period in the door jams at the dealerships. Even in the off-road models, which just seemed… asinine? Using some calculators, that would seemingly give us very little-to-no wiggle room for any proper amount of livable necessities before we cross that threshold and run into myriad issues.
Now we’re wondering how people actually do it? Are we overthinking it? We did love the vehicle, but these numbers are waaay too close for comfort, seeing as most advice we find online generally recommends not crossing ~80% of the big number. We’ve begun looking at land cruisers as an alternative, but the way the market is right now, and the difference in cost for both new and used, it’s looking more and more infeasible. Don’t even get me started on the GX550.
Have you been through a similar situation? Any advice would be appreciated! 🤍
Edit for future visitors:
We ended up settling on a ‘22 Toyota Highlander XLE, and honestly we’re pretty excited about it! Even with an electric tow hitch, it clocks in at a healthy 1,390 lbs of cargo capacity, with even more room in the back to camp out of. That number will go down a decent bit with some rooftop storage, and maybe back up a little bit if we can (viably) take out the third row seating. But it more than suits our current needs as it stands 🥳
Thanks to the general good advice in the comments, we’ve put the idea of an RV at all on ice, transitioning to a more all-inclusive portable action plan. There were too many ways things could go wrong lugging one at such long distances for the timeframe of our trips. However, we’re really happy to be able to upgrade to that setup at any time we’d like to!
Just get a tent if you must camp. the nice ones are still only 100lbs and will pack in your suv. Throw in a camp stove and cooler and you get most of what you want.
don’t forget about hotels. The savings in fuel will buy a mid grade hotel room every night, often with money left over for a meal. RVs only make sense if you are staying in one place for a week for each day of travel.
That’s a salient point about the fuel economy. I’m assuming it won’t just halve after attaching a semi-loaded RV, but maybe third or even quarter?
Atm I can’t say we would or wouldn’t be staying in one spot for a week+ at a time, at least not at first, so we’ll definitely have to weigh the short-term vs long-term timelines further.
depends on size but larger trailers and a gas engine will do far worse than half. That is why semis are diesel. My diesel truck is 18mpg unloaded but max towing drops down to 12. A ford f150 would get 20-25 unloaded but towing could get around 8.
you are talking about much smaller trailers than what I’m thinking about above so you will do better but I don’t know how much.
I just bought a van and converted it instead.
Fits in normal parking spots. Always has my gear in it. Full size bed over a garage for bikes, boards, boats. Fridge. Heat. Solar. Sink. Shore power. Walk on decked rack on top for boats, etc. Outdoor shower/gear wash. Slide out grill under the awning. Inside/outside gas stove. Drive wherever, sleep at any truck stop or rest area you want with only setup being to put magnetic window insulation in. Or just close the cabin curtain.
You want an actual truck, not an SUV. Regs have somewhat clamped down on the SUVs, they’re not just trucks with a different body anymore.
And remember that just because it’s rated for it doesn’t mean it will perfectly handle thirty thousand miles at capacity. You need some buffer there.
There are still suvs that are trucks with a different body. They are all big though. The small ones are unibody because for most uses that is better but towing is one where it is worse.
A 4runner has a 4 liter engine, surely it can tow that tiny RV. Wtf.
It might be worth asking the dealer why the capacity is only 880 lbs. Maybe there is a simple upgrade that can be made to increase that because fundamentally a vehicle with an engine that size should be able to tow medium-sized boats, etc.
Somewhat recently I was car shopping and looked into towing capacity for a Prius.
No Prius stateside is rated for towing at all, but in Europe where they sell the same damn model it is rated for a light trailer going a max of ~65mph. It was my understanding from digging into it that the US version doesn’t officially have tow capacity because of the legal speed limit on our highways being above what it’s safely capable of.
So at least in this one case it’s due to liability avoidance even though Prius can tow a light trailer if you drive like a grandma on the highway. If it’s true for that it’s probably true for other cars with more oomph
Yeah, what’s funny is during all this we noticed our Malibu’s cargo capacity is rated at almost 1,000 lbs in the door jam sticker.
Now, obviously, as you say it’s definitely not translatable to a tow hitch rate, and we’d never attempt something stupid like attaching a hitch and towing with it. But we found it funny that (aside from interior space) for cargo travel alone, we’d be better off with what we already have than a 4runner! (again, generally, obv there are a select few base models that do a lil better.)
I just don’t get why the 4runners are getting rated so low for what seems to be their most attractive feature. We saw the land cruisers seem to be a lot bulkier in the undercarriage.
This appears to be an undersized, overpriced first trailer. The exact same goes for the tow vehicles, which aren’t even truck-based SUVs.
But, there’s not much more to say because you’ve not stated why you made your choices.
I can expound a bit:
We’ve chosen this one because of its total weight, the solar panels, and the shower and bed. It doesn’t need to be big, it just needs to work with what we can get. It’s the smallest comprehensive package we’ve found, although I’m sure there’s plenty of other brands we haven’t come across yet. We’re aware it’s at a premium, and have decided the benefits outweigh the extra cost.
The first thing we’ll do with it is take it up into Canada to do some university tours. Optimally we’ll be able to dry camp at worst in between visits. If we like it, we may very well just keep doing that instead of renewing our soon-ending lease. We already practically live out of a suitcase anyways, the apartment is just a big storage for all our junk.
Did you have any specific SUV suggestions that would work alternatively? None seemed (at first) so reliable as a Toyota. Again, we’re exhausting all SUV options before considering trucks.
have decided the benefits outweigh the extra cost
You’ve no experience but assign merit to more than an ideology of comprehensive amenities.
The first thing we’ll do with it is take it up into Canada to do some university tours. Optimally we’ll be able to dry camp at worst in between visits.
The learning trip is international, urban, and boondock all at once.
We already practically live out of a suitcase anyways, the apartment is just a big storage for all our junk.
But, the “junk” is still present.
Did you have any specific SUV suggestions that would work alternatively?
Suburban 3/4 ton with the 6.0L and not VVT 2019. If you want reliability then the Cummins 6.7L diesel isn’t for you because you’re too focused on externally-sourced convenience. The GM 3.0L diesel isn’t for you because it’s too new for reliability studies. Your only choice is a Tundra.
