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!
So, I've moved a lot of really stupid bullshit with a really small "SUV" in my life. My venerable old Callie, a manual-trans 1999 Subaru Forester that's actually just a Impreza passenger sedan with a station wagon body on top, has successfully moved a flatbed trailer probably 12-15 times some pretty long distances with upwards of 5000lb on the trailer alone. The car is rated for 1500lb towing.
Let me tell you, she does NOT like it, and is not fast. But she can do it, because I'm extremely careful about it.
A vast majority of vehicles are actually fully capable of towing a lot more weight than their nameplate, in terms of engine power. The main things that limit their SAFE capability is braking force and highway stability. Manufacturers set the nameplate limits to where they can guarantee the vehicle stays safe even if operated very incorrectly, with all the weight in one spot, by a complete doofus. They're more for legal protection more than anything; "sorry you were 10lb over the rated limit, that crash isn't our fault."
You can actually go over the rated cargo capacity by a few hundred pounds and not worry too much, just make sure it's spread out evenly across the vehicle. I guarantee you a 4runner can hold more than 880lb inside, with it being a solid rear axle and all.
as far as towing goes:
Braking force. Passenger cars only have brakes with enough force to quickly stop a vehicle of the nameplate GVWR. There is a decent bit of engineered factor of safety here, so that's how you get a towing capacity around 2000lb higher. Once you exceed that, your braking distance is going to increase linearly, since brakes can only remove a certain amount of energy (and kinetic energy is =mv^2). This also can cause them to overheat if going down large mountain slopes.
With 5500lb total behind my Forester, my braking distance effectively tripled. You can mash the brake into the floor and it would just keep going, it's really spooky if you're used to driving normal unloaded vehicles. I was doing my hauling on empty rural roads, but I would straight shit myself if I had to take that into traffic.
To combat this, trailers use additional brakes on their own axles, powered either by an electronic brake controller or via a hydraulic cylinder on the trailer tongue ("surge" brakes). I added a junkyard brake controller to my Forester, and it restored a ton of braking force. On the product page for the NuCamp 320, it says it has electric brakes, so that's good. This does mean you need to have an electric brake controller on whatever vehicle you tow with. Tons of mechanics shops can wire those in for you though.
Vehicle/trailer stability. This is what is collectively known as "trailer sway"
Basically, physics says the trailer needs to weigh less than the vehicle, and must be applying a minimum portion of it's mass to the rear axle of the vehicle so that the vehicle can continue guiding it. If the trailer weighs more, it must transfer an equivalent force via tongue weight to keep things stable; that's how semitrucks work with a 5th wheel right over the rear axle.
With too heavy of a trailer, or too bad a weight distribution, the trailer will begin pushing the vehicle around on the road. If the imbalance is extremely poor, and the driver doesn't know how to stop it, shit happens.
The general rule is you should have 15% of the trailer's weight on the tongue. Most SUV's these days have extremely low tongue weight ratings because of their independent rear suspension- usually less than 300lb, which gets you that 2000lb tow rating.
The good part is proper trailer balance (aka store stuff in the front half of your trailer, NOT the back half) and using an electric brake controller can get rid of this; gently applying the trailer-only brakes helps bring trailers back to straight.
Of course, with those two things taken care of, you then have to worry about your transmission's capability and cooling, and engine cooling. Those you primarily just need to monitor closely using gauges or a OBD-II dongle paired to a phone running Torque app to get engine/trans data. My forester would like to start overheating if I tried to do 60mph in 4th gear too long.
I assume you're buying a new vehicle? Look at a Ford Explorer with the 3.0L V6. They give those a 5300lb tow rating and I can vouch for them actually being really good vehicles.
I knew a guy who bought a small truck (30 years ago) and towed well over rated weight, he got where he was going 200 miles down the road and when he parked over some weeds they started on fire from his overheated transmission, truck was totaled - manufecture denighed warranty coverage and is insurance refused to cover it. they were making payments for a while an a truck that was scrapped.
that's called "don't park in weeds dumbass" and not the fault of the vehicle or even the load itself. Manufacturer justified in denying any kind of warranty.
Any vehicle will do that, even passenger cars well under the weight rating, it's the exhaust and cats running at 600F+ that start dry brush on fire. It is physically impossible for a transmission to get hot enough to set stuff on fire itself before it will completely fail internally.
The exhaust could be a problem but this is clearly the transmission which should noteget that hot. Fire investigators traced the fire to hot transmission fluid leaking from seals that failed because of temperature.
No, it's called don't tow more than your vehicle is made to handle you moron, but you wouldn't understand that
Yeah that guy is just a fucking idiot that puts everyone around them in danger.
Thanks for the comprehensive response!! 🙌
Lots of good thoughts to chew on here, I’ll take some time to consider these points! And thanks for not just saying to get a truck instead. I do have some previous experience driving with a truck & trailer combo, though that was only a simple flatbed, so not a very apt comparison.
e: Oh also we’re not locking ourselves into only new vehicles. Just what’s available in the market in our price range, ~30-45k. Lots of carfax diving lately
yeah trucks are honestly overblown as "the only tow vehicles". Yes they're typically designed for towing with heavier duty rear ends, but they suck at being a normal vehicle when not towing. And they come with a very hefty purchase and gas-cost premium. For the small trailer and load you want? a truck, even like a ranger, is probably overkill.
Prior to the late 80s/ 1990s, most people towed camp trailers with passenger cars. American cars were built heavy and could easily pull 4000lb camp trailers slowly, but surely. Trucks were actually very uncommon. Modern vehicles prioritize fuel economy and lower manufacturing cost over versatility, but they can still pull off a lot more than people think.
I guess the main point I'm making above is that capacity ratings are guidelines and not hard limits like many people overemphasize them as. IF you know what you're doing, and make sure to prep correctly ala. electric brakes and tongue weight balance, you can push those limits and still travel safely.
And your vehicle is in good/excellent condition. I just about cooked off the transmission in an MDX pulling a trailer from San Francisco to Kansas City. Pulled like a champ through the mountains but by the time we hit Nebraska it fell down into emergency mode. it was entirely flat where it gave up so we were able to limp to a hotel, and the next day it was behaving fine, but we still had someone meet us with a bigger vehicle before we got out of the flatlands around Omaha. We chose not to replace the transmission on that car since it would cost half it's sale value to have done and it drove fine without weight on it. gave it to my mom who uses it to transport dogs with strict instructions not to tow anything with it.
The point being, the points made above only apply to a vehicle in good condition, not one that's been rode hard and put up wet.
As well as vehicles without inherent design flaws. I did a 30 second google to discover the MDX for a while is well known for having massive transmission problems when not being driven hard at all. And any vehicle using a CVT (Subaru, Nissan primarily) should never be bought period, let alone do any towing.
No matter the condition, tow ratings in the USA are actually tested and determined independently and it's completely stupid to go over them on public roads. A 5k lbs trailer would have brakes on any vehicle and OP can't have the appropriate wiring for that on their Forester. They shouldn't be praised or encouraged in any way.
So we actually ended up moving forward on a used Gold-certified ‘22 Highlander XLE with a pretty clean carfax and somewhere between 45-50k miles. Has a V6, AWD w/o rear diff, electric tow hitch. Clocks in at 1390 lbs cargo capacity. Gonna have the shop take a look at it as soon as we can get it off the lot once it’s ready.
We are ditching the RV idea, though in the future this should leave room for that if we really wanted to settle down with that much further down the line, within the discussed constraints. So thanks again for your input! What I’m curious about is the electric dongle you’ve attached to get those readings — Do you recommend one in specific? Not sure if they come universal, or need to be model-specific.
Thanks for endangering other road users 👍
enjoy your moral high ground I guess, I'll keep getting stuff done with proper preparation. stuff is different in BFE
"my braking distance triples"
That's not proper preparation, that's idiocy.
A 5000lbs trailer would have brakes on it and I bet you don't even have the plug for it.
Towing capacity in the USA is actuality tested by an independent body, if your car is rated for 1.5k it's because it's what it was meant to safely tow, above that you're putting yourself and other road users in danger.
Do you also say that drunk driving is ok as long as "you make proper preparation"?