4105 dry weight camper: safe to tow?

Forget about a trailer, sell the Taco and buy a small (class B) RV. Home is where you lay your head to sleep. I think an annual pass that'll get you into all national parks starts around $80.

 

I can understand that. you'd be better served finding the smallest lightest option that'll work for you (and your son) and use it to find your next home city/town. Also consider depreciation and maintenance.. many travel trailers depreciate like a rock so look for models that have a history of slow depreciation OR buy something very inexpensive. Unless you're in a metro area most places will have some residential options at a price point that's make sense for the long run. (mortgage interest is tax deductible**, rent is just money you're paying for someone else to build equity.) I rented for many years and it made sense for about half of those years.

 

A few things to keep in mind if you do want to use a travel trailer as a home base. One, which is obvious, is the limited space. But along with that limited space comes limited storage. If you have a lot of photography equipment in addition to the regular stuff for you and your son, you're going to need storage somewhere other than the trailer. Also, you will need a place to park it that can handle supplying you with water, electricity, cable TV if you want, and sewer for the dark and brown water. I would think long and hard about the pros and cons before I went that route.

 

I tow a Rpod 193 (3678lbs dry as configured). We're a family of four with a dog and don't usually bring water.. For two people you'd be saving weight with less people and food. Still though, I'd be looking at something lighter or a bigger tow vehicle - but we often drive over mountain passes, so flat terrain would be a different story.

Edit: also, most trailers aren't made to live in and are not low maintenance.

 

One downside is you cannot simply unhitch your home and have a relatively fuel efficient vehicle (without having to store everything before pulling away.) They're great for car camping on the DL but imo it's more affordable to have a reliable drivetrain in the tow vehicle and nice trailer than a kitted class B. I'm sure there's many Sprinter and Transit fans that disagree.

 

I thought about that!

 

The annual pass to enter the park is $80 but that does not include camping fees. Some regions of the country offer free or low priced boondocking on BLM land. Many national parks require rv reservations 6 months in advance and fill up very quickly (as I found out recently) at $18 to ~$45 a night. Other state and national parks have a first come first served policy but that too can be challenging since some areas have an average of 3,000 visitors a day with only 60 rv spots (bryce or zion.. I forget which.)

 

I would think even CHEAP campgrounds across the country would be at least $900 a month. Add in the inevitable and constant maintenance of a house that hits pot holes and you're already into rent territory before including fuel. Here in the mid-Atlantic only the state campgrounds are that inexpensive or the rv parks that offer monthly rental (which is closer to a trailer park than an RV park/destination... which there's nothing wrong with it I'm just saying you're not staying at ocean isle, hilton head or near a hotspot that offers lotsa wedding photo gigs for that kind of price.) You've got a lot of research ahead of you OP unless you just throw caution to the wind and wing-it.

 

for sure

 

A very good and important point.

 

I just booked a state park site on the Washington coast with full hookups for $50 a night +$8 Booking fee. That's less than my mortgage per night (by about $25/night), but it's way less that renting a beach house on a holiday weekend. Don't even get me started on trying to find available sites during the summer. 6-9 months out everything is booked up - then you get to check each day for any cancellations that you can snag.

 

O.P. that trailer is way too big for your truck,look for something else.

 

I don't have any experience here, but I did google similar things for a dozen hours (also trying to avoid rent) and the TLDR was ~3k lbs or get bigger truck. Then I started lookin at what kind of trailers come in at ~3k lbs and they're not very big (16-18ftish I think), not very "durable", and all were "overpriced" pretty significantly (this was towards end of covid).

- lots of threads on here w/ pics of trailers and towing experiences
- lots of "full-timing" youtube channels out there to get an idea of the pain points
- lots of "apps" out there to find cheap places to overnight (in theory, from what I read, not what Ive done)
- lots of floorplans to consider on manufacturer websites
- sounded like dual axle towed better than single (but only adds to weight, and wasn't super common in the ~3k lbs range)

Godspeed to you. I wanted to make it work but ultimately I came away with the impression it wasn't a good idea because I wasn't giving up the tacoma.

 

Here is my perspective after towing a 17’ trailer around quite a bit. On flat highways you won’t even know it’s there. In the mountains you will feel stressed.

If you’re not driving every day I’m sure it will be fine. Add a leaf to the truck or airbags, get a brake controller and weight distribution hitch. Makes a world of difference.

Maybe the seller will let you hook up and take it for a rip? Find the biggest hill around and drive and down a couple times. You’ll have your answer.

 

I think it would be ok depending on how often

 

OP, I didn't mean to poop on your plans but please do a bunch of research before moving forward. There are people that tow that large of a travel trailer with the Taco. Personally I doubt it'd be a good time and you'd need to be careful and patient... and since you're new to all this you'd probably want to start at times of day with greatly reduced traffic or stay away from deep city situations until you get more familiar with towing a 22' camper.

If you're mostly towing in the flatlands and just towing from one homestead to the next then it's manageable.

If this is a long term goal then start visiting travel trailer forums so you can hear the pro and con of various manufacturers. Many travel trailers are assembled with small sticks of wood 2"x3", glue, staples with some nice looking sheathing on the sides... you can imagine that these are practically disposable trailers and all the flexing, vibration and rattling that happens to trailers (especially when small gaps in the roof allow water intrusion.) The trailers made with aluminum frames or full fiberglass are more expensive for a reason... they're typically solid and last long enough to be valuable for the next owners.

A vehicle cost is: what you pay for it + what you spend maintaining it - what you sell it for. My point is..

..if you buy a $4500 POS trailer and spend $1500 in fixes over 2 years then sell it for $2250 you've spent $3,750 to live in a crappy trailer.

..if you wait for just the right sweetheart deal and buy a twenty year old 19' bigfoot in good shape for $13,500 only have to spend $650 on repairs and sell it for $11,950 then you've lived in a nice camper for two years and spent only $2200.

Of course this is an oversimplification but just contributing some food for thought from lessons I've learned.


Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

Thanks

 

I tow 4500 with mine and it’s…ok

 

Thanks Man. Same boat here. Found one which is double axle. Dry weight at 4100
2009 VIEWFINDER CRUISER 19 FT.

 

You’ll be good