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Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,754 posts, read 58,128,451 times
Reputation: 46247
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesse69
The Winnebage View is 100K+ and it's based on that Mercedes Sprinter chassis with diesel engine....I once like the Rialta but I saw one on ebay and it said it only has a 20 gal freshwater tank... That's pathetic!
You can get the used Sprinter Class B quite cheap in comparison to new, I had a friend that bought a totaled one and fixed it. BUt I see you are certainly not that type (which is fine)
RE: Rialta: yup, different strokes for different folks. I dry camped in my Rialta while doing cross country trip for 4 months, I never ran low on fresh water.
I'll throw in my .02. That minivan combo is gonna make you a miserable man with a white knuckle towing experience once you get on the highway. Tow ratings are one of the biggest scams in the automotive industry. Your published tow rating is for your base vehicle without options, full tank of gas, and a 150 pound driver. Then you have your trailer dry weight which is the base model without any options. You add a 40 pound propane tank, a battery, and the weight of your WDH and you are probably over weight before you put a gallon of milk in the refer. In 1998 I learned the hard way with a 3.3 V6 Plymouth Grand Voyager minivan and a Coleman popup. My van was rated to tow 3500 and my popup was weighed on a CAT scale at 2200 pounds. My family tried that combo for 4 years until I had replaced the van's brake pads 2X within 50K miles and the tranny was toast at 70K. I traded that POS on a 2002 Suburban and all was good. Now this Suburban towed the popup great, but we wanted bigger so we bought a Jayco 27BH that weighed 6500 pounds per the CAT scale. I figured with my Suburban's 7700 pound tow rating it would be no issue. It too was a terrible combination. I refused to tow more than 60 miles from home and if the terrain was not pancake flat, the Suburban was struggling and the braking left something to be desired. It was so bad that I sold the TT within a year and told myself I was done. In 2011 I caught RV fever again and I bought a Lacrosse 296 that weighed 8100 pounds per the CAT scale and I am towing it with a V10 powered Ford Excursion and I finally found a comfortable combo. Although I am 1900 pounds under my published tow rating, there is no way I would want to go heavier. And even though the Excursion is built on an F350 platform I had to replace my shocks, add air bags, and change my rear end gear ratio to make it perform up to standards towing heavy. I'm sure there are people out there towing to their max and not thinking twice, but if you have never towed anything I would recommend finding a trailer that is only 75% of your max tow rating or you may be in the market for a new tow vehicle before you make your first trailer payment.
Hey phone man - your 98 3.3L Plymouth only had 158 hp, same as my 99 3.3L Sport. I towed a fully loaded 5 x 10 Uhaul trailer from Houston to Chicago - got from 7 to 14 instantaneous mpg. 7 mpg going up a big incline in southern IL with a 20+ mph headwind. 14 mpg level ground cruising.
I think with the RV setup I posted in post #5 I will do well with my 215HP 2005 Dodge G.C. SXT with tow package. There are instances where people tow with more than their rated capacity.
Jesse, lose the champagne taste while you're still on a beer budget!!
I tow a 2006 Fleetwood Cheyenne pop-up camper with my '07 Honda Odyssey. No weight distributing hitch, but I did add electric brake controller for the trailer brakes and the transmission cooler Honda stipulates for towing. It is adequate. I would NOT tow anything heavier with a mini-van!! Find a good used pop-up and use the showers that most State Campgrounds, KOA's and private RV parks offer. Total outlay should certainly be under $10K and you might be able to keep it under $5K.
Then see how you like camping and upgrade in the future. I have used our pop-up for weekend camping, weeklong trips and as a hotel room for several trips to suburban Montreal.
And if your still bent on a big travel trailer, our friends like their Toyota Sequoia
We're towing a 2800lb Sportsman Classic 19BHS with our dodge caravan. So far so good.
I put monroe towing shocks on it, blue ox load balancing/sway control, electric brakes and transmission cooler. I really think you need all that if you want to push the limits of the vehicle.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,754 posts, read 58,128,451 times
Reputation: 46247
Quote:
Originally Posted by mechanodroid
We're towing a 2800lb Sportsman Classic 19BHS with our dodge caravan. So far so good.
I put monroe towing shocks on it, blue ox load balancing/sway control, electric brakes and transmission cooler. I really think you need all that if you want to push the limits of the vehicle.
and START with the upgraded "sport" version of minivan:
sway bars
bigger brakes
bigger tires
bigger cooling system
I found a "sport" model with 130k miles including towing set-up for $800.
Check out Town and Country, they usually have Sport options as std equip.
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Dodge Caravan SXT 2007 towing
