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Topic Closed4-cyl towing thoughts?
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OldNeumanntapr View Drop Down
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Posts: 204 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: 4-cyl towing thoughts?
    Posted: 28 Oct 2018 at 2:18am
Originally posted by TrailerTrish


Originally posted by offgrid

TrailerTrish, do you have a weight distribution hitch? Highly recommended if not essential towing an rPod with a lighter tow vehicle. I wouldn't leave home without mine towing with my Highlander. 
 We don’t and I’m not exactly sure what they are -  or perhaps I should say how they work. I looked them up, so I know what they look like now. Is it something that stays attached?  If so, can we attach it, or would we take it to an RV service place for installation? Or is it something you put on every time? I couldn’t quite tell from the pictures. 





A WDH replaces the standard ball hitch. It has an adjustable shank that transfers weight from the rear axle of the tow vehicle to the front axle, and some weight is transferred to the trailer axle. A WDH ‘locks’ the TV and trailer together, so to speak, and eliminates the bouncing ‘porpoising’ that can happen to the rear axel when traveling over bridges on the interstate. Most WDH systems also provide sway control, which can be much more beneficial than weight distribution alone. A good WDH makes towing a trailer much safer and much more easily controlled.

I couldn’t believe the difference from the standard ball hitch to my Equalizer hitch.

Hitching up is a little different than with a standard ball hitch but it’s not difficult. Some WDH systems preclude the ability to back up, but some do not. The Equalizer hitch can be backed up easily. Other systems that use chains have to be removed before the trailer can be backed up.

I had my WDH installed by a hitch shop, which added $150 to the cost. I got my Equalizer from Etrailer.com and they were very helpful. I highly recommend both Etrailer and Equalizer.

It is possible to install the hitch yourself but it can require special tools, and a torque wrench, which I didn’t have.
A properly set up WDH wil ‘level’ the tow vehicle so it doesn’t sit with the rear lower than the front. It really does make a big difference, especially if the TV is not significantly heavier than the trailer. For example, a full sized 3/4 ton pickup towing an rPod wouldn’t NEED a weight distribution hitch, but could still benefit from sway control.)
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2018 at 5:47am
TrailerTrish, IMHO you really do need a weight distribution hitch towing an rPod with something like your Subie, or even something like my Highlander. Towing safely isn't about horsepower, it's about handling weight. The truck that won WW2 for us, the famous deuce and a half that could carry nearly 4 tons of cargo and tow a artillery piece had a 90 hp engine.  

A lighter short wheelbase vehicle ends up riding way too light in front because the tongue weight rotates the rear of the car down around the rear axle, forcing the front axle upwards. The result will be poor steering and braking at best,  and can be total loss of of control at worst. 

But before you get a wd hitch, be sure your vehicle and your receiver are rated for using one. Not all are, and the wd hitch works its magic by creating a torque lifting up on the hitch and rotating the car down, so it creates an upwards twist on the receiver and on where the receiver is bolted to the frame of the car. 

A wd hitch helps redistribute the tongue load but it doesn't make the weight go away, so you still have to consider the tongue weight, trailer gross weight and total rig weight (called gross combined vehicle weight). For any tow vehicle you choose there will be maximum weights listed for all these numbers, as well as for its front and rear axles. 

And don't believe the tongue and trailer weight numbers that you see in trailer marketing literature. Those weights are based on a totally empty trailer with no propane and no battery and no water. The real loaded weights are always higher.

I saw you removed water from the fresh water tank that was there when you picked up the trailer. That was very good to do for your first trip, but unless you also drained the water heater tank you didn't lose 300 lbs, only 250. You have 6 gallons sitting in the water heater all the time, and water weighs 8.3 lbs per gallon. 

My 179 tongue weight is 570 lbs loaded, and the trailer is at about 3850 lbs,  but I boondock and have dual batteries and a full water tank. I take what I need to be able to spend a week at a remote site, and nothing more.  

Will you always be camping places that have water? If not you'll end up hauling water at least sometimes too. Will you want to stay somewhere without electric hookups for more than a few days? You'll probably need 2 batteries if you do.  A decent mattress, food, clothing, tools, a jack,so you can change the trailer tires if you have a flat, a solar module, a little propane grill, camp chairs, the list goes on... And don't forget the weight carried in the tow vehicle itself. Any weight behind the rear axle basically works the same as tongue weight. 
  

All this is why I personally wouldn't tow my trailer behind anything lighter than my Highlander. and then only with a wd hitch. It's great to try to keep the rig weight down but not so low you can't camp as you want. It won't change your fuel economy much if at all anyway, about 2/3 of your fuel is going to fight air drag on the big box behind you and only about 1/3 is rolling resistance related to the weight you're hauling. 

If you want to really know all your numbers you can load up your rig and run through a public scale, then use this online calculator and the max load specs for the tow vehicle and trailer to see where you are. I highly recommend doing this once. 

https://www.ajdesigner.com/apptrailertow/weightdistributionhitch.php
1994 Chinook Concourse
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tcj View Drop Down
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Posts: 141 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2018 at 9:14am
A couple pictures worth a thousand words on how a weight distribution hitch works.
2018 R-pod 180 Hood River Edition
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2018 at 10:10am
I love those old ads but don’t try this at home 😀
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Posts: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2018 at 11:08am
Yow! Lots of info to take in, but I’m on board with it. So you think that even if we move up from the Outback to a beefier tow vehicle, it would still be a good thing to have - correct?  And the sway bar attaches to the trailer, so it would work with any tow vehicle - correct? 

We’ve gotten used to our creature comforts and we don’t boondock. In the three years that we’ve had the A-frame, we’ve never carried water. 2 gallon jugs in the car that we refill at the campground. The only places we’ve stayed w/o hook ups were Great Basin NP & Teddy Roosevelt NP, but they had water. Lots of campgrounds have some sort of water source – not necessarily at the site, but somewhere down the road is a faucet.  And that’s as primitive as we would get - never in the middle of nowhere. For me it’s a safety issue. (Funny thing is that when I proposed trailers to my husband, he, who is an old backpacker and backcountry camper who offroaded an old FWD IH Scout all over the backwoods of CO, chasing trains thru his teens-40s, said adamantly that he would never stay in an RV campground! Never! But the first time we did, and we had heat and an electric blanket, he decided that that was ok. Now, as we look at RV parks, he’ll say, “That one looks pretty nice”.) 

Things like a second battery would be a seldom-used luxury for us. What we have done in the NPs is just plug it into the Subaru and run the car for a while to recharge the RV battery.  It’s overkill as a generator, but we’ve only done it maybe twice.  But what I would be more likely to do is buy solar panels – the portable kind. I saw a YouTube once where the guy was extolling the virtues of being able to park in the shade and set up his solar panels out in the sun. I thought that made a lot of sense. Plus we wouldn’t be carrying the weight of the solar panels on top of the trailer. 

 So – probably never water in it – or maybe just a little for flushing. 
 And only one battery. 
2009 R-Pod 173 “OurPod”
2015 Subaru Outback 2.5L (for now)
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Oct 2018 at 2:11pm
To your two questions the answers are yes and yes. You have said you want at most a midsized suv. Most everyone on this forum that isn’t towing with a big truck really likes their wd hitch. You will too. They’re not expensive really. The antisway function is different from the wd function although many hitches combine them. The only caveat is to your question 2 for weight distribution, not antisway, not all receivers (the part that is attached to the tow vehicle) and tow vehicles are approved for weight distribution hitches. So when u upgrade tow vehicles, be sure to get a setup that is.

Glad you’ve found the type of camping you want to do, nothing wrong with keeping things light as long as that meets your needs. I don’t think really that gets you into a lower range tow vehicle though, IMHO you should look at vehicles with about a 5000 lb rating either way (and a 20 plus gal fuel tank).
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TrailerTrish View Drop Down
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Posts: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Feb 2020 at 12:20am
Hi!
I just wanted to say thank you to all the people who weighed in with advice on towing our pod with a 4-cylinder Subaru Outback.We did it for a little while – even went up to the Sierras - we kept it light, it worked, but only marginally. So we were left with either going back to a smaller lighter folding trailer again, buying a larger TV, or… other. We opted for the latter. We sold the Pod last week and next week we go and pick up our brand spanking new Class B 2020.5 Winnebago Travato 59G. I think it’s a better fit for us all around. I really didn’t like towing. I didn’t like the inconvenience. It’s great when you get to where you’re going to drop the trailer and have just a car to drive around in, but there were so many places that we couldn’t find parking. We’d pull over to look for a place to have lunch and there were no places long enough for us. We drove to Banff/Lake Louise in the popup and no RV parking at Lake Louise, so we had to drive on. Etc. 

To me a trailer is best suited for point A to point B travel, dropping the trailer and treating it as your homebase. But we’re wanderers who go where they feel like and stop as long as they feel like, sometimes just overnight. Constant hitching and unhitching just wasn’t for us. I think a van will work best for how we like to travel. A van has the disadvantage of taking your house around everywhere when you want to go: to the store, restaurant, sightsee. But it’s only 21 feet long - a foot longer than a Chevy Suburban. And it’s not a wide body. It’ll be nice to have a vehicle that fits in one space.

So i’m leaving the group, but I wanted to thank everyone for your advice and opinions. I really did appreciate it.

Trish
2009 R-Pod 173 “OurPod”
2015 Subaru Outback 2.5L (for now)
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Posts: 80 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Feb 2020 at 8:53am
i tow with  a front wheel drive grand caravan without weight distribution hitch. Although it is perfectly level i get real nervous going up steep grades on gravel roads found at some campgrounds. i keep thinking i should practice backing up more.
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Colt View Drop Down
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Posts: 383 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Feb 2020 at 12:03am
The answer is a massive "it depends". The cylinder count is irrelevant. Displacement and horsepower matter. If the UVW is really 2000 lbs and you are careful mot to put more than 700 lbs if stuff in it, you should be fine. That doesn't mean you don't need a brake controller and you won't be revving 5k on some climbs.   
John
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Posts: 2627 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Feb 2020 at 9:58am
Originally posted by Colt

The answer is a massive "it depends". The cylinder count is irrelevant. Displacement and horsepower matter. If the UVW is really 2000 lbs and you are careful mot to put more than 700 lbs if stuff in it, you should be fine. That doesn't mean you don't need a brake controller and you won't be revving 5k on some climbs.   
These days, I would revise that to "torque and horsepower" matter. In these days of turbo, and occasionally super charging, relatively small displacement motors can do impressive power. 
bp
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