4-cyl towing thoughts?

In all the manufactures information I have seen, when they talk about towing capacity, they caution that the weight calculations should include passengers and all their stuff; everything that isn't part of the dry weight of the car or truck.  So when you use a weight formula it would be most accurate to include everything you add, including you, your luggage, etc. etc., even the gas in your tank. 

With the exception of the Pyrenees Mountains and the Alps, Europe, it's pretty flat in Europe where caravaning is popular.  The highest mountain in Scotland is 1345M, which isn't much.  

Aside from the table, the only thing that is heavy particle board in the Pod is the sink counter.  They can certainly be replaced by solid wood, but the weight savings would be nominal.

We have a 2009, 172 which weighs about the same as the 173 you mentioned.  I took out the table, which you need for use for a bed, took out the tele, and don't have a micro or any of the other stuff that lots of people have in their Pods that add weight.  We generally travel without the tanks full, but some time traveling with water in the tanks is simply unavoidable because you can't dump them.  Even with a relatively light trailer, I wouldn't try to tow it with what you propose.  It would likely be over the weight limit of the car or so close to it that it simply wouldn't be safe.  Even with our truck, crossing Brockway summit, between Kings Beach (lake Tahoe) and Truckee, it is a slow long climb, and that pass isn't all that high.

One final point.  It is highly unlikely that you will be able to always be towing within the rated capacity of your car.  You may think that you have packed lightly and that everything is fine, but if you were to go to a public scale and weigh the car and trailer, you'd be surprised at what you have.  It's easy to lose control of your vehicle towing in excess of it's capacity.  If you do that in a state like California, and someone else gets hurt or killed, you are going to find a very complicated situation with possible exposure to not only punitive damages but criminal liability that could land you in jail.  When you are overloaded beyond your legal weight limit and know it, or should know, then you are potentially taking yourself out of the world of simple negligence and getting into gross negligence or even intentional conduct.  That has consequences.  I know, I defended accident cases in California for many years and my brother and sister lawyers there are very clever and will do everything they can to maximize the recovery they can extract from you for their clients.  And if it involves a serious injury or a fatality, the DA will be looking carefully at the case.  And, if you hurt someone else, it's not something that you will easily live with if you have a normal conscience, which I'm sure you do. 

Clearly, you are going to do what you want.  I hope you don't color the outcome of your decision by selectively considering the facts in your calculations.  

Thanks, Ben, I’ve appreciated your insights. I’ll keep the 70% in mind. And about the furniture, I guess I thought it would be a lot heavier. I based that assumption on the bloody dining table we took out of our A-frame and replaced with a slab of plywood. That table cracked my rib!  I was trying to switch it from bed to table, and the leg was hung up, so I picked it up, bent back and rested it on my sternum on edge for a second to adjust my grip and Crack! Three months of misery, a rib belt, absolutely agonizing. So I assumed everything was made out of that stuff. 

Keith, that dismissive attitude strikes me as wholly unnecessary, but here’s what I’m up against. My job is to weigh all the information I take in to try to arrive at a reasonably informed decision. It is not to believe everything that everyone tells me. There is a diversity of opinion and some of it may be based on incorrect beliefs and assumptions. Assumptions that the trailer has a much higher tongue weight than it does, assumptions about much I probably haul etc. And there are a lot of things that are perhaps based on incorrect knowledge or gut level feelings or prejudices that are just plain wrong. But I don’t know who’s right and who’s wrong, so I have to listen to everything, update my information, and ask questions and ask more questions. I watched the video that was recommended and ran their spreadsheet, my number seemed OK, I have some more thoughts, so I’m back with more questions. 

There was a book a few years ago called “The Signal and the Noise“. It was written by a statistician on how he arrives at his generally spot-on predictions for election results. 

I very much appreciate each and every comment, the facts, figures, recommendations, personal observations and experiences. I’m filing it all away and trying to come to a reasonable conclusion. I would very much like this to work, and I don’t want to discard it out of hand because perhaps I listened to the noise and not the signal. There’s a lot of data for me to input, and a lot involved that I was unaware of. But does that mean I should abandon this? I just don’t know yet.

And I find that here in the US, with cheap gas and big cars, but a lot of people tend to be “size-ist“ - bigger is always better. Certainly they will have more power, it will be less strain on the engine and transmission, but we’re not going do all that much towing. But the question of safety is what I’m still not sure about. And I still think the question about caravanning in Europe is legitimate. Here is a TDI Golf towing something much bigger than the trailer I want to tow.  https://www.practicalcaravan.com/reviews/tow-car/29763-volkswagen-golf  Clearly the Brits don’t think this is unsafe, so I’m curious why the discrepancy in opinions. 

So, yes, Keith, I will do what I want, but the decision I make will be based on a lot of thought and research, based heavily on the information people are sharing with me, and I appreciate every single bit of it.

I stayed out of this on purpose.  In my opinion you are proposing to do something that at best will perform poorly and at worst will present a clear danger to you and others around you when things get out of control.  I don't know what you are going to replace the interior with that will weigh less and still work. 

I wish you well.  You have been given pages of sound reasons not to tow a high profile trailer with your choice of TV.  You are unconvinced, so do what you want to.  You will anyway.

I'm not really sure you would come out much lighter by gutting and rebuilding the inside. They already use lightweight materials and if a particular area is heavier, it probably needs to be. I also agree that the interior cabinetry adds to the stiffness of the trailer. You could take an empty box and push on it and see that. Add items inside and it stiffens the basic box. What you would need to do to lighten up and maintain the proper stiffness is well beyond my areas of experience, so I can't help you there.

You have put a lot of effort and thought into this. I am glad you found an older model that is lighter. I hope it works out for you and your husband.