Towing an R-Pod 171 with a Subaru Outback

Reminds me of the '63 Corvair that was my first car. I could go through some snow with that.

I've camped in a several places that have dirt roads. Actually many do. You have front wheel drive, and several hundred pounds pushing down the rear, which pushes up the front. Even a small up hill climb is going to be a challenge. I've been in one or two places that I was a little nervous about the inclined dirt roads, and I have 4 wheel drive if needed. We are not telling you the subby can't do it at all, but it is not up to every challenge you will meet for certain. The other thing is possible legal trouble if you were to get into an accident. People want you to realize you are using a volkswagon bug to plow your street. One or two inches of snow, ya might get by. I pulled a popup with my crosstrek for a year (1 summer). I made it, but I had some challenges. As I said, good luck in the future

Originally posted by pnjbartlett We have an update.... So we purchased a 2021 Rpod 171 UVW of 2600 lb loaded maybe 2900 lbs. Our 2020 Subaru Outback Onxy XT did pretty darn well. You can tell the camper was back there, but there was plenty of power for acceleration and going up some of the Indiana Hills the rpm's would hit about 3k but for the most part they stayed around 1800 - 2000 rpm's. We got about 14mpg round trip with 25mph wind gusts on the way back home. We didn't use a WDH as Subaru doesn't recommend them but may consider adding a anti sway bar if we are going to do cross country driving.

A better option than a sway bar is an electronic sway control such as that from Hayes (Sway-Master) or Tuson (Sway Control) or Lippert (Sway Command). I have the Hayes and it is plug-and-play for installation. Also, there is no worries about backing with it.

We have an update.... So we purchased a 2021 Rpod 171 UVW of 2600 lb loaded maybe 2900 lbs. Our 2020 Subaru Outback Onxy XT did pretty darn well. You can tell the camper was back there, but there was plenty of power for acceleration and going up some of the Indiana Hills the rpm's would hit about 3k but for the most part they stayed around 1800 - 2000 rpm's. We got about 14mpg round trip with 25mph wind gusts on the way back home. We didn't use a WDH as Subaru doesn't recommend them but may consider adding a anti sway bar if we are going to do cross country driving.