What camper to tow with 1/2 ton and decent MPG

According to the sticker inside my door my truck is rated for 6800 pounds.

I will check out the Hi-Lo trailers.

My truck gets about 15mpg daily driving in the city. It'd be nice to get 12mpg or better towing, 10 at the least.

The R Pod's and those type of trailers look nice and would probably do fine with 2 adults and 2 kids, but I'm afraid the fold down table bed, would be too small for 3 kids to sleep on. This is another reason I was looking at the Pop Up's, most I've seen have a queen bed on each end. My biggest concern with a pop up is hearing other people at the campground due to the canvas. I know once my kids get older they will be to big to sleep in the same bed and definitely won't want to.

Ideally I'd want a regular travel trailer with bunks for the kids and a bathroom with a small tub. But most people I've talked to says your mpg get's cut in half when towing, which is why I'm exploring other options.

I know I'm wanting the best of both worlds, which probably won't happen.

Thanks for doing the math for me APT, that makes it sound not to bad.

Thanks a ton for the responses so far. I'm new to a lot of this.

Tent trailers are fairly available to rent for a weekend and I would try that before buying one. A small to medium one will probably not affect your gas mileage very much but they are a different style of camping. Some families absolutely love the outdoor feel they have like camping in a tent only more comfortable beds but others feel much more relaxed in something with hard walls around them.

Pulling any high walled RV with a gas engine means 8-10mpg. You are trying to pull two sheets of plywood through the air at 65mph. It's a lot of work, thus lot of fuel. If you are not willing to accept 8mpg, then stick with low walls.

Many RVing familes simply do not tow many miles, like less than 2000 miles per year. Doing the math of 2000 miles at 13mpg and 8mpg and $4/gal means less than $400 per year. That is fairly small compared to conveniences many TT owners enjoy. TT's offer far more storage and shorter setup/take down times.

First thing you need to do is figure out what you can tow. Your payload may limit you to a pop up.

On your drivers door post, should be a tire and loading sticker. It will have a number for weight carrying capacity (payload) as the truck was configured at the factory. F150's can have a very wide range in payload. Some as low as 750 lbs, some as high as 3200 lbs. They're not one size fits all.

Everything and everybody you put in, or on the truck, takes away carrying capacity, pound for pound. That includes aftermarket accessories (bed liners, bed caps, step bars, suspension mods, even floor mats), people, cargo in cab or bed, weight distributing hitch, and tongue weight from a trailer.

If you're unsure of aftermarket add-ons, fill up gas, weigh the truck, and subtract that from it's GVWR. The remainder is your available payload.

From your payload, subtract the weight of your family and things you would normally take along (car seats, coolers, luggage, tools, bikes, etc) in the truck. If you need a weight distributing hitch, subtract 100 lbs for it. What ever is left, is available for trailer tongue weight. Divide that number by .13. That will give you a ballpark figure of what loaded trailer weight, would put you at max weight.

Here's a calculator

You may find, a pop up provides you the most space at the least weight. Pop up will also give you better MPG. Next up might be a Hi-Lo. As mentioned above, good MPG and travel trailer, don't go together.

With a high walled trailer, it's the front wind resistance and rear drag, that affect MPG the most. Within a couple weeks of each other, I towed a 25 foot / 6000 lb trailer, and an 18 foot / 4000 lb trailer, on the same road, same truck, and had little to no change in MPG.

It all depends on what you mean by good MPG, regular trailer, and how much space you want. Gas mileage is determined mostly by how much frontal area you are trying to push through the air, and how fast you are trying to push the air out of your way.

Most small molded fiberglass trailers are lower and narrower than mainstream travel trailer designs, thus have less frontal area, need less power to pull them. They are also built to be lightweight. But most people don't consider them to be regular trailers.

For example, the Scamp.

Otherwise, hard-sided collapsible trailers, which tend to be the full eight-foot with, but collapse down to a 6 to 7 foot height, higher that a popup but not as high as the 9 to 12 feet of conventional TTs. The smallest of these are lightweight, but they do get heavier as your choice moves toward longer and more fully equipped.

TrailManor hard-side pop-ups.

Next in line would be small lightly built TTs of more conventional design like the Lance travel trailer line, Jayco's SLX models, and Forest River's R-Pod. But these are all full size box, 80 sq ft or more frontal area.

Define good MPG for us?
Also define space requirements.

Basically the smaller and shorter the better but it comes at the expense of a less comfortale/convienent package.

Even more important, ease up on the gas pedal. Huge difference between 55mph and 75mph regardless of what you are towing.

Towing a high wall trailer and decent gas mileage are counter active. The higher and wider the trailer gets, the worse the gas mileage. You can have one or the other, not both. You need to decide which you want. Aerodynamics will net gain you next to nothing by comparison.

what do you consider decent gas mileage while towing ??

Do a search for Hi Lo campers. They ride down behind the tow vehicle like a pop-up but you don't have the canvas to deal with.

They are getting harder to find now, but check this out

same question

and some images
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