Towing a Casita

Overbrook-Bill nailed it. We owned two Casitas and traveled over many states pulling them on all types of road conditions and elevations.

A V-6 engine is marginal and most will struggle on hills and long grades. Been there and done that with two fully loaded Casitas over the years.

The best tow vehicle for a 17' fully loaded Casita with a 450 lb tongue weight is a full size, four-door half ton pickup with a medium size V-8 engine and towing package, IMO.

Take your pick. Ford, Chevy, Dodge or Toyota. Drive them all and pick the one you like best. It will be with you for a long time and you will spend a lot of time in the seat towing if you camp a lot.

Mileage will be about the same for a V-8 truck towing a Casita as a V-6 that is struggling. As a rule, you will probably get about 12-13 MPG towing a Casita at 60 MPH with either.

But you will have much better power with a V-8, not to mention more safety due to larger brakes, tires, and suspension components on a truck that are engineered for towing.

Best of luck with your choices.

I have to be the first.......You NEED a Kenworth to tow a casita!.......there someone said it!

I'd tow a casita with my wifes ML320 mb suv, and it has the smallest V6 they offered in an ML! 200 ponies should be able to tow 4000 lbs! I'd tow it with my probably now in the junk yard 76 Toyota pickup with a 20R I4, and maybe 125hp......or the 81 gmc with a 105HP I6..........who needs a blinken V8!

Marty

All comes down to expectations.

Some accept slowing on inclines and hearing an engine work as part of towing.

Others think that if you feel your trailer back there AT ALL you have too little truck & engine.

What are the hp/tq #s for your 04? 5-speed trans or 4?

There is a couple on the Fiberglass trailer forum towing a 16' Casita with a 4cyl Honda CUV. Been all over the continent twice. No problems, no issues. Thinking your V6 Pathfinder will do just fine.

Note... we have been towing with V6 Nissans for over a decade. They work fine with our 23' TT.

you'll be good with the Casita but v-6 engines suffer on inclines, compared to v-8's.

lee4019 wrote:

Will a 4WD 2004 Nissan Pathfinder SE, V6, Automatic. tow a 3500lb Casita? or should I just look for V8 engines.

Lee,

Yes you can tow a 3500lb Casita with your PathFinder, and on flat ground it won't be much of a problem. But you'll know it's behind you and it'll drop your fuel mileage into the 12's.

And if you are planning of towing into the mountains, you'll wish you had a V8. The Pathfinder will be struggling with the hills, putting a real strain on the engine and transmission.

This is from personal experience of towing a 2200 pound Scamp with a Toyota Tacoma V6, rated for towing 5000 pounds.

The V6 Tacoma could do it, but I could definitely tell it was a strain going up any kind of hill. It wasn't fun.

I'd much rather have too much power than too little - and chances are with a V8 towing a Casita, you'll get better fuel mileage than you would with a V6.

Bill