Towing with a minivan

We have towed for years with a 2006 Toyota Sienna front wheel drive with a towing capacity of 3500lbs. We towed a Fleetwood SunValley with a dry weight of 2200lbs. We added about 800lbs of our junk, including 4 bikes on a rear carrier and never had any problems with towing it. No sway problems and no braking issues. Once I had to stop very quickly to miss a yahoo that didn't see the big red stop light in front of him and we did fine. I would agree with LVJJJ that it does lift up the front end a bit, or better said it lowered the back end, such that the hitch would just rub on speed bumps in parking lots if I didn't go turtle slow over them. However, it was very doable on the roads and I never felt unsafe with it. the tent trailers, or pop-ups, do take a bit of time to set up when you set camp. We took about 1.5-2 hrs each time but that includes setting up the outdoor kitchen. The trailer salesman showed us how easy it is to set up and how it only takes 7 minutes, but that doesn't include unloading your stuff or setting up lawn chairs or anything you acutally need for camping - don't trust the trailer salesman. If you are wanting to travel from point A to B, set up camp and then back to A again, pop-ups are great. If you want to go from A to B, stop for the night or a couple days and then move on to C and maybe D later, then, if you can, move up to a pickup tow vehicle and a small travel trailer. Do your homework. There a lots of specs and information available on any tow vehicle and any travel trailer on forums like these, on the internet in general (be certain it's a reputable site, not just Joe Blow's site, and research for yourself before you get into any deal on a van or truck. We've recently upgraded to a pickup and TT for our vacations as the children are getting older and we want to do longer haul trips. I hope that helps. Happy camping, have fun.