Vehicle/Travel Trailer Compatibility
Greetings! New to this site today. We are getting rather tired of the tent camping scene. Contemplating a transition into a small travel trailer with a higher mpg tow vehicle... In your opi...
Forum Discussion
We tow a 2500lb dry (probably 3500 loaded) Viking 16FB with a 5000lb rated Jeep Liberty, so you PROBABLY can pull it off.
BUT:
You need to watch the carrying capacity of your Jeep (it will be printed in the door jamb of drivers door), you could easily be overloading that depending on your cargo, fuel, and people riding in the Jeep.
Our Liberty is rated at 1150lbs of carrying capacity: 1150 - 600 (people and dog) - 400 (hitch and camper tongue weight) - 140 (20 gallons of diesel) = only 10lbs remaining for gear in our Jeep, so for us we don't carry anything but ourselves in the Jeep. In my example I rounded up and overestimated most those weights to have a safe margin, in reality I have more than 10lbs remaining, but I pack like I do only have those 10lbs to spare.
All this said, I am in the market for a used 3/4 ton diesel pickup truck, the Jeep did admirably on a recent 1200 mile camping trip, but it was REALLY pushing it in some hilly terrain, it made it, but it was running quite hot, and quite high RPMs a few times, I want something that wont be running on the edge of its capabilities, I believe you will probably feel similar after towing with that setup a few times.
EDIT: We saw 15mpg on that 1200 mile trip, but ours is a diesel, not towing we would have got nearly 30mpg on the same trip.
BUT:
You need to watch the carrying capacity of your Jeep (it will be printed in the door jamb of drivers door), you could easily be overloading that depending on your cargo, fuel, and people riding in the Jeep.
Our Liberty is rated at 1150lbs of carrying capacity: 1150 - 600 (people and dog) - 400 (hitch and camper tongue weight) - 140 (20 gallons of diesel) = only 10lbs remaining for gear in our Jeep, so for us we don't carry anything but ourselves in the Jeep. In my example I rounded up and overestimated most those weights to have a safe margin, in reality I have more than 10lbs remaining, but I pack like I do only have those 10lbs to spare.
All this said, I am in the market for a used 3/4 ton diesel pickup truck, the Jeep did admirably on a recent 1200 mile camping trip, but it was REALLY pushing it in some hilly terrain, it made it, but it was running quite hot, and quite high RPMs a few times, I want something that wont be running on the edge of its capabilities, I believe you will probably feel similar after towing with that setup a few times.
EDIT: We saw 15mpg on that 1200 mile trip, but ours is a diesel, not towing we would have got nearly 30mpg on the same trip.
