camping with a smart car

[RobbF67]

Hello, Robb here. My partner and I are looking to get out and start camping together, he has a smart car and we are looking for options on a trailer we can pull. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Slate_CM]

Robb, interesting trailer you got there. It looks comfortable inside, but too claustrophobic for me.

[Sprink-Fitter]

RobbF67 wrote:
Geez that sounds serious!

What does?

[RobbF67]

Geez that sounds serious!

[tatest]

My experience with camping includes living for a weekend with what I can carry five miles into the woods on my back (when I was about 55 years younger). So camping in a Smart car tends to take me out of "dragging around a house" mode, into "what can I pack into a Smart car" mode, which might be almost as much as what I could pack into my Renault 8 forty-eight years ago. Camping, not RVing.

[RobbF67]

campigloo wrote:
My first thought to your post was "surely he's not serious". After reading through and seeing what is available, my next thought is how cool is that!!! So I will now get my bowl of Cheerios topped with crow feathers. Yummmm!

Oh I am serious LOL

[John___Angela]

When a smart car is in auto mode it feels exactly like you are driving a standard. At a certain RPM throttle comes off, clutch goes in, gear changes, clutch comes out and throttle comes back on. Exactly like a standard transmission because it is a standard transmission. This was done do make more efficient power train and higher mileage. In North America people often complain about the jerky transmission when in fact it is the smoothest standard transmission on the market. Unfortunately the US market got the least fuel inefficient smart car drive train available of the 5 drive train combinations available. It is still the most fuel efficient non hybrid vehicle on the market in the US but pales in comparison to the high mpg drive trains available in Europe including the amazing 71 mpg of the little diesel like ours. Rumour has it the 1 litre used in the US was easiest to modify for the simulated "park, drive, reverse" mode required for the US market. DOT figured American drivers would not be able to figure out the forward,neutral,reverse modes. Mercedes had to figure a way to make the car "creep" when put in "drive" just like a normal automatic transmission. European smarts don't to that nor do our Canadian Diesels.

[Sprink-Fitter]

JaxDad wrote:

Grit dog wrote:

John & Angela wrote:

Fordlover wrote:

JaxDad wrote:

pk1023 wrote:
I probably wouldn't trust a smart car as far as I could push it. Which, I dunno, might be farther than I think!

I too would like to hear the story behind that comment. We have had 5 smart cars, both gas and diesel, for the office. They've been driven (collectively) a lot of miles with no problems of any kind.

In fact of all the people I know of thay have had a smart car, one person was unhappy with it, but they were the type of person who could break an anvil with a rubber hammer.

One correction, all smart cars are standard transmissions. They don't have a clutch pedal as the computer does all the clutching and gas pedal on off during shifting. Most people use the paddles for shifting or select auto mode.

Umm If it has auto mode, it is not a standard transmission!
It's an auto with standard mode!
My Charger has an auto stick that you can up and down shift manually, along with every auto trans truck I've had since 2010. They are not manual trans just because you can select the gear.
If you can't go up or down more than one gear at a time, it's an auto!

No, it's a standard transmission. It has no torque converter, it has a standard dry disc CLUTCH, it just has no clutch PEDAL or shifter for the driver to operate.

As clearly stated above, the computer operates the clutch for the driver, either when the driver decides to (in manual shift mode) or when the computer decides to (auto shift mode).

Yes

[campigloo]

My first thought to your post was "surely he's not serious". After reading through and seeing what is available, my next thought is how cool is that!!! So I will now get my bowl of Cheerios topped with crow feathers. Yummmm!

[JaxDad]

Grit dog wrote:

John & Angela wrote:

Fordlover wrote:

JaxDad wrote:

pk1023 wrote:
I probably wouldn't trust a smart car as far as I could push it. Which, I dunno, might be farther than I think!

I too would like to hear the story behind that comment. We have had 5 smart cars, both gas and diesel, for the office. They've been driven (collectively) a lot of miles with no problems of any kind.

In fact of all the people I know of thay have had a smart car, one person was unhappy with it, but they were the type of person who could break an anvil with a rubber hammer.

One correction, all smart cars are standard transmissions. They don't have a clutch pedal as the computer does all the clutching and gas pedal on off during shifting. Most people use the paddles for shifting or select auto mode.

Umm If it has auto mode, it is not a standard transmission!
It's an auto with standard mode!
My Charger has an auto stick that you can up and down shift manually, along with every auto trans truck I've had since 2010. They are not manual trans just because you can select the gear.
If you can't go up or down more than one gear at a time, it's an auto!

No, it's a standard transmission. It has no torque converter, it has a standard dry disc CLUTCH, it just has no clutch PEDAL or shifter for the driver to operate.

As clearly stated above, the computer operates the clutch for the driver, either when the driver decides to (in manual shift mode) or when the computer decides to (auto shift mode).

[Grit_dog]

John & Angela wrote:

Fordlover wrote:

JaxDad wrote:

pk1023 wrote:
I probably wouldn't trust a smart car as far as I could push it. Which, I dunno, might be farther than I think!

I too would like to hear the story behind that comment. We have had 5 smart cars, both gas and diesel, for the office. They've been driven (collectively) a lot of miles with no problems of any kind.

In fact of all the people I know of thay have had a smart car, one person was unhappy with it, but they were the type of person who could break an anvil with a rubber hammer.

One correction, all smart cars are standard transmissions. They don't have a clutch pedal as the computer does all the clutching and gas pedal on off during shifting. Most people use the paddles for shifting or select auto mode.

Besides, none of the competition had the cool points...at least from our perspective... 🙂 🙂 Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 🙂 Here is one of our little diesels.

Umm If it has auto mode, it is not a standard transmission!
It's an auto with standard mode!
My Charger has an auto stick that you can up and down shift manually, along with every auto trans truck I've had since 2010. They are not manual trans just because you can select the gear.
If you can't go up or down more than one gear at a time, it's an auto!

[John___Angela]

RobbF67 wrote:
Hi John & Angela,

Here is what we settled on http://www.golittleguy.com/model?id=36&model=MyPod-Basic
we're pretty excited to get out there and start using it, we found it just in time since it's getting cold out there. Hope this can help others too!

So cool. Congradulations. Looks awesome. Looks low profile and the weight is right for a gas smart. Don't overpack and you should be fine. Really looking forward to seeing more pictures of the inside outside and your first camping a trip. Congrats again. Keep us posted.

[RobbF67]

DazedNConfused wrote:

RobbF67 wrote:
Hello, Robb here. My partner and I are looking to get out and start camping together, he has a smart car and we are looking for options on a trailer we can pull. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

You want to tow a trailer with your Smart Car? Do you mean a small storage trailer to hold your tent gear? Might find way more options if you were willing to go with a motor home and pull your SC behind it.

DCN

Hi, this is actually what we found
http://www.golittleguy.com/model?id=36&model=MyPod-Basic
it's prefect for what we are doing!

[RobbF67]

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
This past summer while volunteering as campground hosts at Big Bend NP's Chisos Basin CG - we saw a whole lot of combinations of cars, camping methods and tiny trailers we never knew existed.

One problem we did see consistently was overheated, over strained small vehicles. Several required battery recharging, jumps, water, transmission fluid and even several had to be taken out of the mountains on flatbed tow trucks.

Watch the weights. I've seen Cooper Mini's with 1,000 lbs of cargo crammed inside by tent campers. I've seen Toyota Prius pulling motorcycle type popups. I've seen Kia Soul and similar cars by other makers with tiny trailers behind them.

I've seen every one of these brands of car overweight and with potentially serious damage to the drive train. And I've seen them all used successfully.

In general - most folks carry too much stuff and too much weight when they start camping. Watch the weight. Know the vehicle limits - and stay under them.

I think we'll be fine with this!

http://www.golittleguy.com/model?id=36&model=MyPod-Basic

[RobbF67]

Hi John & Angela,

Here is what we settled on http://www.golittleguy.com/model?id=36&model=MyPod-Basic
we're pretty excited to get out there and start using it, we found it just in time since it's getting cold out there. Hope this can help others too!