Towing pop up with 2004 Honda Odyssey?

So, your minivan doesn't have the factory tow package.
It won't be cheap to match what the factory tow package has.
Also, will the prospective popup have electric brakes? That will require wiring added for a brake controller.
Personally, I'd forego this and replace the CRV with the Jeep. You'd be wasting money, if you get the Jeep.

Towing in the mountains of Colorado? Not sure I'd want to put that kind of stress on a 15 year old minivan. With a family of four, you'll be hard pressed to travel light, and in fact you'll probably be at the limits for the Honda.

A Grand Cherokee would be better for sure.

It depends on the size of the tent trailer and the weight you carry in the van. A pup with an 8' box and 4 people in the van should be no problem. Fill all the seats and try to tow a 12' high wall with a slideout and you could be in a world of hurt.

I believe that year van with the tow package has a 3500lbs tow rating which is calculated with only a 150lbs driver in the van. Any additional weight added reduces the tow rating pound for pound. Weigh everything you plan to carry in the van and figure your actual tow rating. Keep the loaded trailer weight under 80 percent of that number and you should be ok with some wiggle room to spare. Our old 10' popup loaded was around 1800lbs. We towed it easily with a minivan and family of 4 onboard.

Noblefam, your post reminds me of a retired couple who were towing a 16' Scamp all over the country with a CR-V! I think it was an '04, too. After putting well over 200K miles on it, they traded the CR-V about 2 or 3 years ago for a new Oddy and were thrilled with it.

Find out what would have come with any tow package for your model year van. Then add whatever is really important for safety and longevity; for example, if better transmission cooling came with the package, get an auxiliary tranny cooler. If the package included a bigger alternator, that is an example of an item you could probably skip IMO.

I would recommend a fairly small, lightweight, bare-bones popup with no more than 300 lbs actual hitch weight (with LP, battery etc). A great time can be had in the campgrounds with fairly basic equipment; if you need all the bells and whistles for your camping experience, you'd better wait for a better tug to tow all that weight. And you'll want to lock out overdrive when towing, and take it easy going up and down the grades. Definitely get a popup with trailer brakes!

I would be careful towing with the Odyssey,your generation Odyssey had many transmission issues.I would not put that kind of strain on a transmission with 170k.

Btw I am a Honda certified master technician for 25 years

If you think of the pup as a "deluxe tent in a box" and keep it small & light, you should do alright. If you look at it as "a collapsible RV", not so much. Find out what the GCVWR is. That's everything, van people popup and stuff. Stay below that. Make sure you get one with brakes. Burn the trans going up, $$$. Burn the brakes going down, crash & burn.

Not recommended. Trans will let you down. Think of something else and safety for that family.

The short answer is it depends on the Pup. Minivans actually make good tow vehicles as long as you stay within their capabilities, as most modern ones have plenty of power and they have a low center of gravity. The big downfall of minivans is their soft rear suspension (for most) as they are designed as people movers, not tow beasts. You can add airbags to help combat the softer springs in the rear, but remember, the bags don't increase your carrying capacity. You still have to be mindful of the tongue weight.

Would a larger SUV be a better towing platform? Certainly, but as long as you stay well within your weight limits, you should be fine although the mountain towing may be an issue. As was mentioned earlier, these year model vans did have a transmission issue. We had an '04 and Honda replaced the transmission with 80K on it and having never towed. Wife was nervous of it after that, so we sold it not long after the replacement, so I don't know how well it did.

p220sigman wrote:
The short answer is it depends on the Pup. Minivans actually make good tow vehicles as long as you stay within their capabilities, as most modern ones have plenty of power and they have a low center of gravity. The big downfall of minivans is their soft rear suspension (for most) as they are designed as people movers, not tow beasts. You can add airbags to help combat the softer springs in the rear, but remember, the bags don't increase your carrying capacity. You still have to be mindful of the tongue weight.

Would a larger SUV be a better towing platform? Certainly, but as long as you stay well within your weight limits, you should be fine although the mountain towing may be an issue. As was mentioned earlier, these year model vans did have a transmission issue. We had an '04 and Honda replaced the transmission with 80K on it and having never towed. Wife was nervous of it after that, so we sold it not long after the replacement, so I don't know how well it did.

Most minivans have payload ratings as good or better than a lot of half ton suv's and pickups. Cooling is the issue more than anything.

As long as cooling was not an issue, they can easily handle small low wall pop-ups. I think our old pop-up was around 1400 gross, and I could lift the tongue by myself.

We towed our Pup with a Sienna for years and it was pretty close to the max for our van. Towed great and averaged 16 MPG towing. Of course that was in and around Florida, so no mountains. We traded that van with over 250K miles on it and plenty of life left.