What can I tow with my Honda Odyssey?
We have a 2013 Honda Odyssey and are interested in getting our first camper. Getting a new vehicle is not an option, and we have 3 small children. So far I have only looked at pop ups, but I just fou...
Forum Discussion
I haven't sold our pop-up yet and we used it for several years. It has a lot of pros and cons.
Pros:
- Tows easy with great MPG, and you can do it with a pretty light vehicle.
- Tons of room and bed space inside, especially on slide models.
- Lots of fun for summer camping, and it feels more like basic camping than a trailer. Nothing beats sleeping in a tent and listening to a creek or the wind blow through the trees at night.
- Can park in traditional garage.
Cons:
- Typical trip: set up to pack before you leave home, put down to travel to camp, set up at camp, put down at camp (after finally evicting wife and kids), set back up at home to clean/dry, put back down for storage. Repeat.
- Cold weather camping can be dicey, especially with younger kids.
- Small water tank, small cassette potty.
- No oven in most models.
- Tiny fridge.
With an Odyssey I'd say a pop up is the way to go even with the downsides. In our situation we have enjoyed camping in it for years, and I wouldn't trade those trips/experiences with our kids for anything. But as with many things in life you outgrow things, and we don't live on a small piece of property anymore so storing a large trailer is a non-issue. Once the need to park in a garage stall was eliminated, it didn't take us long to realize we want to move up.
Just as an aside, we pulled our popup mostly with my wife's 2010 Pilot (4wd so it had the 4500 lb tow rating). It was a perfectly matched vehicle and had no trouble with about a 3500 lb loaded popup. Mountains weren't an issue even in Idaho, and we would generally get around 17 mpg towing.
Pros:
- Tows easy with great MPG, and you can do it with a pretty light vehicle.
- Tons of room and bed space inside, especially on slide models.
- Lots of fun for summer camping, and it feels more like basic camping than a trailer. Nothing beats sleeping in a tent and listening to a creek or the wind blow through the trees at night.
- Can park in traditional garage.
Cons:
- Typical trip: set up to pack before you leave home, put down to travel to camp, set up at camp, put down at camp (after finally evicting wife and kids), set back up at home to clean/dry, put back down for storage. Repeat.
- Cold weather camping can be dicey, especially with younger kids.
- Small water tank, small cassette potty.
- No oven in most models.
- Tiny fridge.
With an Odyssey I'd say a pop up is the way to go even with the downsides. In our situation we have enjoyed camping in it for years, and I wouldn't trade those trips/experiences with our kids for anything. But as with many things in life you outgrow things, and we don't live on a small piece of property anymore so storing a large trailer is a non-issue. Once the need to park in a garage stall was eliminated, it didn't take us long to realize we want to move up.
Just as an aside, we pulled our popup mostly with my wife's 2010 Pilot (4wd so it had the 4500 lb tow rating). It was a perfectly matched vehicle and had no trouble with about a 3500 lb loaded popup. Mountains weren't an issue even in Idaho, and we would generally get around 17 mpg towing.
