Subaru Outback Towing a 16' Scamp?, Anyone doing it? Options

[John Haggerty]

Subaru only uses a 1 1/4 inch receiver, doesn't it? I would think that also be a problem for 16 foot trailers.

Nancy

Hi Nancy,
The 1 1/4 hitches are normally rated as much as 3500 lbs (Class II), but the Subaru limit is less; 2700 lbs on my Outback, and maybe 2400/2500 on the Forester? I'm not sure if you can order a factory installed hitch for the Subaru from the factory, I believe they are dealer installed. I added my own hitch from etrailer.com and also added an auxilliary transmission cooler. You can purchase either a Class II 1 1/4" or a Class III 2" hitch from etrailer.com but either one is still limited to the Subaru recommendations. I believe the tongue weight would be a problem keeping within the recommendations from Subaru with a 16 ft camper, and a previous post showing trailer weights looks like the Casita 13 may even have a hard time remaining within the Subaru 200 lb tongue weight. The Scamp 13 looked like it was within the limits. The 2'' hitch may be more convenient for carrying bike racks though.

John

This post has been edited by John Haggerty: Nov 1 2009, 05:17 PM

[Nancy]

John,

Two posts ago you mentioned a 1620 lb Scamp. That is ours. It is not easy to keep the weight down, and most people we know with 13 foot trailers 2,000 pounds is more usual. We keep things very basic, use our rig for traveling and mostly sleeping. We are not true campers, nor do we need to take electronic stuff. Our toys are a laptop computer, camera, a deck of cards, and books.

Thanks for the info about the 1 1/4 inch receiver. It does look like a toy when I see one.

Nancy

[Roger C H]

Roger,
How do you like that Trillium with your Outback, and what options do you have on it? The Trillium is on my short list since I like the layout with the front dinette. I've pretty much decided on a 13 ft camper so I can continue to tow it with an Outback sized vehicle rather than having to keep a gas guzzler around forever (my truck), and I like the Scamp, Casita, and Trillium for different reasons.
Is the front dinette usable and easy to get in and out of?

John H

The Outback pulls the Trillium well. Steep hills on less than expressway grades do call for a lower gear and worse mileage. We have the front dinette and just for the two of us it is great! We purchased a little camp stool for the second person to sit in front of the table.  Small_Chair.JPG ( 16.29K ) Number of downloads: 2
The kitchen side is difficult to get into. But I do notice that the latest Trilliums (Trilliumrv.com) have the dinette table offset. I may try that, but we use the left dinette seating area for food storage.

I don't see any sense of going to a 2" receiver since Class I is all the Subaru can pull anyway.

http://www.bradstrailer.com/hitch_information.htm

Plus bigger size means more weight.

There is a lot of good information on the internet:

http://autos.aol.com/article/towing-tips

Here is a whole series of articles on towing:

http://trucks.about.com/od/autobuying/a/towing_trucks.htm

This post has been edited by Roger C H: Nov 2 2009, 02:58 PM

[Roger C H]

I need to clarify my statement on Subaru towing capacity. Our 2000 Outback is rated at 2000# with trailer brakes and 1000# without. Looking on the internet, I found the following:

2007 Subaru
B9 TRIBECA B9 TRIBECA 5-PASSENGER | B9 TRIBECA 7-PASSENGER
• 3,500 lbs. towing capacity (with accessory trailer towing kit)
3.0R L.L.BEAN® EDITION SEDAN and WAGON
• 3,000 lbs. towing capacity
OUTBACK 2.5i BASIC WAGON | 2.5i WAGON | 2.5i LIMITED SEDAN and WAGON
• 2,700 lbs. towing capacity\
FORESTER 2.5 X | SPORTS 2.5X7 | 2.5X L.L.BEAN® EDITION
• 2,400 lbs. towing capacity

Above gleaned from: https://www.subaru.com/content/downloads/pd...s/2007_full.pdf

You can see that it can get confusing. The best thing to do is check your owner's manual.

Here is an issue I never saw addressed:

WARNING: Never tow a trailer when the temporary spare tire is used. The temporary spare tire is not designed to sustain the towing load.

https://www.subaru.com/my-subaru/tired-tires.html

This post has been edited by Roger C H: Nov 3 2009, 05:50 PM

[John Haggerty]

I was curious if the tow limit for the 2010 Outback with CVT would be lower than my 08 auto transmission, but looking at the 2010 owners manual, the 4 cyl with MT or CVT is still rated to tow 2700 lbs with brakes. 1000 without brakes, and for the automatics, "When towing a trailer on a long uphill grade continuously for over 5 miles (8 km) with an outside temperature of 104F (40C) or above, 1350 (1500 for 6 cylinder)".
I have brakes on my pop-up and plan to get them on my 13 ft Scamp/Casita/Trillium (still in the decision making stage) when I order it.
Subaru also recommends a tongue load of 8-11 % and still has the 200 lb limit, even for the 6. Doing the math, it's impossible to reach 2700 or 3000 and keep the tongue weight down to 200 even with just an 8% tongue load, and Subaru mentions that in the manual. So, to keep it down to 200, you can't haul more than 2500 lbs.

John

[Booker B.]

John, you would do a dis-service to all of us Subaru/Trillium owners if you did not settle on a Trillium