I am looking at 16ft Scamps and Casitas. My truck is on the smallish side in horsepower even though the manufacturer's tow rating is more than adequate. My goal is to find the best way's to lighten the load.
Does anyone know the weights of items like the hot water heater, shower, big fridge vs small etc? Also what would you throw overboard and live without to get lighter?

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks

I find I use my hot water heater a lot. Makes washing dishes and my face fast and easy. I don't have the figure on weight of these items, but I never tow the trailer with water on board. The hot water heater is empty and gets filled at the destination. Water weighs 8.35 lb per gallon. If you have a six gallon hot water heater filled, that alone is right at 50 lbs. Add that to whatever you may have in the freshwater tank... or gray or black water tanks and you're towing a bunch of extra weight.

And, if I know I'll be camping near a town, I purposely delay buying (most) food until I get there. Helps the local economy too. It may be marginal, but the fuel savings in not towing extra weight such as water and food can offset the (perhaps) higher price of purchasing the food.

Works for me, YMMV

Depending on your camping style, you may wish to forgo the furnace and use a cube heater. In the summer you can leave that item at home and take a fan instead!

Thanks Donna,

I'll look into the alternative heaters. Good idea to leave the food till last when possible. We are also trying to decide A/C or not for weight reasons. I have heard that it is essential in hot weather though. Although my truck is a weight weenie when it come to towing, I don't want to drop something I'll wish I had later.

Thanks again,
Mike

What kind of truck is it????

He said it was a weiner. Must be one of these:

Older 16 footers weight considerably less than newer. I have a 2007 17ft'er and there is a difference in the weight of the 1985 16ft'er I purchased first. Sorry don't know what it weighted but sure can tell the difference over the newer 17fter. Not that I think the 17ft'er weights all that much. But the older Casita was lighter. Personally for us there is nothing we would get rid of to lighten. That's why we bought what we bought, cause we like the options the 17ft'er offer. Why are you looking at 16ft versus say a 13 or 14 footer that has less frills which means less weight, yet are great little trailers? Are there more than 2 of you camping?

Hi: All... Diets don't seem to work. I'm on the 30 day diet and so far I've only lost 5days!!! Seriously there's only so many things you can omit after the trailer's hooked up to the tug and they might lose 1-200 lbs. Even a tank full of gas is weighty. Ready to travel our entire rig weighs 8700-8900lbs and the GCVW. rating for our tug is 9500lbs.
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

We've decided to ditch our fridge for extra storage and less weight. It's just the two of us and we think we can do just fine with a cooler. Just an idea.

You think a fridge weights that much more than an ice chest with ice? It can't be that big of a difference can it? It would be interesting to know what a fridge weights full of supplies versus an ice chest with the same supplies and iced down.

First it seems to me that Casita was heavier than Scamp
the choice of rv is important and the equipement that you want
Dont bring equipement that you dont use
Most time i travel in Canada, i use more often heater than Ac if i live in south i need more AC than heater i i carry small heater with one pound propane tank for no hook up campground
I use fridge, water heater and furnace and it is my comfort
What is the difference of weight with or without water heater, frige and furnace ?? may be maximun 150 pounds???
Choice the right rv , travel with empty water tank , bring one propane tank if you dont need two and carry only light beer
Yvon Chayer

Might add that if you take out your fridge and load an ice chest or several ice chest in your truck you may be only taking down your tow capacity. Cause most vehicles the weight you add in the tow vehicle ( people, gear, etc) takes down the amount of weight you can tow. You would have to read your owners manual to for it's guidelines. Best of Luck!

One thing you can't change is wind resistance, which makes up most of the work your tug has to do when on level terrain. If your tug is marginally big enough as is, I suggest not bothering with reducing weight - it won't make enough of a difference. Get a bigger tow vehicle.

-- Dan Meyer

I have an intuitive idea that a fridge full of air displaced by some food is much lighter that the same capacity ice chest full of water displaced by the same amount of food.

IMHO

THANKS ALL,

The truck is a Nissan Frontier (190 horsepower). I'd get a 13' but it would get tight for the two of us plus 100 lbs of dog (a significant weight disadvantage). I'm pretty much stuck with the truck because the mileage is so high.

My dog would really like that weiner vehicle.

Mike

We just took a 3 way fridge unit out of our camper. I had to get it weighted to ship......before I put it in the shipping box I weighted it. It weighted 50(USA)pounds.We also took out the 2 burner gas stove with cover 10 pounds.Stainless steel sink with over & fauchest......another 10pounds(not counting plumping fixtures) 6.5(USA)gallon hot water heater...30pounds.

Still have the gray water tank and freash water tank for sale ...so I have not weighted them. maybe this will help you decide a little bit

Lynn

Well... if you can't 'trade up' to a more powerful tug, use what you have and realize that you might not be able to run at 60 per (or more) all day long. As long as the manufacturer has rated the vehicle to tow the weight, go ahead and go Scamping!

-- Dan Meyer

Unless you are camping in low desert, I question if A.C. is a necessity. We spent a good amount of time in the high desert in the 70s and 80s and rarely used A.C. Generally the ceiling fan vent was more than adequate. Likewise along the Gulf Coast. A good Fantastic Fan or other high volume ceiling vent fan does a remarkable job of making the inside comfortable. Usually during the heat of day, you aren't inside anyway.

I don't understand the problem. I have a similar sized, compact truck, also with 190 hp. I have absolutely no problem pulling my fully equipped, 17' EggCamper with all our supplies. In fact, the truck is rated at 5600 lbs; while that might be more than I'd want to pull, I wouldn't hesitate for a trailer up to 3500 lbs.

I wonder if Mike's has the same tow cap. If so most 16/17 ft'ers would work. Of course with a 100 pound dog along that will decrease his tow cap a bit! LOL...............

That being said, ID has more mountains to conquer than FL so even though you can pull your EggCamper with ease, he may face a few more challenges when driving to their favorite camp spot. But it should still be do-able, though maybe a little less get up and go.

The only problem with this line of thinking, is that you would need to bring twice as much of the light stuff.

Mike,
If you haven't already settled on a fgrv, take a look at EggCamper. I live in NH (w/mountains, albeit smaller than ID), and tow my 17' EggCamper pretty easily with my 3.0 liter Toyota Sienna.

Ron

This might be a good place to raise the question of fiberglass propane tanks. I saw these on another thread. I'm thinking of going from two steel tanks to one of the translucent fiberglass ones (so I can really tell how much liquid is in there, since I won't have a spare to switch over to). For me, tongue weight is a concern, and this would have almost a direct impact on the weight. I have heard some comments about reluctance of some propane stations to re-fill them. And then there is the issue of not being able to go to Lowes or Walmart to exchange them if there is no propane station nearby. Anyone have any experiences with these?

Parker

Hi Parker,

I recently strongly considered getting a fiberglass tank when the old (no longer legal to fill with old valve) propane tank on my Boler was getting close to empty. In my case, the propane company was actually selling them (i.e. no reluctance to fill them).

I think I read that there is only one state (LA?) that has problems with them, and even that might have changed by now. I can't imagine that too many places would not fill them these days, but I can't say for sure (thing is, at least where I've been, most of the "marginal" type places only exchange cylinders now anyway, so most of the places actually filling them are "pros").

I didn't end up buying one, and here were my factors:

1) They are more expensive, but that didn't really put me off for a one time purchase.

2) They are lighter, which would make them easier to handle and lighter on the tongue, BUT when you really think about it, they are the largest percentage lighter when empty (9# tare weight vs. 18# tare weight for a 20# tank), but much less of a percentage lighter when full. That is, the propane in the tank weighs the same either way. So the weight "loss" wasn't as great as it first appeared. 9# at best for my one tank.

3) The clincher for me was that I would have had to modify my perfectly good tank hold-down system. It would have to be completely different to hold down a fiberglass tank.

So, considering all of the above, I went with another steel tank. At less than $30, I figured I can change my mind in future if I want to. That's not to say the fiberglass tanks aren't nice though. I was close. It was #3 that put me over the edge.

Raya

I e-mailed the company that makes them about using my two bottle hold down clamp on my Scamp and the person said they had no idea what I was talking about.
Makes you wonder if they know what there doing.

Bill K

One way I have lightened my load on our trailer/tow combination is to lose almost 25 lbs in the last while. Between my wife and me, we hope to be hauling about 40 less pounds by next year some time. Not as easy as buying a lighter propane bottle, but the side benefits are much better.

It's like riding a high-end bicycle and looking to save a few more grams of weight. Titanium and carbon fiber gets really expensive compared to the cost of shedding a couple of pounds off the rider!

Parker

Raya,

I've been through much the same thought process and may well end up with the same decision, much as I like that glass tank. Just removing one propane tank will make a significant difference at no additional cost. We can continue our practice of relying on our little five-pound camp stove tank as a reserve source, should the twenty-pounder run out.

Parker

Thanks Lynn,

I bet I can live without a water heater to save the 30lb

Well, what it really boils down to is that I am a newbie to towing so I'm probably overly cautious and just looking for options in case I need them. Thanks for all the help. The Nissan is rated to 3500 so I should be good. I might just have to tame some of my driving habits.

If you go online to parts vendors sites you can see the shipping weight for various components like fridges and water heaters, etc.

I would not strip a trailer because when you want to sell it buyers will want it equipped. Also hot water and good food and drinks are awfully nice to have.

I towed our first TT with a Chev S-10 with a 2.8 engine. Our trailer was a 16' stick built rated at 2,000#. I never did know the horsepower rating of that truck. We ran it from FL to Seattle and back, Nova Scotia and back and then moved to Aridzona. No killer problems.

Well re-sale is one thing, but to me the key is that one's vehicle is rated to tow a certain amount, generally for a reason, and so unless you want to get a different vehicle, you are limited to that amount, plain and simple.

So one might have to either go without certain luxuries, or get a different tow vehicle.

It all comes down to the weight vs. the rating.

So in trying to lighten the load, a person is usually trying to get into a trailer that is close to the rating, but yet not go over, which is a valid enterprise, I think.

Anecdotally towing an unsafe load with no problems: It's a good thing that there were no problems, but that doesn't mean it is categorically safe, in my opinion.

Raya