Need Advice

[randysan]

Hello, New member here and I don't know what I'm doing.

I have a 2017 VW Tiguan and am in the market for a 13' or 16' Scamp or similar camper.

Can anyone advise me on some of the less obvious plusses/minuses of these trailers, towed by a small suv like mine?.....i believe the Tiguan is rated at a max. towing weight of 2200 lbs.

Are there other Trailer Brands I should be considering that offer comparable amenities?

Oh, and, believe it or not, i don't even have a trailer hitch yet, so.... Do i go to the VW dealer and have one installed there? Or is it better to go to a third-party specialist?

Thank You!!
and sorry for all the questions
Randy

[thrifty bill]

If your limit is 2200 pounds better stick with a 13. Check weights in the real world. Scamp site weights are lower than reality.

[randysan]

thanks Bill, makes sense.

[thrifty bill]

Huge difference in those two trailers. Realize trailer size is measured from the hitch to the backside of the rear bumper. So a 13 foot trailer has a 10 foot body on it. And a 16 foot trailer has a 13 foot body on it. So a 16 is 30% larger. Since a bed and a sink take up much of a ten foot body, limited room for anything else. My 13 foot Trillium has a small bed on one end, a sink/stove frig and closet in the middle and a small gaucho/kids bunk on the front. No bathroom, nothing else.

Meanwhile our 19 foot Escape has a queen bed on one end, a kitchen bath and shower in the middle and a four person dinette on the other end that covers to a bed.

Bathrooms in these trailers add weight and take up space. The smaller the trailer, the more critical this space becomes.

[John in Santa Cruz]

about all I'd want to tow with a Tiguan (which is built on the Passat car platform, 4 cylinder FWD) would be a light weight teardrop trailer, staying under 1500 lbs. I think you'd find that if you did tow a 2000 lb GWR trailer, you'd have almost no payload left in the car, maybe just a driver+1 passenger with no luggage.

[randysan]

thanks for the input....i've read some accounts of people happily towing their 1500 lb trailers about. as this the car i've got, i'll need to find the right fit.....maybe there is a decent 1500 lb or less trailer out there that thru economy of design will work for me. i can live without the bathroom/shower but don't wanna....

[John in Santa Cruz]

yeah, no way a trailer with a shower/toilet and associated water+heater+black+grey tank will come in under 2000 lbs empty. my casita 16 was 2100 lbs empty, 3500 lbs max load, and had way too small water and grey holding tanks (16 G fresh water, 13 gallon grey holding).

what you MIGHT be able to do is a cassette toilet, and an outside shower, with a fresh water tank and heater, but no holding tanks (kitchen sink would drain into an external tank, we had that setup on our tent trailer). A casita 16 so equipped is about 1900 lbs empty. 16 gallons of water is like 130 lbs right off...

[randysan]

thanks John
btw Santa Cruz was where i first encountered homeless with Starbucks lattes in hand.

have u seen the newest armadillos??
they seem to be light enough. and the option for outdoor shower on the rear pull-out shelf is brilliant.

also, they look cozy ✌��✌��

[John in Santa Cruz]

note those weights (1800 lbs, with 180 lbs tongue weight) are for the /base/ trailer with no options, also no water etc. phew, 38L water tank, thats just 10G.

you add clothing, bedding, towels, food, beverages, and blam, you have 100s of more lbs.

[randysan]

true...however what are the downsides?...could the little vw burn out from the extra burden?

[John in Santa Cruz]

emergency handling would be scary, say you're coming down a grade, its windy, you come around a turn and there's stopped traffic, so you have to slam on the brakes....

you will put much more stress on your vehicles suspension, bushings, CV joints, steering struts, and transmission. if you have a fancy DSG tranny, even more so on the transmission.

you might just take your car, and put 250-300 lbs of dead weight in the very back, like 5 or 6 50 lb bags of sand or whatever, and see how it rides... thats what the hitch weight from a 2000 lb trailer will be, all sitting on the back end. how well does it stop going downhill? how much front wheel traction does it have going uphill, or on a sharp turn with that much weight in back?

you need a 2" receiver class III hitch, wired for a 7-blade RV connector, with an onboard brake controller. I bet that's not an option from VW, so you'll need to go aftermarket (draw-tite, etc for the receiver, and pick your brand of wiring kit).

[ShelbyM]

Anything you can safely tow with that VW isn't going to have much advantage over a tent.

[randysan]

ok, got it guys. all good points.
somebody send me a GWagon!

[JBB]

Hi Randy! We had an older 6 cylinder TV that was rated to tow 5,000 lbs and bought a small camper. We quickly discovered difficulty going up very steep mountain grades. After 3 years we sold that camper; upgraded our TV and now tow our Snoozy. We still have our 22 year old 4Runner as it's a great vehicle to drive around town etc. We take our bikes, kayaks etc as well as other items that we feel we want for each particular trip. That's why we upgraded our vehicle. You'll need to consider what it is you want to do where ever you go.

[randysan]

Thanks for the input Jan...I am researching ultra-lite trailers and will likely go with something like a teardrop.

[JBB]

Our first camper was a T@B teardrop. It was a good learning experience for us to see if trailer camping was really something we wanted to do. We sold the T@B for numerous reasons/problems that I won't go into here. But what I'm trying to say is look at all the pros and cons of each trailer you're considering and apply your lifestyle to that. We quickly saw that the teardrop style wasn't for us with my husbands height. Have fun in your search for your perfect home away from home!

[thrifty bill]

Step 1: decide what camper meets your specific needs.

Step 2: Acquire the tow vehicle required to safely pull that trailer.

Often a vehicle bought to be used as basic transportation with no consideration of tow capability. Later people decide they want a trailer and guess what, their current car will not make a good tow vehicle. Example, my wife loves her Honda Element. Great car around town. Towing? Forget it.

When needs change, you should consider changing vehicles to match.

I’ve had a marginal tow situation before, won’t do it again. The fact that someone else may do it has no bearing on my decision. We had an earlier poster that was planning to pull a molded FG trailer behind a motorcycle.

The thing about the web is you can always find someone doing what shouldn’t be done. Repeating other people’s mistakes is a lousy idea.

Bathrooms always add weight and take space away from other features like a place to sit. A place to sit gets used s lot more than a toilet.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by JBB

Hi Randy! We had an older 6 cylinder TV that was rated to tow 5,000 lbs and bought a small camper. We quickly discovered difficulty going up very steep mountain grades. After 3 years we sold that camper; upgraded our TV and now tow our Snoozy. We still have our 22 year old 4Runner as it's a great vehicle to drive around town etc. We take our bikes, kayaks etc as well as other items that we feel we want for each particular trip. That's why we upgraded our vehicle. You'll need to consider what it is you want to do where ever you go.

We towed our Scamp13D front bath all over the US without difficulty, always with two mountain bikes on the tongue. More than 50,000 miles of that with properly equipped 4CYL vehicles. We recently retired our 2008 Ford Escape 2.3L 4CYL (my son now has it) and bought a Transit Connect 2.5L 4CYL.


For safety and optimum fuel economy we seldom exceed 60MPH when towing. Ford says we should not exceed 70MPH when towing (sage advice IMO)
A capable Chassis rated to tow the anticipated trailer obviates counting cylinders. I just bought another 4CYL vehicle which is rated to tow more than some V8 Trucks.

A front bath Scamp13 Standard is well within the OPs tow rating, and has superior aerodynamics and towing characteristics.

Of course, any tow vehicle should be properly equipped and driven by an adult.
My advice to the OP is to consult with VW's service manager about towing an aerodynamic trailer which is nearly 25% under tow rating and if wise, what equipment is needed... Such as trailer brakes, hitch type etc.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by thrifty bill

Step 1: decide what camper meets your specific needs.

Step 2: Acquire the tow vehicle required to safely pull that trailer.

Often a vehicle bought to be used as basic transportation with no consideration of tow capability. Later people decide they want a trailer and guess what, their current car will not make a good tow vehicle. Example, my wife loves her Honda Element. Great car around town. Towing? Forget it.

When needs change, you should consider changing vehicles to match.

I’ve had a marginal tow situation before, won’t do it again. The fact that someone else may do it has no bearing on my decision. We had an earlier poster that was planning to pull a molded FG trailer behind a motorcycle.

The thing about the web is you can always find someone doing what shouldn’t be done. Repeating other people’s mistakes is a lousy idea.

Bathrooms always add weight and take space away from other features like a place to sit. A place to sit gets used s lot more than a toilet.

My bathroom has a place to sit!!

[John in Santa Cruz]

For that matter, when we first got our Casita 16 (2100 lbs dry, 3500 lb gross), I was driving a 1992 Volvo 740 Turbo wagon, which was rated to tow 3500 lbs, and further was a RWD vehicle with a live axle, and had overload springs, and I could have installed an airbag kit in it... I never even dreamed of using the volvo for towing the Casita, instead, we got a Tacoma 4x4 4.0L V6, which let us carry lots of additional gear as well as easily and safely tow the Casita no matter how loaded it was. I also used the tacoma for local hauling duties, like garden runs, taking my telescopes to star parties, etc. sold the volvo wagon since the tacoma could easily do any cargo jobs, and my daily driver is now a 1993 Mercedes 300CE convertible...

fast forward a few years, we decided the casita was just too small for us, so we got an Escape 21, which is 3500 lbs dry, 4200 lbs loaded (I think?)... Hauled it back from Texas to California with the Tacoma (rated for 6500 lb tow), and decided that we really wanted a beefier tug vehicle, plus teh gas mileage and gas tank size were awful, so we ended up with a 2002 Ford F250 longbed 7.3 diesel. Now we can haul *anything* without sweating it (my larger telescope pretty much filled the back of the Tacoma with the gear it needed, it fits in the Ford with lots(!) of room left over for chairs, tables, coolers, generator, fuel, water, etc).


telescope and minimum observing gear in Toyota(L), F250(R)... ladder had to go on roof of Tacoma. Telescope upper tube assembly couldn't be stacked on the mirror box in the Tacoma due to bed/roof height...