Gianine I tow a 92 16'
Scamp with a sidebath with a 07 Subaru Outback - mine has a tow cap of 3000lb with trailer
brakes. You need to check the Outback models as they are all different on tow cap and the are also different from make year as well.
My trailer has been weighed loaded a number of times and most recently last summer when it was done twice in the same week. It came in at about 2500lbs total trailer
weight give or take 20lbs each time. I don't normally tow with any water in the tanks but both times it was weighed it had some water in the hot water tank and the black tank - about 4 or 5 gals in each (just lazy on my part and going on a short move) and it was fully loaded with a few weeks worth of gear and food. The trailer pretty well has everything but an AC unit. I have towed this combo for over 3.5 years over *many* miles in lots of different conditions, but mostly on the West Coast with lots of hills/mountains.
The big and only real issue I have with towing with a Subaru Outback is the tongue
weight - its hard to keep it down to the Subaru limit which is also different by model and year. Thus the reason for the two weigh ins last summer. At the first
weight in the tongue was at 240lbs - about 40lbs more than what I had expected based on past weights. I carry one
propane tank and
battery on the tongue -so the weight can change depending on how full the tank is (or how much water in the black tank) but what I had not thought enough about was a change I made to my normal stow which resulted in more weight on the tongue than normal. On that trip I had moved two mountain bikes that use to be carried inside the trailer onto the roof of the car - which resulted in taking weight off the back of the trailer and bringing the weight up on the tongue. I had actually thought about putting the bikes on a reciever on the back of the trailer but worried that would be taking way to much weight off the tongue resulting in an unwanted/unsafe wag when towing. After I put the bikes on top of the car resulting in the 240 tongue weight I moved a few heavier items out from under the storage under the front bunk and the side closet to the back of the trailer and moved some
light stuff up front, so at the second weigh in it came in with a tongue weight of abt 200lbs. So you do need to watch how you stow things in the trailer - even a small change can have a big impact.
The car has stood up well to 3.5 years of towing and no negitives to report in so far as wear and tear - in fact this Outback has had fewer issues than my previous Outback at the same age that did not tow. Do I feel it is safe to tow with. Yes. Can the car stop the trailer fast in a fully loaded state. Yes its been done in real life situations many times. Can I keep within the posted speed limit - yes but I do need to take the slow lane on long mountain passes but even then I find myself passing most larger rigs.
Having said that I will say that due to the tongue weight issue when I go out looking for a replacement vechile I will be looking for something with a bit more cap on the tongue weight and a little bit more in tow weight as well. Not that I worry at all about the current Scamps weight on the car, although it would be nice to keep the tongue weight within the manufactures specs but more importantly I would like the option of changing trailers some day - have my eyes on an
Escape. Like Donna I am waiting for the owners of
Escape to cave in and give me one! :-)
Also note if you go with a Subaru Outback you will find a lot of well meaning people will tell you that you need to get a weight distribution hitch. Weight distribution hitchs are a **big No No** on a Subaru.
Hope this info helps.