also new from VA

[vachez]

I recently retired and have been researching EGG type campers for some Time. My concern is my tow vehicle. I have an S10 4.3 liter that I am upgrading with 1500 lb helpers and a transmission cooler.

Will this be sufficient for a 16 foot EGG, Casita or Scamper. RPod??

[Darwin Maring]

Our for sale 2003 V6 S10 had no problem towing a Scamp 5R. It didn't need an additional transmission cooler, the one already installed in the bottom of the radiator is sufficient.

[Donna D.]

Hi Gary, welcome to FiberglasRV... we're glad you're here.

I'd suggest you start with your owners manual. There should be towing maximums and tongue weight maximum in the book. Use that as your guide.

[Ray N]

We had a 2003 S10 with the 4.3 v6 and four speed automatic. It was rated to tow 5600 pounds and we used it with our 17' EggCamper. Just to be on the safe side I did have an auxiliary transmission cooler installed by a local shop for very little money.
The S10 handled the camper very well as long as we were on level ground. If you don't mind slowing way down on hills the S10 will do fine. Once we went up any significant grade we had to downshift and then had to slow way down in third gear. If it had a five speed, or better yet a six speed transmission it probably would have been fine for our purposes. But since I like to "go with the flow" and hate to block traffic, I wasn't happy with the S10. That's the only reason we gave the S10 to our son and bought a new truck with a V8 and six speed transmission.

[Carol H]

Welcome Gary! A great resource for finding out what the different makes and size of trailers will actually weigh once loaded up for camping can be found in the thread Trailer Weights in the Real World. It may or may not help you in narrowing down your search to a particular trailer brand, as you will see each brand & models within brands is different in regards to weight although they may be about the same length.

Have fun shopping around.