Happy New Year!

[Gnorts]

Hello Airstreamers!

We're from the Pacific NW. We're getting ready for a trip to the Southwest in our 2005 Airstream Sprinter Westfalia camper van, "Ludwig." We've had it since last May, and have done a couple of local trips and one longer trip to the Tahoe area last July (HOT!).

We'll be spending almost two months on the road in Feb and March, looking for somewhere to spend a couple of warm months during the dreary NW winters. The Sprinter will be a good traveling rig, but it's not big enough to live in for very long - and I don't think we'll want to unhook & pack up just so we can do some local exploring. We very well might be in the market for a trailer and tow rig after this "scouting" trip.

I've trailed an Airstream before - back in the 90's, we towed a '71 18ft single-axle Airstream 25,000 miles behind the venerable Black Rhino - an '86 F150 4x4. It towed that little trailer just fine, but the fuel mileage was pretty bad - averaged about 9 mpg. The trailer was comfy, but we had numerous tire failures with the old, rusty wheels and tube-type trailer tires. After that experience, I decided I wouldn't own another single-axle trailer. It's tandem next time for sure!

I joined this site in the process of researching what I can tow behind a midsize SUV - like a Toyota Land Cruiser. We don't have room for a big truck at home - we'll have to store a trailer off-site as it is. The Land Cruiser is small enough to fit in our garage.

We really like the 25FB layout, but with a dry weight of about 5600 lbs it's real close to the max towing weight of 6500 for the 06-07 Land Cruiser/LX470. We'd love to hear from people who are towing AS's with these vehicles.

I know we would have a lot more options if we could start out with a 3/4T diesel pickup, but that just ain't gonna fly with the spouse. We got rid of a Tundra to get our present MDX, and the Land Cruiser is just a little bigger than the MDX, so hopefully we can find a smaller AS that we can tow, with a floorplan we like.

I've got a bit of digging around ahead of me here, to find an older, lighter, smaller AS with tandem axles...please chime in with any ideas! Thanks.

[ricks-vt]

Good luck on your research. You have certainly come to the right place. The information and help here is priceless.