Tow vehicle for 2017 sport 16'

[BBC]

Does anyone tow their basecamp with a Ford Explorer!

[Jalayton]

Oh my gosh! I am new to this forum so when I first posted my question I thought that I might get an alert to tell me if there were responses so I thought I'd only gotten a couple. Then I just checked and there are quite a few! Thank you all for your input. This is such a helpful forum! I need to go back and read them all in more detail but here's some additional thoughts and questions.

Honestly I am very new to all of this so felt a bit overwhelmed with all the advice and don't really understand it all. I am in the process of trying to learn as much as possible. I am a 65 year old single woman with a dog about to retire and want to travel with my dog. I would just want a small simple trailer that is reliable and that is why I am looking at the sport. I do not want a large TV because most of the time it will be just me and my dog driving around the city without a trailer behind. You have all talked me out of a Ford Escape-type with 3500 capacity but am still most interested in the Jeep Cherokee with 4500 tow capacity. I know the larger ones like grand Cherokee have 5000 but that is really more vehicle than I want for everyday use. So I guess my question is... wouldn't the Cherokee work? I know one person said they didn't like the Cherokee. Was that a more recent model?

I want to travel several times a year and love mountains but plan to avoid the wild drives. I have done quite a few road trips in my life and have gotten on roads on which I was glad I did not have a trailer behind me!

Please let me know more thoughts on Jeep Cherokee. Thanks again!

[Jalayton]

Oh my gosh! I am new to this forum so when I first posted my question I thought that I might get an alert to tell me if there were responses so I thought I'd only gotten a couple. Then I just checked and there are quite a few! Thank you all for your input. This is such a helpful forum! I need to go back and read them all in more detail but here's some additional thoughts and questions.

Honestly I am very new to all of this so felt a bit overwhelmed with all the advice and don't really understand it all. I am in the process of trying to learn as much as possible. I am a 65 year old single woman with a dog about to retire and want to travel with my dog. I would just want a small simple trailer that is reliable and that is why I am looking at the sport. I do not want a large TV because most of the time it will be just me and my dog driving around the city without a trailer behind. You have all talked me out of a Ford Escape-type with 3500 capacity but am still most interested in the Jeep Cherokee with 4500 tow capacity. I know the larger ones like grand Cherokee have 5000 but that is really more vehicle than I want for everyday use. So I guess my question is... wouldn't the Cherokee work? I know one person said they didn't like the Cherokee. Was that a more recent model?

I want to travel several times a year and love mountains but plan to avoid the wild drives. I have done quite a few road trips in my life and have gotten on roads on which I was glad I did not have a trailer behind me!

Please let me know more thoughts on Jeep Cherokee. Thanks again!

[Daquenzer]

The Jeep Cherokee shifted very rough. Remember your gas mileage will be about 2/3rd or less of what it normally is. The Jeep Cherokee has a 16 gallon tank. You are going to stop for gas quite a bit. The more stress on the engine the less gas mileage.

By the time you go to the Jeep Grand Cherokee you will be in the $40,000 range. At that point you might as well buy a pickup.

A F150 with a 2.7 Ecoboost will have better range, better payload, and better horsepower. And you'll find that they drive really nice on the road. Plus your wheel base will give you better stability. That is going to make driving far more pleasant.

Yes you can get by with a Jeep Cherokee, but you will hate stopping for gas all the time.

[Shiny16]

Sorry I have no opinion or experience with the Cherokee. The numbers look like it would work but it would be in the just barely adequate range. I almost bought one 2 years ago but change my mind and opted for the Grand Cherokee limited V6 and it does an awesome job with my 16. It is also a great every day car. Fuel capacity is 24.6 and towing mileage on mostly flat ground in and around NJ is 18. Everyday mileage is 23 if you go easy on it highway mileage is 30.
If you stick with a Laredo which is the base model you should be around 33k for 4wd. The base model will also give you the highest payload capacity.
Which ever you decide just make sure it has an actual factory installed tow package as compared to a dealer installed one. The tow capacity will be severely reduced if it's a dealer installed one. Don't rely on the sales person for towing info. Some lie or just don't know.

[halfloaf]

I'm in a similar position to you, except going full time, picking up my Sport 16 next week. Tl;dr, I got a used Expedition EL 4x4.

If I were you I would either learn to live with a larger vehicle (which maybe means renting something small every once in a while or using taxis more), or I would buy maybe an older Prius as my in-town car and also have a larger vehicle for your trailer.

For example, in about a month I'm going to be putting my little house in storage and spend a couple of weeks in a very urban area. I will rent a small car.

Long version:

Someone said maybe the salesman was mistaken. I think that was probably being charitable. RV salesmen are notorious for telling people they need smaller vehicles than they do. They need you to buy, and they don't want you put off because you can't afford or are intimidated by a larger vehicle. My guess would be they are even more likely to tell a woman she is okay with a smaller car, because of the sexism that says we're all afraid to drive. (If they'll talk to you at all... my secret invisibility cloak is to walk onto a RV lot without a man next to me!) In my case I didn't have this conversation with the Airstream salesman, but when he asked me what I had bought and I said Expedition he said, "Good. VERY good."

So the next salesman that lies is the truck salesman. And it doesn't even start with the salesman, it starts with the company. Theory is there is a regulatory crack-down a'comin' on tow ratings because they are insane. So the advice often is to stay under 80% of whatever the truck company claims their product will tow.

Now you've got another issue which is payload. You have to subtract your hitch weight and the weight of you and your dog from the payload. What you've got left is what you can actually put in the vehicle. For a fulltimer in a very small trailer, this matters a lot to me! I could have gotten an Explorer (for me it was between the Explorer and the Expedition), but I couldn't carry very much! And the Sport 16 is right on the edge of the real (80%) tow rating for the Explorer (the RAV4, etc... I think by the previous answers it's clear that those are just not a good choice). With the Expedition I don't think I could physically stuff it with as much cargo as it is rated to carry.

But maybe an Explorer would work for you for smaller trips! And one downside of the Expedition, my 4x4 at least, is that it doesn't fit in many parking garages, so depending on just how urban your living is that might be too annoying.

My decision point ended up being a 5 year old, extended length (full time, I want more room!), 4wd Expedition with the tow package. These are very hard to find! At any given time there's generally only 1 or 2 for sale in the entire United States. So I had to be patient, and a liein' dealer sold one out from under me, but eventually I got it.

[slowmover]

TW is not part of mythical "payload" for all matters pertaining. The use of a weight-distributing hitch spreads that force from one point (the hitch ball) to the two tow vehicle axles and that of the trailer.

Does anyone here have actual scaled weights of the trailer in
question? Actual tongue weight figures?

Something besides hot air?

If the gross of the trailer is 3500, but isn't ever loaded past .85, then a TW of 360-lbs at .125 is reasonable. As a WD (an Eaz-Lift) will place 20-25_% of that on the trailer, the TV is left with approximately 140-lbs per Axle. That's not even a fat girl with her own case of beer.

350-500/lbs is a TW range where WD can be recommended. This trailer at the low end of that.

A VW Jetta and other cars would be fine. Not to mention better as solo choices. Solo duty is the predominant factor in TV choice

See the Can Am RV website. Andrew Thomson and his family have set up more than 10k towing combos over the past half century. Towing consultant to SAE and Airstream.

They do what those of us starting in the 1960s had to learn by trial and error.

A bigger TV is not "better". There's a limit to weight/size advantages and they peak at around 120" wheelbase and 4000-lbs curb weight. Past this is simply the need to carry more junk in the TV (and/or as a business vehicle) as well as passengers.

A trailer this small has a wide range of vehicle designs from which to choose. . Just as size isn't any guarantee , neither are some vehicle designs.

See the website. Read the articles. Contact for advice. See other threads here.

Get what really works best for solo miles AND is a good choice for towing.

.

[1811SAR]

Originally Posted by halfloaf

Someone said maybe the salesman was mistaken. I think that was probably being charitable. Salesmen are notorious for telling people [what] they need...

This isn't new folks... As was suggested by another here, ~90% of them don't own nor will they ever own what they are selling... All they usually know is how many units they need to sell to meet their quota for the month. They don't care about your budget nor what you are going to need to safely tow it off their lot, it's not their problem...

So expect the next salesman of anything to tell you what you want to hear...and before you sign, come back here for the ground truth. Take your lap top with you to the dealership... These Multi-Rivet designation holders will Sherpa all of we newbies and owners-to-be to the next level with years of demonstrated past performance.

It is readily apparent that the AS NATION is alive and well and those of us fng's are here to read and learn from the best who bought the best.

Cheers mates,
G

[artjunkie12]

I am looking to purchase an AS Sport 20ft was going to buy a Toyota tacoma p/u truck to tow it but it will be my first time towing so was hoping to find the shortest possible TV

[waninae39]

we have an Audi Q5 2016

that pulls our 2017 sport 22FB

no issues

fully loaded , no issues up a hill

at most we lose 1/3 gas mileage