tenny80

I am considering a pop up tent trailer. we have 4 kids under 14 and would like to do some camping.
The tent trailer we are looking at is a rockwood high wall model, weighs around 3500lbs with cargo.

How economical are these to tow? Besides camp trips I'd like to use it for when I take my older son to his rep baseball tournaments to save on hotel costs. I am curious though, if I am driving 300 miles and towing a trailer each way am I going to save anything at all compared to just getting a hotel room lol.

feifel

iTrader: (3)

I had a Starcraft 1019 pop up prior to our current trailer and the towing mpg was between 12-14 with my 2011 Maxim tow ecoboost but I have a truck so I didn't care much about mpg

tenny80

what was your MPG when not towing?

I don't care to much about MPG but with the price of campsites i'm just trying to figure out if it would make any sense pissing around with the tent trailer. Campsites are not cheap anymore!

Ricktwuhk

Assume 18 mpg regular and 12 towing. You lose 6. That is an additional 8.3 gallons each way.

tenny80

Thank you sir! at current Canadian prices that's about an extra $60 a trip. With campsites around $40 and hotels about a $100-150 it's definitely worth while as we stay at least 2 nights, sometimes 3 or 4.

feifel

iTrader: (3)

16.4-17.2 I couldn't keep my foot out of boost my all time best is my 11 was 18.2

smokeywren

Common question. Here's one answer, with my F-150 and assuming $2.50 per gallon of gas:


700 miles round trip. 16 MPG not towing and 12 MPG towing.


With no trailer, 700 divided by 16 = 43.75 gallons of gas. At $2.50 per gallon, that's $109.38 for gas.


With trailer, 700 divided by 12 = 58.33 gallons of gas. At $2.50 per gallon, that's $145.83 for gas.


145.83 minus = 109.38 = 36.45 difference.


Today, a decent camping spot will cost you $40 per night. A cheap motel will cost $80.


So, in a nutshell, flip a coin. If you enjoy RVing, then you can stay in a campground for about the same price as you can stay in Motel 6, give or take a few dollars.


If your wife is like mine, she'd rather have the camper with us. That way she always has a handy pottie, and she doesn't have to pack up and move into the motel them pack up and move back into the SUV. Plus we always have two dogs with us, and Motel 6 is dog friendly but most motel chains are not.


The above numbers assume you're traveling in the tow vehicle, whether towing or not. But in my case, when not towing we'll usually be on our Highlander instead of our F-150.


On really long trips where I make 700 or more miles per day, I prefer the SUV and not towing to the F-150 dragging a TT. DW is in charge of using her smart phone and finding a Motel 6 up ahead, while I drive. Not a good plan on 3-day holiday weekends. But finding a place to park the RV is not duck soup either.

Our "family car" is a Toyota Highlander XLE, equipped approximately the same as our F-150 Lariat. The Highlander gets a bit better MPG than the F-150 not towing.

redbarronbeer

Get The camper. I get 12.5-13 mpg towing my 25' 5th wheel. With you getting a pop up you will have less wind drag. Also get a Good Sam membership, it will cost about $40 a year and you will get about 8-10 dollars a night discount at accepting campgrounds. Which run about $30-$45 per night. Weekly and monthly rates are a good bit less. I hope this helps.

tenny80

What is a sam membership?

redbarronbeer

Good sam is a camping club to get discounts at rv parks. http://www.goodsamclub.com/