MichaelInCalifornia

I had asked for and received good advice previously about towing and here is the result with my 2015 Ecoboost.

Not a heavy tow. I rented a 2012 Allen camper Outpost 221 (21 foot) which specs out at 3450lb empty, 5000lb gross with a 340lb tongue weight. I probably only added less than 200 lbs of gear. No way to check trailer or tongue weight.

The camper was rented from the Navy's Rec center. It was well worn, for sure, especially for a three year old camper.

I got 11 MPG using 87 octane California gas (10% Ethanol), not bad considering the gas and traveling from a starting elevation of 2100 ft to a final 4200 ft over 140 miles. I'd really like to see better, but its not realistic.

The trailer towed well, but I'm not sure that the trailer brakes were working well. I'll start a separate thread on just that issue. I got a little hobby horsing that got better when I went from a 5" drop receiver to a straight receiver. I guess I got more weight on the trailers rear wheels. Overall, a decent ride.

We stayed in a rather easy to navigate trailer park in the flat land between two mountain ranges (Bishop, California, for those who know the area). No problems with maneuvering room at all. I was fearful of the narrow spaces in the campgrounds in the mountains.

Things I noticed: Cheap trailer beds are cheap and uncomfortable. I could feel every spring coil. Sucked! The fridge sucked. I have no idea if it was this one, or all of them. The freezer got cold, but the fridge took hours on 120 volts. The cooling fins didn't get cold. I'm thinking that the fridge was not working and the cold just migrated from the freezer section. I'm not really sure how these trailer fridges work. I'll have to look it up. The trailer awning was beat up pretty bad. I couldn't keep the horizontal stays clipped in and the tracks for the horizontals were beat up and they would pop out when sliding into position. Had to beat on them a bit (which, of course, won't help with their longevity.) Otherwise, it worked OK.

21 feet is too small. I can tow more, but not without a weight distributing hitch. Who buys a WD hitch for a rented trailer? I'm looking for a used one to keep costs down if I do this again. I think I got a line on one. Almost bought one two weeks ago, but could not confirm the weight capacity.

Unless I find a smoking deal on a used trailer, I think I'll rent a few more times to see whether this would be something we do regularly.

Most importantly, the wife had a good time.

Martian

And you got to learn a lot before buying

Maybe next time to with a different outlet to rent? Sounds like they don't take care of their equipment at all. I wouldn't want 5,000lbs behind me on the highway if I knew their "maintenance" was shoddy at best.

MichaelInCalifornia

We live in the middle of nowhere and there are no other options. Its a cheap rental too. $60/day or so, cheaper if you are active military, which is why its beat up.

Martian

You could send their insurance company a nice little anonymous tip about what they're renting out.

MichaelInCalifornia

What insurance company would that be?

Martian

I'd ask you that since you're there. I have no idea :-p

MichaelInCalifornia

You missed the part in the original post where I stated I rented from the Navy. No insurance unless we count on a small portion of everyone's income tax. Trailer even has a cute blue/white DoD license plate.

Martian

No, I saw that. That's how we rented ours, also. It's through MWR, right? There's at least a base commander or someone in charge of MWR you could drop a line to. Hey, your sailors are renting out equipment from your MWR and it's unsafe, blah blah blah...

brulaz

Sounds pretty typical. One of the first things most people do is buy a topper for their trailer mattress, or replace it altogether. And that's normal for the frig, they're not that fast or efficient. We fire it up the day before and fill it cold beer/pop/water from our house frig. They can usually maintain low temp but take forever to get there.

We've settled on ~28 ft with a slide-out for more space, and are pretty happy living in it for up to 8 weeks as long as the weather doesn't keep us in it all that time. There are many different layouts and sizes. May take a while to figure out what's best for you, and then the family situation can change and throw everything off ...

Sounds like you got your priorities right.