Martinjmpr
Wiffleball Batter
Wife and I are on year 5 with our R-Pod 179 Hood River Edition trailer. Overall it's been a very good trailer for us. It's our first "full featured" trailer (i.e the first one that has an inside bathroom!) and it's been a learning experience for us.
We camp a LOT considering that I still work full time. Last year we took 16 camping trips, mostly in Colorado but also went out of state to Red River, NM, Medicine Lodge, KS and Custer State Park, SD.
After our crazy year of camping we decided to "pare back" our trips but we are still scheduled for at least 9 trips between now and October.
Anyway, as much as we like the Pod, we are starting to think the size and configuration are a bit limiting for us. Also, getting older we have new "challenges" that we have to consider. We like to carry a lot of "stuff" with us when we camp (kayaks, bicycles, etc) and so I've started casually looking around to what we might like to "upgrade" to, especially given that I will be fully retired in less than 2 years and we hope to be able to travel for longer periods of time.
Requirement no. 1 for me is that I don't want to have to upgrade my tow vehicle. Currently towing with a 2018 F-150, 3.5 EB with the towing package. Now, the specs will say it's "Rated" to pull 9,000 or 10,000lbs or some such nonsense, but I take that with a grain of salt: IMO if you're pulling that much weight, you need a 3/4 or 1 ton truck, I don't care what the manufacturer says.
I also note that when they say you "can" tow, say, 9,000lbs they probably mean "you can tow 9,000lbs on a flat midwestern road at 400' above sea level" and not "you can tow 9,000lbs through Eisenhower Tunnel climbing from 6,000' to 11,000' above sea level on a regular basis." And seeing as how we live in Colorado, we go over a 10,500'+ pass pretty much every time we go camping.
My personal desire is that I'd like to stay under 5,000lbs loaded (that includes water and cargo.) That gives us a nice margin of safety. Shopping around, I was quite surprised to find that there is a new crop of small toy hauler trailers on the market. I had always thought of toy haulers as big, heavy trailers and crossed them off the list.
There are a number of things I like about the toy hauler design. With the rear "garage" and typically a fold-up couch in the cargo area, loading the trailer would be a breeze. Currently we have to carry everything into the trailer and then make an abrupt 90 turn to put stuff in. Also the "hallway" is pretty narrow, so putting stuff on the floor makes it difficult to move around.
Biggest hassle are the electric bikes. We got Lectric folding E-bikes in 2020 and while we like them, they are heavy, cumbersome pigs to haul. They weigh around 65lbs each and while we have tried carrying them in the trailer, it was too much hassle so instead we carry them in the back of the truck. They take up a huge amount of space and hoisting them up from the ground is about the least fun thing I do on each trip.
With a toy-hauler, we could ditch the folding bikes and get real, full sized E-bikes and just roll them into the "garage" and strap them down. It would also make it possible for me to bring a small dual sport motorcycle on some of our trips, which I've wanted to do for a while.
They seem to be well equipped and often come ready for solar power. I've also noticed that many trailers nowadays have ditched the old propane/electric absorption fridge and gone to a straight 12v electric compressor fridge. In terms of simplicity, I kind of like that idea (the 3 way absorption fridge in our Pod works fine, but I'm always dreading the moment when some component might fail when we're on the road.)
So I'm posting this up to see if anyone here has one of these newer toy hauler trailers? And if so, how does it work for you?
We camp a LOT considering that I still work full time. Last year we took 16 camping trips, mostly in Colorado but also went out of state to Red River, NM, Medicine Lodge, KS and Custer State Park, SD.
After our crazy year of camping we decided to "pare back" our trips but we are still scheduled for at least 9 trips between now and October.
Anyway, as much as we like the Pod, we are starting to think the size and configuration are a bit limiting for us. Also, getting older we have new "challenges" that we have to consider. We like to carry a lot of "stuff" with us when we camp (kayaks, bicycles, etc) and so I've started casually looking around to what we might like to "upgrade" to, especially given that I will be fully retired in less than 2 years and we hope to be able to travel for longer periods of time.
Requirement no. 1 for me is that I don't want to have to upgrade my tow vehicle. Currently towing with a 2018 F-150, 3.5 EB with the towing package. Now, the specs will say it's "Rated" to pull 9,000 or 10,000lbs or some such nonsense, but I take that with a grain of salt: IMO if you're pulling that much weight, you need a 3/4 or 1 ton truck, I don't care what the manufacturer says.
I also note that when they say you "can" tow, say, 9,000lbs they probably mean "you can tow 9,000lbs on a flat midwestern road at 400' above sea level" and not "you can tow 9,000lbs through Eisenhower Tunnel climbing from 6,000' to 11,000' above sea level on a regular basis." And seeing as how we live in Colorado, we go over a 10,500'+ pass pretty much every time we go camping.
My personal desire is that I'd like to stay under 5,000lbs loaded (that includes water and cargo.) That gives us a nice margin of safety. Shopping around, I was quite surprised to find that there is a new crop of small toy hauler trailers on the market. I had always thought of toy haulers as big, heavy trailers and crossed them off the list.
There are a number of things I like about the toy hauler design. With the rear "garage" and typically a fold-up couch in the cargo area, loading the trailer would be a breeze. Currently we have to carry everything into the trailer and then make an abrupt 90 turn to put stuff in. Also the "hallway" is pretty narrow, so putting stuff on the floor makes it difficult to move around.
Biggest hassle are the electric bikes. We got Lectric folding E-bikes in 2020 and while we like them, they are heavy, cumbersome pigs to haul. They weigh around 65lbs each and while we have tried carrying them in the trailer, it was too much hassle so instead we carry them in the back of the truck. They take up a huge amount of space and hoisting them up from the ground is about the least fun thing I do on each trip.
With a toy-hauler, we could ditch the folding bikes and get real, full sized E-bikes and just roll them into the "garage" and strap them down. It would also make it possible for me to bring a small dual sport motorcycle on some of our trips, which I've wanted to do for a while.
They seem to be well equipped and often come ready for solar power. I've also noticed that many trailers nowadays have ditched the old propane/electric absorption fridge and gone to a straight 12v electric compressor fridge. In terms of simplicity, I kind of like that idea (the 3 way absorption fridge in our Pod works fine, but I'm always dreading the moment when some component might fail when we're on the road.)
So I'm posting this up to see if anyone here has one of these newer toy hauler trailers? And if so, how does it work for you?
