Towing a 16ft Airstream with a 4runner? Other alternatives?

[silentwinter]

I'm considering the idea of living out of a 16 ft Airstream and need something to tow it. The vehicle must also be a good trailhead access car -- currently I have a Wilderness Outback and it's perfect for my needs (but of course cannot tow that well.)

The 16 ft Bambi and Basecamp are both 3500 lbs GVWR, 3000/2650 base weight respectively.

It sounds like Basecamp can be done with a 4runner (Tails of Wanderlust youtube). I've even seen 20 ft trailers towed by 4runners (and not necessarily the v8 version), though I don't know how well that works over mountain passes.

But, is it efficient or recommended, particularly in places like the Rockies or Colorado?

The nice thing about a 4runner is, when I inevitably decide to settle down again, I can keep it as my only vehicle. It's great for trailhead access / roof tent adventures, and still not *too* big.
On the other hand, perhaps it's worth it to just get something just for towing since this would be my life for the foreseeable future. Something with more towing capacity would also open up the possibility of switching to a 20ft trailer in the future.

I'm open to other ideas as well, perhaps a Tundra. Ideal would be -- can tow a 20 ft (5000 GVWR) trailer without issues, no/minimal leather interior, under 50k, smaller is better, and nice interior design.
That last one is very subjective but I like the Tundra's interior. Not a rule but am not the biggest fan of the interiors in American cars -- prefer Japanese or European. Willing to compromise if needed.

 

[Porkchopexpress]

The 4runner would work well for your purpose. There is no efficient way to tow other than diesel or trying to limit the frontal area of you trailer and airstream does pretty well in that regard.

I posted my 4runner towing experience here:

Towing max capacity with a 5th Gen 4runner

I just moved about 1k miles towing a 12 foot uhaul loaded at max capacity (about 5k, maybe a little over) using a 5th gen 4runner and thought I would post the performance since I couldn't find anything before my trip. -Acceleration was decent but you could definitely feel the weight. Especially...

expeditionportal.com

 

[jmodz]

I haven't towed with a 4Runner before. I owned a 27ft Airstream and towed it with both a F-150 and a Tundra. Airstream's are heavy with a lot of tongue weight so you'll want to watch your payload, but theoretically you should be within the weight capacity of the 4Runner.

If you are interested in alternatives you could consider a Land Rover Discovery with the diesel engine. They are rated to tow above 7000lbs and have a payload close to 2000lbs. They are also very capable off-road and the diesel engine has more power than a 4Runner for mountain passes and would be more fuel efficient both towing and around town.

 

[calicamper]

Living out of it? Yeah 4runner way too light in the shorts for the Airstream tongue weight and gear you’ll have in the 4runner. Also locking secure garage space for stuff will be really important if its your home. If it were me no doubt full sized pickup truck.

 

[Buddha.]

Towing 5,000 full time I think you’d be happier with a half ton.
You’re gonna get 10-15 mpg regardless of tow vehicle and the smaller fuel tank of the mid size can be a hassle.

 

[nickw]

I had a 20' AS we towed with my 2019 Ranger - it was adequate, not great. Biggest limiting factor was fuel range (18 gallons) whilst getting sub 12 mpg and braking, we were up in the mountain on a gravel road and descending was....interesting to say the least.



As others have pointed out payload is typically your biggest limiting factor, AS can be tongue heavy, I bet it's probably ~500ish, so you can do the math relative to your 4runner's specced max payload. On a stock rig, solo, without armor, gear, gas cans, etc you are probably just fine if you stick to paved road RV's can drive on, any mountain / gravel passes would give me weak knees.

If you have ANY inclination of getting a bigger trailer best size up the tow rig now, we just bought a 25' AS and had to sell the Ranger and I made the jump to a full size 3/4 ton Dodge w/Hemi....makes the towing experience 10x less stressful.



More truck than you need is the name of the game, especially ones with big gas tanks.

 

[Buddha.]

I had a 20' AS we towed with my 2019 Ranger - it was adequate, not great. Biggest limiting factor was fuel range (18 gallons) whilst getting sub 12 mpg and braking, we were up in the mountain on a gravel road and descending was....interesting to say the least.

View attachment 746916

As others have pointed out payload is typically your biggest limiting factor, AS can be tongue heavy, I bet it's probably ~500ish, so you can do the math relative to your 4runner's specced max payload. On a stock rig, solo, without armor, gear, gas cans, etc you are probably just fine if you stick to paved road RV's can drive on, any mountain / gravel passes would give me weak knees.

If you have ANY inclination of getting a bigger trailer best size up the tow rig now, we just bought a 25' AS and had to sell the Ranger and I made the jump to a full size 3/4 ton Dodge w/Hemi....makes the towing experience 10x less stressful.

View attachment 746915

More truck than you need is the name of the game, especially ones with big gas tanks.

Nice looking setup, what mpg do you get towing with the ram?

 

[nickw]

Nice looking setup, what mpg do you get towing with the ram?

I just picked up trailer - 10.7 with net elevation gain of 3500'.....I typically get ~15 unloaded on same trip. I'm guessing 11-13 on average longer trips (ish)....all via lie-o-meter.....FWIW

 

[calicamper]

Just talking with a fellow Expedition XL heavy tow guy who has a Airstream 23D 6000lb max gross trailer. He is running into cases where family of 4 can max his rear axle load rating depending on his gear being packed along. His load ratings are 9300 max trailer and 1700lb max vehicle. No mods add load capacity in fact most vehicle modifications reduce your effective load capacity. A stock 4runner empty will be near max tongue limit with a loaded for living out of Airstream.

All Airstreams are tongue heavy typically more than you expect. The mid sized SUVs are all way way way too light in the shorts for extended ie living out of trailer hauling especially ones that will 100% be heavy tongue weight.

Also as mentioned fuel tank size becomes a huge pain with midsized rigs even if your a light packer and only typically doing occasional trailer trips. Lots of folks who don’t run into load weight issues still end up moving to a full sized because 120-150 mile towing range gets old really fast especially out west. Small fuel tanks suck when towing draggy trailers ?

 

[ripperj]

Are you dead set on the Air Stream? Sounds like you will be in a place with a real winter. Airstreams are expensive , heavy(as noted above) and most would say they don’t do that well in the real cold.

I was setup next to a family here in CT a couple years back for about a month. It was only Oct/Nov(so not super cold), and the guy was already shifting from these big airbag things that he had stuffed under their camper to some homemade pink foam board to help keep the 30 degree air out from under the camper.

I do get that AS has some cool/nostalgia factor and that matters if you have to spend a lot of $$$

I’m considering jumping from my Northstar truck camper(which does fantastic in the cold) to a travel trailer. I’m focused now on Lance and Oliver, both do well in the cold. Lance had a couple smaller units that may be perfect size for you.


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[nickw]

Are you dead set on the Air Stream? Sounds like you will be in a place with a real winter. Airstreams are expensive , heavy(as noted above) and most would say they don’t do that well in the real cold.

I was setup next to a family here in CT a couple years back for about a month. It was only Oct/Nov(so not super cold), and the guy was already shifting from these big airbag things that he had stuffed under their camper to some homemade pink foam board to help keep the 30 degree air out from under the camper.

I do get that AS has some cool/nostalgia factor and that matters if you have to spend a lot of $$$

I’m considering jumping from my Northstar truck camper(which does fantastic in the cold) to a travel trailer. I’m focused now on Lance and Oliver, both do well in the cold. Lance had a couple smaller units that may be perfect size for you.


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One of the big advantages of Airstreams is their resale, they are $$$ up front but don't lose nearly as much as the typically cheaper builds and actual cost of ownership is lower than most...in fact our 2019 20' Bambi we sold for $5k more than we bought it for after 3 years and 10k miles, things are screwy these days, but even historically they've maintained resale. That math is dependent on individual economics but for many it's a big factor!

We had our up at Glacier and N Idaho, it got down into the low 30's at night, no problems for us....I can see long term and/or extreme cold may be an issue....but towing a trailer into those conditions on slick road for a short trip wouldn't be advisable or recommended, but I guess you'd get into a situation like that if you were wintering someplace.

 

[N.Penley]

We bought a 2019 4 runner new and absolutely hated it. It didn’t like towing a 4x8 utility trailer with a 1200 lb lawnmower on it. With that little tongue weight the steering was scary light on wet roads. They also have shockingly little room inside for passengers and cargo. Many people love them but we were not impressed. If you plan to tow much expect single digit fuel mileage and sluggish handling. There is no way I would feel comfortable with a 16’ anything in tow for extended trips.

 

[calicamper]

Are you dead set on the Air Stream? Sounds like you will be in a place with a real winter. Airstreams are expensive , heavy(as noted above) and most would say they don’t do that well in the real cold.

I was setup next to a family here in CT a couple years back for about a month. It was only Oct/Nov(so not super cold), and the guy was already shifting from these big airbag things that he had stuffed under their camper to some homemade pink foam board to help keep the 30 degree air out from under the camper.

I do get that AS has some cool/nostalgia factor and that matters if you have to spend a lot of $$$

I’m considering jumping from my Northstar truck camper(which does fantastic in the cold) to a travel trailer. I’m focused now on Lance and Oliver, both do well in the cold. Lance had a couple smaller units that may be perfect size for you.


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Lance is probably the worst trash I have seen. All of them have delaminated siding from leaks. Oliver is a fiberglass bucket on a trailer frame. Totally different type of trailer.

Oliver, Escape out of BC and Casita all are fiberglass buckets on a trailer frame. Oliver puts a inner liner in there chopper gun fiber buckets to basically hide the fact they aren’t any different than Escape and charge way more $. If you want a bucket on a frame Escape campers out of BC Canada are the best value. If you want tiny and cheap Casita out of Texas is the best option.

Oliver is just expensive and good marketing BS.?

Oh and if you have been watching the Travel Trailer market since just before COViD. I was shopping ideas then. And watching it now as I skipped participating in COVID RV stupidity.

Today there are more used Airstream trailers listed for sale than pre COVID. Absolutely nothing is moving except the occasional buyer who definitely hasn’t gotten the memo.
Another 4 months and the RV industry is going to be hemorrhaging units at deep discounts forced by lenders who do not want old drastically devalued inventory on the books.

The secondary home areas I have been shopping definitely are showing sizable inventory increases and zero buyers. Prices are starting to fall but are trailing and not pacing with buyer interest which has cratered.

I’m sitting on the side with cash waiting for another $400-600k to get shed off the over priced COVID madness. Also a big growing factor is city policy moving to long term only rentals in Residential zoned areas meaning the buyers who think Airbnb short term rental income can offset paying a inflated price no longer works in many 2nd home locations. That factor has taken 2-3 years in a couple of spots to effectively cool the short term rental income idea of buyers and start to drive lower prices and even sales of properties due to inability to find that rental income to cover the over paid purchase prices etc.

 

[Dougnuts]

Tails of Wanderlust seemed pretty unhappy with how well her 4Runner performed in the hills. I also vote for a half ton for your intended usage.

 

[ducktapeguy]

I've towed with a GX460, which is essentially a V8 4runner. If I was planning on towing more than a few times a year, I'd probably get something bigger. Even though it's technically rated for 6500 lbs, you wouldn't want to tow anywhere close to that for long periods of time. Your mileage will suck, it will wear out the drivetrain and brakes a lot faster, and it'll generally just suck driving.