My wife and I are aiming to break all of our belongings down as minimally as we can in order to be able to live on the road for a while (for a multitude of reasons.)
Within our budget and needs, we’ve decided on a NuCamp 320 teardrop trailer, which clocks in at ~2k lbs unloaded, 3,000 lbs max load. Her, myself and two pups all weigh 300 lbs together. Optimally, we’d like to start with just the vehicle first, and trailer later on as an upgrade.
We were initially looking at a toyota 4runner to pair with this given the advertised 1550 lbs of potential cargo capacity and tongue weight of the hitch. However in practicality, we saw no more than a max capacity of 880 lbs period in the door jams at the dealerships. Even in the off-road models, which just seemed… asinine? Using some calculators, that would seemingly give us very little-to-no wiggle room for any proper amount of livable necessities before we cross that threshold and run into myriad issues.
Now we’re wondering how people actually do it? Are we overthinking it? We did love the vehicle, but these numbers are waaay too close for comfort, seeing as most advice we find online generally recommends not crossing ~80% of the big number. We’ve begun looking at land cruisers as an alternative, but the way the market is right now, and the difference in cost for both new and used, it’s looking more and more infeasible. Don’t even get me started on the GX550.
Have you been through a similar situation? Any advice would be appreciated! 🤍
Edit for future visitors:
We ended up settling on a ‘22 Toyota Highlander XLE, and honestly we’re pretty excited about it! Even with an electric tow hitch, it clocks in at a healthy 1,390 lbs of cargo capacity, with even more room in the back to camp out of. That number will go down a decent bit with some rooftop storage, and maybe back up a little bit if we can (viably) take out the third row seating. But it more than suits our current needs as it stands 🥳
Thanks to the general good advice in the comments, we’ve put the idea of an RV at all on ice, transitioning to a more all-inclusive portable action plan. There were too many ways things could go wrong lugging one at such long distances for the timeframe of our trips. However, we’re really happy to be able to upgrade to that setup at any time we’d like to!
I can expound a bit:
We’ve chosen this one because of its total weight, the solar panels, and the shower and bed. It doesn’t need to be big, it just needs to work with what we can get. It’s the smallest comprehensive package we’ve found, although I’m sure there’s plenty of other brands we haven’t come across yet. We’re aware it’s at a premium, and have decided the benefits outweigh the extra cost.
The first thing we’ll do with it is take it up into Canada to do some university tours. Optimally we’ll be able to dry camp at worst in between visits. If we like it, we may very well just keep doing that instead of renewing our soon-ending lease. We already practically live out of a suitcase anyways, the apartment is just a big storage for all our junk.
Did you have any specific SUV suggestions that would work alternatively? None seemed (at first) so reliable as a Toyota. Again, we’re exhausting all SUV options before considering trucks.
Get a Tundra with a bed cover. You ain’t finding a good SUV that can reliable tow two peoples’ worth of stuff in a full caravan
You’ve no experience but assign merit to more than an ideology of comprehensive amenities.
The learning trip is international, urban, and boondock all at once.
But, the “junk” is still present.
Suburban 3/4 ton with the 6.0L and not VVT 2019. If you want reliability then the Cummins 6.7L diesel isn’t for you because you’re too focused on externally-sourced convenience. The GM 3.0L diesel isn’t for you because it’s too new for reliability studies. Your only choice is a Tundra.