Quote:
Originally Posted by scapegoatwax
I am taking for granted that most trucks designed for moving or hauling cargo can hold the weight of a camper conversion. That's the main concern, it would be nice if I could also tow a vehicle behind it. Nothing huge, likely an electric car or a hybrid.
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depends on the truck...moderately loaded we tip the scale at a
svelte 36k lbs...plenty others here are closer to 50k lbs.
pulling a toad doesnt necessarily add a lot of tongue weight, but you need the torque and brakes that a larger truck provides.
obviously for comfort (and peace of mind) you don't want to max out the capacity of your truck - you want plenty of margin for safety and performance, at the end of the day not having the right truck will make life pretty miserable, if not dangerous.
nothing scares me more than to see a 350/3500 pickup truck pulling a giant (20k lbs plus) 5er....just cause the mfg says you can do it doesnt mean you should.
Quote:
Originally Posted by scapegoatwax
I have only ever driven an automatic so I have a strong preference for it. I'm not opposed to a manual, but every other aspect of the vehicle would have to be an excellent value to justify me adding that level of difficulty/learning/initial discomfort.
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its easy enough to learn to drive a stick - and ill tell you owning a toad that has a manual transmission is a lot easier to tow than one that doesnt.
Since you mentioned towing a hybrid - I have a friend that towed his front wheel drive Prius via a tow dolly and he had all kinds of issues (check engine light turned on, ABS wouldn't function, traction control problems & other issues)... This friend of mine is a hell of (shop owning / professional) mechanic and had quite a time getting the car back to "normal" after a short (60 mile) camping trip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by scapegoatwax
Fuel economy is not tremendously important, but it's obviously appreciated. I don't intend to move around a lot, my expectation is to find places I like and hang out for a while. Probably easily more than a month between moves--especially far ones.
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plan for 6 mpg (potentially less if youre using a gas engine truck)....when/if you get 8+ mpg you'll be celebrating...again its dependent on the truck.