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!
You cannot upgrade your towing/payload beyond what is stated on the sticker. That’s a legal mandate and if you’re pulled over and checked you will be cited.
Engine displacement doesn’t have a lot to do with towing. Coolers, braking, frame, and electrical control systems all play a factor as do your suspension (axel, shocks, springs and any control arms/trailing arms) and steering systems.
The 4Runner is an old platform, but it’s important to remember that Toyota probably didn’t want to equip it and rate it beyond the current payload due to people being able to step up to a Tacoma which is largely the same but made for towing and hauling more than a 4Runner. Even though the Tacoma also isn’t the best at towing and payload.
Thank you for chiming in, these are the concerns we’re weighing right now.
Unfortunately the dealership was a bit clueless about the difference between Towing and Cargo capacity.
From our own researching the owners manuals in the 4runner lineup, the absolute best we can get is 1165 lbs cargo with a very specific year & trim. That’s a little better than 880, but a far cry from comfortably workable.