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Manual Garcia O'Kely
08-01-2008, 05:40 PM
OK, well, now we have about 20,000 miles on the trailer and Subaru combo, first was the spring trip to WI to retrieve and shakedown the combo, then the Alaska trip.

The Outback performed like a champ - it had nearly 70K miles on it when we left and it did not so much as hiccup the entire trip, in spite of some pretty awful conditions.

We were right at the load limit for the car - with the trailer tongue weight and the equipment and food in the car, it was right up there at maximum load.

Apart from the front end going out of alignment [given the roads it's no surprise, just a question of when], it weathered it all pretty smoothly.

And yielded a mileage on the Alaska trip of 19.7 mpg. This was the stock, 2.5 liter 4-cylinder motor, not the 3.0/6 or the new turbo.

IF I had the choice, though, i'd go with the turbo rather than the 6 - less weight and it takes up less room in the already stuffed engine compartment. Plus, I've had two turbo vehicles and both of them were both fun to drive and easy on fuel.

Be sure to check your manual before you buy however, our model with an automatic transmission is limited to 1,000 lbs. trailer weight, which is less than our little teardrop weighs.

I understand the newer cars have a slightly higher capacity.

With our 1,500 lb trailer plus the load in the car we were not the fastest thing on the road, although even at speed the combination was more than stable. The wide track trailer wheels and 14" rims make it a smooth rider at any sane road speed. Some steep hills required 3rd or even 2nd gear, but that was rare and most of the rest of the traffic is slowing down as well.

Stability even in slippery muddy conditions was always adequate, although we were obviously not racing anyone either.

Having the trailer brakes was what made it possible though, in my opinion.

k3mp
08-02-2008, 11:06 AM
I must have missed an earlier posting....did you tow a TT with a Subaru...

Richard Stouffer
08-02-2008, 01:02 PM
Even towing a small trailer, 19.7 mpg is fantastic mileage. Those kinds of numbers reinforce the wisdom of your choice of the trailer over a motorhome rental.

Manual Garcia O'Kely
08-02-2008, 02:43 PM
Even towing a small trailer, 19.7 mpg is fantastic mileage. Those kinds of numbers reinforce the wisdom of your choice of the trailer over a motorhome rental.

Well, as will no doubt be pointed out, we only did this for two months, but yes, I feel much better about the decision.

If you figure twice as much for an RV, I saved $3,166.49 on fuel, but you do have to offset that with the cost of the mileage on the car, but I can deal with that - I'm usually a fairly low mileage driver, so I can live with that.

The remainder of the fixed costs - camp sites, laundry [well, unless you have one of THOSE rigs...], food [OK, not ice, we bought an average of 1 bag of ice per day - from between $2 and $4.50 per bag.

Before anyone else tries this, keep in mind the low profile of the teardrop - I suspect even a Scamp, with it's higher box profile would be a challenge.

Besides, there must be some value to being the smallest rig on the road.