whichwaynow, as others have said, the empty weight of your trailer is only a small part of your towing weight. That doesn't include your options -- air conditioner, microware, fans, and the propane in your tanks or the water in your water tanks.
Add food, clothing, pots, pans, toiletries, etc. and you will be way over the 80% safety rule with any of the 20 footers.
I second the idea of looking at the Aliners and Chalets. They would still give you a hard-sided trailer at a lot less weight.
I ordered my 13' Scamp fiberglass trailer, supposedly 1200 lbs. I'm towing it with a 4 cly Saturn Vue. I know I have to "pack light." Getting e-brakes and a tranny cooler- told I should be okay! Anyone have any experience with this?
The tow rating of a Vue with the 2.4l engine is 1500lbs (3500lbs with the v6).
I have a Chevy Cobalt SS with the same 2.4l engine and I tow a 1,700lb (loaded)Aliner with mine. Of course the Scamp has more frontal area, but it's pretty aerodynamic too. Just keep your speed down, pack light, and you'll be fine.
There are 2 things I highly recommend for this engine/tranny. You already mentioned the tranny cooler - a must. The second is a good tow tune for both the engine control module and the transmission control module. Wester's Garage did mine - they're Ecotec specialists. It will feel like a completely different vehicle when they're done. They'll tune for more power, more MPG and super reliability. I averaged 22.7mpg towing my Aliner through the mountains on my last vacation! Just tell them your intended usage, any vehicle mods, (such as a header, exhaust, cold air intake, etc. - like I have) and they'll do the rest. I shipped them my computers overnight they tuned them the next day and overnighted them back.
If you don't want to be without your Vue for 3 days, they usually offer to exchange your units for a refundable core charge. If you choose this option, you will need to do a computer relearn procedure to adapt the new modules for your particular car. This step is unnecessary if you ship them your modules to tune.
Sunline Que, they are out of business but there are a new ones here and there. We love ours, but we are pretty sure it is out the door since we now have a 3 month old.
2006 Sunline 276SR
(Gone is the 2007 Sunline Que SE, and the 2006 Ainer)
2008 Ram 1500 QC 4x4 5.7L
2005 VW Passat TDI
2001 Jeep Wrangler
1975 Jeep CJ-6
You might have missed this one. Have a look at Taylor Coach travel trailers. They are situated outside Hamilton on Hwy #6. We did the big search ourselves trying to find a very lightweight trailer that would suit our Honda van - also rated for 3500lbs. We looked at what Taylor Coach had to offer and were very impressed. We finally decided on a used 12ft model, just to get our feet wet. I believe they offer a 19ft which has a dry weight of 1750 lbs and they will modify the interior design to suit. Their web is www.taylorcoach.com/ on very top click on "models" and you can see all the specs on what they have.
We have had 2 short trips in our little trailer so far and have been very happy with it. Ours came with fridge, sink, toilet/shower, stove, microwave, fantastic fan, queen bed/table & 2 awnings. It is a back entry design so I think it makes it easier to fit a lot in a small space!!
Good luck with your search. We are happy to have found this forum, have picked up a lot of good information for a couple of older tenters that are newbies to trailer life!
We went from a pop-up to a Jayco Ex-port 17c and tow it w/ a KIA Sedona about three months ago which has a towing capacity of 3500# with no problems here in the mountains. The TT has the fold-down queen beds on each end which are easy to set up. It has toilet, micrwave, 3-burner cooktop, oven, large refrig. The dry wt. is 2950#.
We are very happy with it.
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