Tow Vehicle for Micro Minnie 2108TD

[Bob3940]

Hi ,,this is my first visit here,,,very interesting forum, I am about to purchase the 2108TD,,dry 4,142,,I would like to know your opinion,,I have a Nissan Frontier pro 4 X 2023 full load,,,with a payload of 1080 available and 6,450 for towing,,if I add 1,000lbs of load on the trailer,,I wondering if it is not too tight for the engine and the transmission, we are two adults and a dog so not too much load in the vehicle, the nissan has a Tow mode, nine speed, 310 horsepower and 280lbs torque....thanks

[mfouts]

I think you should be fine, the 9 speed and tow mode will help a bunch. Will probably want a weight distribution hitch and be aware how much weight added to bed and tongue of trailer. You should be running a tongue weight of about 500 lbs so would have to watch how much adding to truck. It is interesting how the added weight kind of creeps up on you.

[Marine359]

I dunno Bob, but I think you’ll be over the limit on rear GAWR and GVWR of your Frontier.
I am towing a 2108ds with a 3.6L gas Canyon which has a payload of 1,340#. It’s just two of us and a cat. We load light stuff in truck bed and heavy stuff in the pass thru. With full propane tanks and full fresh water, our tongue weight is almost 600#. When we weigh at Cat scale, we are only 75# under the truck’s GVWR. We use a WDH. Otherwise we would also be over the limit on rear GAWR. I would never recommend towing beyond the limits, but maybe if you have a very light load in truck bed, and travel with fresh water 1/2 full, and not put too much weight in pass through, you could get tongue weight down to 500#. I would highly recommend you CAT scale your truck empty with just driver and full tank of gas. Then weigh everything you’ll typically carry in the truck on a camping trip with a bathroom scale. This is what we did, and we found we had to shed over 100# from the truck load in order to stay under GVWR. Don’t worry about how much weight you add to trailer. It’s really hard to add more than 700lbs to a micro Minnie.

[Bob3940]

Thanks guys for your comments ,,really appreciate ,,but I have another concern about towing stuff ,,,is it thrue about the fact that it's better to tow at 80% from the total capacity ,,ex: My capacity is 6,400 ,,so that mean I will check for 5,120lbs ...make sens or not ? ,,thanks

[Marine359]

Bob,
IMHO:
Manufacturers set their specs as “do not exceed”. So it’s perfectly safe to go right up to the GAWR and GVWR of the tow vehicle. Of corse, I’m just talking tow weight. You should ensure that your tranny and motor can pull 5,000lbs or more up a long steep grade and slow it down on the downhill side without the need for a lot of braking. Of corse, it’s better to be at 80% of capacity, but not necessary. Anything below 100% is good.

[Ray,IN]

Use this online towing calculator to remove all the salesmans hype, chest-beating from other owners, advertising blather. It will accurately and impartally match a trailer and tow vehicle.
IMO it is the best calculator on the web.
https://changingears.com/weight-calculators/

[Bughawk]

I have a 2018 model year 2108DS and I tow it with my Ford F150 and not had any problems. I do have a weight distributing hitch which I believe helps quite a bit. My truck has the 2.7L EcoBoost and it does a good job. My towing mpg is 14 to 16 mpg. Given the configuration of my truck the maximum towing capacity is 8,000 lbs. I have never weighed the camper fully loaded but I estimate the weight to be well below the 8,000 lbs, somewhere around 5 to 6,000, but that is a guess. The tongue weight is another consideration. I believe the tongue weight of my camper is somewhere between 425 to 500 lbs. That is right about the max for the tongue weight for my truck. The weight distributing hitch helps to better distribute the weight and get some of the weight off the rear axles of the truck.

From what I have learned about towing a camper, it is not just what the tow vehicle and pull it is how much the tow vehicle can stop. You have to remember when towing there is a lot of weight behind you and when you put on the brakes it needs to stop as well as the tow vehicle.

I hope this helps. Happy camping

[Marine359]

A 1/2 ton or midsize truck cannot stop a 5,000lb or greater trailer by itself, especially if it’s a downhill or emergency stop. Just sayin, I got a big surprise when I lost my trailer brakes jus before I was about to traverse the Blue Ridge Mountain Summit. Just getting off the interstate with no trailer brakes was a choir. Seems my 7-pin connection had corroded just enough that l didn’t have trailer braking. Very scary. Found some locals who sprayed some electronic spray stuff on 5he 7-pin and immediately fixed the problem. Recommend folks regularly check their 7-pin and brake controller. And, maybe spray some of this stuff on the contacts:
CRC 05103 QD Electronic Cleaner -11 Wt Oz https://a.co/d/jgDVhn8

[Bughawk]

Thanks for the heads up. I usually check all the connections but I will double my efforts. I also have my camper inspected every year, which is required in PA and one thing they check are the brakes and all of the connections.

BTW - I once lost my connection to the camper when the cable was not secured properly and fell down onto the road. As it dragged along it eventually broke. It was very disturbing to see the message that the trailer was not connected pop up on my dashboard…. I was not going very far with no big hills so I made it back home OK. I learned from that experience to be sure that the cable is properly secured.

Happy Camping

[k.darwin]

Assuming you don't go over GVWR, GAWR, GCWR ... (do the math)

Whether it is good or not depends on your terrain and expectations.

My story - Towing a 2108 with a Tacoma V-6. The taco is rated to tow 6600 lbs. Trailer loaded weighed less than 5000 with tongue weight of about 460 lbs.

It towed very nicely 60-65 mph around home with the rolling hills and relatively small mountains of western Oregon.

We took a trip to the Grand Canyon and I had to pull at in real mountains and at altitude. My 6600 lb tow rated truck was struggling up hill. Third gear, foot to the floor, engine screaming at 4500 rpms, I'm at 45 mph and losing speed as the semi's are passing me.

Not long after we swapped the Toyota for a diesel Colorado which not only weighted more but had better torque at lower RPMs. It was even better for local runs but we never got back to the real mountains to see how much better it was.