Newbie Wannabee

I think I am over thinking this (not to mention the electric dollies are expensive and I am not sure they are altogether safe on an incline.) With practice I should be able to get it into a two stall garage using the car and then manuever it once there. Just need to clean up the garage a bit to give me a wider target.

 

Joan,
We are 2 senior women and the curve of our street and a culdesac across the street make backing up difficult so we drive into our driveway - unhitch and one of us stears from the front of the tear and the other lightly pushes and we just manuver it around the car and right in the garage. It is amazingly simple, easy and very fast. Our driveway is fairly flat but we have the chock blocks ready just in case we have any rolling.

 

It is good to hear that the trailer is light enough to manuever by hand. My issue is that although my driveway is short, it does have an incline. I am not sure of the grade but it is enough so that I don't think I could safely pull/push the trailer up it by hand. Worse case scenario is I leave it out front until I figure it out, to heck with the HOA.

 

Joan, we've found that a teardrop's cute factor seems to help people bend the rules a bit. We had two tears in a tent site and the ranger said only one trailer was normally allowed. I told him they were just cute tents and wheels and he had no problem agreeing. Hopefully that will work on your HOA too.

 

I rented the 560 this past weekend. Prior to this weekend I had never pulled or backed up a trailer. Stayed at Frontenac State Park near Lake City, Mn. The camp host was extremely helpful in backing up the trailer. Knew how to set the trailer inplace because of previous 5th wheel experience in prior life. Failed miserably in backing the Dodge Dakota to hook up to leave. The 560 can be manuvered to the hitch, even when the wheel chocks are in place. I am sure manually moving the trailer will be even easier without the wheel chocks in place! Know darn well that I am not the first person who has found additional muscle power with wheel chocks in place.

As Cory says I have overkill for a tow vehicle. I was able to travel on the interstate at highway speeds, in overdrive, with cruise on. Pulls like a dream. Very pleased the CI is the same width as the TV.

Jean

 

Well I went today to Camping World to find out how much it would cost to have a brake controller installed (and to do a little window shopping.) The brake controller won't be cheap. Just need to add that to the cost of ownership.

However, the service guy was not all that encouraging about towing anything with a Subaru Forester. 'Just don't tow anywhere you can't walk home from if you break down.' Talk about trampling on my dream. I know he was trying to be helpful...

I know that some Camp-inn owners tow with a Forester. I understand that it is not going to be winning any races going up hills here in Oregon. But can it still be done...?

I still have some time before I am going to be able to purchase a trailer. Any words of encouragement to keep the dream alive would be appreciated.

Thanks for listening.

 

We have a 2009 Subaru Forester. It is 4 cyl automatic. We have had NO problems at all. We took the 550 teardrop to Lake Sabrina at over 8,000 feet west of Bishop, CA. There a long stretch of steep grade -yes we slowed down, but, so did everyone else!
At Camping World, the norm is a 30' trailer with all the bells and whistles -and it weighs several tons! They expect diesel pickups to be the tow vehicles! Teardrops are NOT on their radar! The weight of a tear is well WITHIN 2500 lbs recommended weight for a Forester to tow -its why we got the Forester instead of a Honda CR-V
We took towed our teardrop from SO cal to Lincoln City, OR this summer on a 20 day trip -no problems! It handles great!
I went to a trailer shop that specializes is trailers and hitches. They did a great job, and we have been very happy.
KEEP DREAMING -it will work!
Eileen

 

Joan,

That would be a bummer to have someone rain on your parade like that. I'm sure he "thought" he was being helpful. Most likely, he didn't realize that you would be towing such a lightweight trailer.

Subaru's, both Outbacks & Foresters, are one of the more popular tow vehicles for our customers. I'm sure Cary could probably even give you percentages of Camp-Inn Subaru owners. It is because they have received such good reports all around, especially in the area of towing, that Craig & I decided to purchase one to replace our tired tow vehicle.

Our 2004 Outback (4cyl) has a 2,000lb tow rating, which is way more than what our 550 Ultra weighs, when loaded. Our 6cyl Buick Park Avenue only has a 1,500lb rating. We took the Outback on it's maiden voyage to the IRG this summer - from Wisconsin to California, nearly 6,000 miles round trip. Not only did it perform without any trouble, it handled the many mountain passes with relative ease. We are thrilled with its performance.

I would think the Forester could be expected to perform in a similar fashion. I'm sure some Forester owners will be more than happy to share their thoughts & experiences.

Don't be discouraged!

 

Thanks Eileen and Betsey!

I explained about the weight of the teardrop but he still didn't think it could be done. I had done the research regarding towing with a forester and was comfortable with it. I should not have let this guy deflate me.

I was just on the Forester forum and they confirm what you said. I will shop around regarding a trailer shop.

Thanks again. The dream lives on.

Joan

 

Joan, We tow with an '02 Forester. It is standard 5 speed. After the initial feel of it being back there, you forget about it. I echo the earlier sentiment about Camping World. To them, size matters. If it is big it must be better. Keep hope alive.
Steve

 

Thanks Steve. Since I have never towed before, any tips on towing with a manual transmission?

 

Joan,

Keep in in mind to the Camping World guys are really just used to seeing BIG stuff every day making their view a bit scaled differently. Can't really blame them for scratching their head and thinking your car seemed out of place for towing when they look at 1 ton duallys all day.

Here is an interesting twist though. With trailer brakes your car has what for a tow rating? 2,400lb? Let's say all loaded up you are at 1,600lb for the teardrop with all your gear (just a guess guys). That is 66% of the tow rating. Now, the big 1 ton trucks will have somewhere in the 12,000-16,000lb tow rating depending on year and model. I had a customer who at one time was towing a 17,000lb camper behind one of these. I suspect this is pretty typical but that is still exceeding the tow rating. So, let's say the camper weighs 12,000lb and the truck has a 14,000lb tow rating. That is 86% of the tow rating. Which is safer?

When looking up tow ratings for trucks for this I found an interesting list. Edmunds top 10 tow vehicles. Guess what made the list, yup, a Subaru.
http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/top10/102426/article.html

Cary

 

Joan, we tow with a 2006 Subaru Tribeca. We had the break controller installed for a total of $400 (parts and labor).

I used to tow a 26' Nash trailer with a 97 GMC Suburban (350 Vortec engine). I hated towing that big trailer with a passion. Nothing was easy, from hooking up the anti-sway bars, towing down the highway with big trucks causing such heavy side drift, to climbing the mountains and watching your speedometer slow down and the fuel gage rapidly accelerate, to arriving at the destination and backing into a site. It was sheer misery for me. I never thought I would own another trailer.

Our little Camp-Inn has made towing a dream. You really don't notice it. I enjoy passing the "big trailers" on the mountain passes (drop into 3rd and get the tachometer up around 4000 rpm) it's a piece of cake. You'll cruise by them a 50+ mph and your little Subaru won't break a sweat.

With a little practice, backing up isn't graceful but definitely do-able without a lot of grief. (I'm still trying to master the slippery little devil).

 

Thank you Cary and Jorge (George). Prior to last weekend, I was very comfortable with the idea of towing with the forester. (Not burning my clutch when backing up still weighs on my mind.) My excursion to Camping World just threw me for a loop. Thanks to everyone's comments, I have regained my composure and will happily march on.

I am going to take Eileen's advice and find a shop that specializes in trailers and brakes.

Thanks again.

 

Joan,

Backing up is not an issue. Just keep the rpms down and play the clutch. You don't need 3 G's rpm and you won't burn the clutch if you can do it in less than 30 minutes. A couple/three hundred rpms above idle is all you need.

Hilditch

 

I want to thank Eileen, Betsey and Cary. I went to two trailer shops today and they did not look at me like I was crazy for wanting to tow with a Forester. Matter of fact, one of them was surprised that the forester was only rated to tow 2400 lbs.

Got quotes on getting the hitch and controller installed. Much less than what Camping World said.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

 

In Rochester there is a great welder who makes his own hitches. Beautiful craftmanship and very reasonable price. He does complete installs from creating the hitch, wiring, and brake controllers. Maybe you can seek out a welder.

Jean

 

Joan,
Glad to hear it is coming together! 2 years ago, we were where you were! It was a learning curve of sorting out what we needed and where to get it. Luckily a friend who is a horse person, sent me to where they get their trailers set up. Turns out the shop also handles all the city and county owned trailers. The guys have been really helpful and answered all my questions.
One note on the hitch height -We originally had a ball on a shaft that came straight out of the Forester. Our 550, which is SUV height. We had trouble getting the trailer to drop on the ball all the way - and had others in the campground trying to help, all get frustrated. When we got a new insert post that raises the ball about 3", we have had no trouble getting the trailer to set on the ball properly. If this is confusing and I'm using the wrong terms, I can send you pictures.
Eileen

 

Thanks Eileen. The person at the first shop mentioned needing a different hitch ball depending on the height of the trailer. Based on his price and my conversations with him, he will be the one I will use.

I do have one question. Did you have the Subaru hitch on the forester when you bought the car? I did not. I am torn between having Subaru install the hitch and the trailer shop. The pro to the shop doing it is that it is much less expensive. Subaru wants $500. The trailer shop wants $680 to do the entire install including the hitch and controller. Seems like a no brainer.

The pros for having Subaru do it is that there is no drilling involved and hitch sits up into the bumper. The pro for having the trailer shop do it besides price is getting a much more substantial hitch, Class II instead of Class I. I never plan on towing anything beyond the recommendations but it seems like the Class II provides a little bit more stability. The con is that it will hang down below the bumper. Basically, it boils down to asthetics. Is it worth the extra money to have the hitch look pretty? I think I answered my own question.

Update: I probably will go with the Class III the trailer shop showed me so I can have a 2" receiver on the car. I am planning on getting the hitch receiver on the trailer so I can carry my bike. This is a 2" receiver. Having a 2" receiver on the car will allow me to use the same bike carrier on both the car and the trailer.

Thanks again.

 

Good choice, Joan. A Class 1 hitch is only rated for 1,500 lbs. My 560, when fully loaded probably weighs more than that. I wouldn't want to take chances with a Class 1 hitch.