Mike-5

WOW! Way more weight and way more frontal area than I am considering. When stowed and towed, our trailer is estimated to be about 20 ft/sq frontal area. It is lower than the jeep will be, so drag should be lower too. And even loaded with the kitchen sink should never exceed 4000 pounds, the empty weight is like 2600, loaded with water and gear, rignt at 3500 +/-. The wife especially loves this trailer, except for the high step to get in it. It is single-axle, spring over axle, 15" wheels and 285/75 tires. Very off-road capable. It even has shocks! We have towed it with the Ford E-350 (5.4 Triton V-8) 1-ton without difficulty.

A word about the wife. She is a naturalized US citizen, but born in Germany. I married her when I was stationed on the Iron Curtain, and we are at 36 years together. She is a keeper. While I was often deployed away she raised 2 kids and worked too. Our son was a Cav Scout-Sniper-EMT, a man any dad would be proud of! Had to quit when he lost two friends in a single day, his EMT skills were not enough to save them and it hurt him that he let them down. Now he feels guilty that he left the others when he quit.

One question for you..... what is the tongue weight of your rig, and does the weight dist hitch help that a lot? I worry that the single axle trailer might exceed the 350 pound tongue weight specified. I will need to pack it and measure it.

Thank you sir; Mike-5, El Paso Texas (home of Fort Bliss).

holy_crap

We need some pictures of that camper, sounds like something I might be interested in.

rob_engineer

Don't beat me up, but I don't know what the tongue weight is. My toy hauler is a Coachmen Blast 150. About 3500 pounds empty. I then put one or two Harley's inside. Has a huge frontal area. The weigh distribution hitch is necessary for my rig, otherwise headlights would be pointing up in the air. I would not tow more than 2000 pounds without trailer brakes. I brought about 3000 pounds of stones home in a landscape trailer without brakes. I was glad that the ride was only a couple of miles because I felt like the jeep was getting pushed by the trailer when trying to stop. My toyhauler is dual axle and each axle has electric brakes. I installed a brake controller in the jeep. I went with a prodigy 2 because it can be unplugged and stowed when not needed. If you can afford the $600, get the smittybilt bumper. You won't regret it for towing heavy loads. It is confidence building compared to the OEM receiver.

Tomsryt

Only advice I can offer is to put the Hard Rock up against the "only a Rubicon" model and see what you're getting for the several thousand dollar difference in price.
Looks to me like most of the money goes to cosmetics and badging, and the stock bumpers can be sold, (cheaply and quickly) and real bumpers can be purchased with the difference in purchase price between the models.
Join USAA or Tread Lightly for a 1% below invoice price on a vehicle you ORDER, the wait is worth it as you will get exactly what you "think" you want.
Last suggestion, run this reply past your wife, it already looks like she's intelligent enough to discuss these little issues.