Let me preface this thread by saying I am not ready to own an RV just yet, but I have been around them a lot lately and it has made me think about what I might want someday. I won't be buying any more gas guzzlers and I will always have the 4Runner as my adventure/travel vehicle (plus, I love the thing), so it must be towable behind the 4Runner. Right there I am limited to a bumper-pull trailer with a dry weight of less than 3,000 pounds, to keep towing a safe and pleasurable experience. I've owned campers before and have no desire for another one, fifth wheels tow great but I don't need anything that big and motorhomes are too expensive, too big and I don't want another motorized vehicle to insure and maintain so I am quite happy with being "limited" to a trailer.
So what do I 'need?' I am quite happy tent camping for now, but I do often miss having an enclosed retreat for bad weather with enough room to sleep, stand and cook. Pretty much any towable will give me that, but it does rule-out the cute tear drop trailers. Having a sink with hot water for doing dishes, a bathroom and a hot shower are mandatory, I might as well stick with a tent without these features.
Then I happened upon these:
Granted, they look funny but they seem to have all the right things. They have an aluminum frame and weigh between 1,937 lbs dry to 2,336 lbs for the heaviest one with a pop-out. I’m not sure if I even have 700 pounds of gear, but figure 3,000 pounds loaded max and the 4Runner should have no problem muscling that around. If it does I’ll buy a supercharger. They are reasonably aerodynamic, have nice interior layouts, are reasonably priced (if there is such a thing) and of course have a fridge, microwave, A/C, combined head/shower, hot water, etc. Here are the layouts and specs.
Has anyone else here seen any interesting fully-equipped (read: refrigerator, hot water shower, etc.) RVs that would tow nicely behind a 4Runner? I would not rule-out a tent trailer, but the outside shower does miss the mark a little. I don’t really need an adventure trailer either as I don’t want to be towing offroad. I do a lot of pavement roadtrips and even my offroad-oriented trips seem conducive to setting up an RV as a base camp and spending a couple of nights out on the trail then returning back to the base camp for a few nights before taking off again.