4-cyl towing thoughts?

Originally posted by ronahue Certainly this vehicle would be marginal at best for what you want to do. I have had 4 Subaru Outbacks and think are are a fantastic car. Besides the obvious weight issue I would have 2 concerns, the frontal area of the r-pod and the CVT transmission. See if you can find out if their is a frontal area restriction, I know my Frontier has a restriction if 39 square feet which puts my r-179 right on the edge. While I love the CVT in my Outback I have no idea how it will stand up to towing a trailer. Good luck.

I did not see in the OP where a CVT was mentioned. However, if that is the case, I would never dream of towing with a vehicle with a CVT. At least not today. Someday maybe, but then again...

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the outback has a max tongue weight of 200 pounds. My 172 has 250 + pound tongue weight. I actually traded my outback when I bought my pod. Everything together just sounded wrong. The low tow capacity, 200 pound tongue weight, unibody (no wdh recommended) cvt transmission all were headed in the wrong direction. I have seen a few people online that say they use a subaru outback to tow a pod, but I don't see many. I originally thought, "we don't bring much stuff, we should be ok", but thankfully i opted for the frontier. Reality is, you're gonna want to bring lots of stuff.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I’m a little overwhelmed by the breadth and quantity of opinion. I still haven’t finished digesting all of them. 

Trish, if you are in your 70's you have plenty more time for camping.  And you are absolutely right about the 3 a.m. issue.  That's one of the reasons we went to a Pod with a functional head, especially if it's raining or worse.  With our 172, we have no frills and I have taken out as much as I have added in weight.  That version comes with bunk beds up front, one of which I removed.  We also replaced the table with one that weighs a 10th of the original.  But in the end, Furpod is right, you may be able to get the weight down to something pretty close to your car's capacity, though certainly not below, but you still have the issue of windage.  Wind resistance on a full height trailer puts a tremendous load on your drivetrain and can affect the stability of your car on the road. 

A wind deflector such as the AeroPlus from Purpleline or the AeroShield from Icon helps, but not enough to compensate for too much frontal area. The advice above is very sound. We just returned from a trip of close to 6500 miles with our 179 (Frontier tow vehicle). You would do well if you could manage to catch a strong tailwind every time, but probability is that you will encounter head- and crosswinds which will exacerbate the frontal area problem. Check Subaru's towing guide (should be specified in your manual as I could not find anything from Subaru online except the towing limit). For that vehicle, the pop-up is the best choice. As Fred stated above, perhaps you could fit a portable toilet in for the times it is neccessary at night. Eventually, you will be able to trade tow vehicles and then it would be time to revisit the R-Pods or even something a bit larger with a walk-around bed.