Towing a nice little camper trailer - Sun Lite 18RD

• I did not want an east/west bed as that means someone is always crawling over someone to get in/out of bed. This has a camper queen with space on either side to get out.
• Big fridge/freezer
• enough space for 2 adults and a dog to move around
  
• separate dinette (many smaller campers your dinette may be part of your bed.)
• good price, nice build quality - for my short term camper.
• huge amount of storage - though that can lead to you overloading.....
• weight. My goal was to leave head room in the towing, and a dry of 2900 means I have a chance to keep my towing weight to ~3600.

ddhill said:

I just purchased a nice little camper trailer - a Sun Lite 18RD
This is 19 foot tip to tail.

I do have the 4k towing package, in fact I switched my buy from the hybrid because we wanted a trailer and nothing I wanted really fit well (with towing headroom) in 2k.

Lately I have been hitting around 29 mpg without the trailer - keep that number in mind....

The "dry" weight of this trailer is 2900 lb (dealer est), and GVW (which I doubt I could hit) is 4k. The difference for those that don't know is that dry is "empty" - no propane (2x20lb), water (25 gal * 8lb ~= 200lb), kettles, camp chairs, beer in the fridge...
I did have propane but the rest was empty.
Tongue weight is said to be 270lb.

I did have a load balancing, sway control hitch for the initial haul. Turned on Trailer mode as well.

With the trailer and mostly highway for a 2 hour drive home, looks like about 14 mpg which is close to what I was hoping for. With the trailer brake gain dialed in (7.0) , I had a pretty decent ride. Never felt like the trailer was pushing me when stopping. A touch of porpoising but no more than I expected when you have 3k waggling your hitch ball Overall - I was pleased with the towing performance. In particular - just for fun I hit the gas a few times just to see how much acceleration I had left, and felt it was plenty. Note: the words of wisdom is that 65 mph is a good cap when towing - so that is what I did on the highway.

This Sun Lite is aerodynamic than the sweet trailer I have on order.... (due March of 2024... a Safari Condo Alto F2114) so it will be interesting to see what if any gain I get when that arrives. And I would really be interested if someone gets the retractable roof version the R1723 - which we really think is amazing, but we wanted more storage and fridge.

So - why this Sun Lite trailer ?

• I did not want an east/west bed as that means someone is always crawling over someone to get in/out of bed. This has a camper queen with space on either side to get out.
• Big fridge/freezer
• enough space for 2 adults and a dog to move around
  
• separate dinette (many smaller campers your dinette may be part of your bed.)
• good price, nice build quality - for my short term camper.
• huge amount of storage - though that can lead to you overloading.....
• weight. My goal was to leave head room in the towing, and a dry of 2900 means I have a chance to keep my towing weight to ~3600.

Hopefully I will get it out for a weekend trip in a few weeks

Here it is behind the Maverick

Click to expand...

ddhill said:

I just purchased a nice little camper trailer - a Sun Lite 18RD
This is 19 foot tip to tail.

I do have the 4k towing package, in fact I switched my buy from the hybrid because we wanted a trailer and nothing I wanted really fit well (with towing headroom) in 2k.

Lately I have been hitting around 29 mpg without the trailer - keep that number in mind....

The "dry" weight of this trailer is 2900 lb (dealer est), and GVW (which I doubt I could hit) is 4k. The difference for those that don't know is that dry is "empty" - no propane (2x20lb), water (25 gal * 8lb ~= 200lb), kettles, camp chairs, beer in the fridge...
I did have propane but the rest was empty.
Tongue weight is said to be 270lb.

I did have a load balancing, sway control hitch for the initial haul. Turned on Trailer mode as well.

With the trailer and mostly highway for a 2 hour drive home, looks like about 14 mpg which is close to what I was hoping for. With the trailer brake gain dialed in (7.0) , I had a pretty decent ride. Never felt like the trailer was pushing me when stopping. A touch of porpoising but no more than I expected when you have 3k waggling your hitch ball Overall - I was pleased with the towing performance. In particular - just for fun I hit the gas a few times just to see how much acceleration I had left, and felt it was plenty. Note: the words of wisdom is that 65 mph is a good cap when towing - so that is what I did on the highway.

This Sun Lite is aerodynamic than the sweet trailer I have on order.... (due March of 2024... a Safari Condo Alto F2114) so it will be interesting to see what if any gain I get when that arrives. And I would really be interested if someone gets the retractable roof version the R1723 - which we really think is amazing, but we wanted more storage and fridge.

So - why this Sun Lite trailer ?

• I did not want an east/west bed as that means someone is always crawling over someone to get in/out of bed. This has a camper queen with space on either side to get out.
• Big fridge/freezer
• enough space for 2 adults and a dog to move around
  
• separate dinette (many smaller campers your dinette may be part of your bed.)
• good price, nice build quality - for my short term camper.
• huge amount of storage - though that can lead to you overloading.....
• weight. My goal was to leave head room in the towing, and a dry of 2900 means I have a chance to keep my towing weight to ~3600.

Hopefully I will get it out for a weekend trip in a few weeks

Here it is behind the Maverick

Click to expand...

ddhill said:

I just purchased a nice little camper trailer - a Sun Lite 18RD
This is 19 foot tip to tail.

I do have the 4k towing package, in fact I switched my buy from the hybrid because we wanted a trailer and nothing I wanted really fit well (with towing headroom) in 2k.

Lately I have been hitting around 29 mpg without the trailer - keep that number in mind....

The "dry" weight of this trailer is 2900 lb (dealer est), and GVW (which I doubt I could hit) is 4k. The difference for those that don't know is that dry is "empty" - no propane (2x20lb), water (25 gal * 8lb ~= 200lb), kettles, camp chairs, beer in the fridge...
I did have propane but the rest was empty.
Tongue weight is said to be 270lb.

I did have a load balancing, sway control hitch for the initial haul. Turned on Trailer mode as well.

With the trailer and mostly highway for a 2 hour drive home, looks like about 14 mpg which is close to what I was hoping for. With the trailer brake gain dialed in (7.0) , I had a pretty decent ride. Never felt like the trailer was pushing me when stopping. A touch of porpoising but no more than I expected when you have 3k waggling your hitch ball Overall - I was pleased with the towing performance. In particular - just for fun I hit the gas a few times just to see how much acceleration I had left, and felt it was plenty. Note: the words of wisdom is that 65 mph is a good cap when towing - so that is what I did on the highway.

This Sun Lite is aerodynamic than the sweet trailer I have on order.... (due March of 2024... a Safari Condo Alto F2114) so it will be interesting to see what if any gain I get when that arrives. And I would really be interested if someone gets the retractable roof version the R1723 - which we really think is amazing, but we wanted more storage and fridge.

So - why this Sun Lite trailer ?

• I did not want an east/west bed as that means someone is always crawling over someone to get in/out of bed. This has a camper queen with space on either side to get out.
• Big fridge/freezer
• enough space for two adults and a dog to move around
  
• separate dinette (many smaller campers, your dinette may be part of your bed.)
• good price, nice build quality - for my short term camper.
• huge amount of storage - though that can lead to you overloading.....
• weight. My goal was to leave head room in the towing, and a dry of 2900 means I have a chance to keep my towing weight to ~3600.

Hopefully I will get it out for a weekend trip in a few weeks

Here it is behind the Maverick

Click to expand...

mavhopefull said:

Sweet setup. Can't wait for mine to do the same.

As an FYI, I read that Load balancing and sway control hitches are not recommended for Unibody construction trucks. Not sure why but if anyone knows, please chime in.

Click to expand...

ddhill said:

I do have the 4k towing package, in fact I switched my buy from the hybrid because we wanted a trailer and nothing I wanted really fit well (with towing headroom) in 2k.

Click to expand...

mipakr said:

Bingo. Therein lies half of my struggle. Small camper for the Hybrid with headroom. The other half, not too tall that it doesn't store in the garage.

Click to expand...

ddhill said:

I just purchased a nice little camper trailer - a Sun Lite 18RD
This is 19 foot tip to tail.

I do have the 4k towing package, in fact I switched my buy from the hybrid because we wanted a trailer and nothing I wanted really fit well (with towing headroom) in 2k.

Lately I have been hitting around 29 mpg without the trailer - keep that number in mind....

The "dry" weight of this trailer is 2900 lb (dealer est), and GVW (which I doubt I could hit) is 4k. The difference for those that don't know is that dry is "empty" - no propane (2x20lb), water (25 gal * 8lb ~= 200lb), kettles, camp chairs, beer in the fridge...
I did have propane but the rest was empty.
Tongue weight is said to be 270lb.

I did have a load balancing, sway control hitch for the initial haul. Turned on Trailer mode as well.

With the trailer and mostly highway for a 2 hour drive home, looks like about 14 mpg which is close to what I was hoping for. With the trailer brake gain dialed in (7.0) , I had a pretty decent ride. Never felt like the trailer was pushing me when stopping. A touch of porpoising but no more than I expected when you have 3k waggling your hitch ball Overall - I was pleased with the towing performance. In particular - just for fun I hit the gas a few times just to see how much acceleration I had left, and felt it was plenty. Note: the words of wisdom is that 65 mph is a good cap when towing - so that is what I did on the highway.

This Sun Lite is aerodynamic than the sweet trailer I have on order.... (due March of 2024... a Safari Condo Alto F2114) so it will be interesting to see what if any gain I get when that arrives. And I would really be interested if someone gets the retractable roof version the R1723 - which we really think is amazing, but we wanted more storage and fridge.

So - why this Sun Lite trailer ?

• I did not want an east/west bed as that means someone is always crawling over someone to get in/out of bed. This has a camper queen with space on either side to get out.
• Big fridge/freezer
• enough space for 2 adults and a dog to move around
  
• separate dinette (many smaller campers your dinette may be part of your bed.)
• good price, nice build quality - for my short term camper.
• huge amount of storage - though that can lead to you overloading.....
• weight. My goal was to leave head room in the towing, and a dry of 2900 means I have a chance to keep my towing weight to ~3600.

Hopefully I will get it out for a weekend trip in a few weeks

Here it is behind the Maverick

Click to expand...

RogueCheddar said:

I was out camping last weekend and was chatting with the owner of an Alto, he purchased it last year and apparently has had to take it back to the dealer 6 times as it wont stop leaking and has been thoroughly unimpressed with the build quality. YMMV

Click to expand...

ddhill said:

I really really liked the Alto R17 series....

Ouch. My wife has been following several small camper forums on FB and says she has heard the least quality issues on the Alto site. Hoping that one was built on Friday afternoon !

Click to expand...

RogueCheddar said:

There is always that POETS day thing to consider (Piss Off Early Tomorrow's Saturday) and many other trailer manufacturers seem to have had quality issues during COVID as demand was so high they couldn't churn them out fast enough (sounds familiar ). Hopefully your Wife's research is correct, they look a really neat unit

Click to expand...