Towing 16' Scamp with 2005 Outback

[medora66]

Hi all,

Is there anyone out there towing a 16' Scamp with an Outback? If so -- what is your experience? And what options do you have on your Scamp?

We are finding absolutely contradictory info on whether our car (tow weight 2700, tongue 200) can handle one of these. It seems like we might be right on the edge, with tongue weight at least ... and I'm a little concerned about having to constantly manage the weight in back.

Opinions? Thoughts? We'd be so grateful to hear from someone with experience.

Thanks,

Elizabeth

[rockhopjohn]

Well, looks like the specs I can see on the 16' Scamp show it having electric brakes, and weighing in about 1750 lbs dry. To me that is pretty reasonable to do, as long as you aren't going super long distances in especially mountainous terrain.

As you stated the Outback has a 2700lbs towing capacity, with a 200 lb tongue weight. By the time you throw all your stuff in the car/camper, you are probably bumping right up against the edge of the limit of what your car is rated for. Honestly, towing that much weight with a regular 2.5l N/A Outback would be unbearable for me; since going over passes would have you struggling just to maintain 30-40 MPH. But for some people it might be OK.

[indytruckboy]

I would invest in a quality trans cooler. And possibly a class III hitch

[Radar1]

This is an old post so you probably made a decision already. We sometimes tow our 16' Scamp with our 08 Outback 4 cyl. It actually does a decent job, although I do worry about steep hills on hot days. We mainly limit the Outback to towing our Scamp on fairly flat trips where it's not too hot, and we're not loaded down too much, like from GA to TX in the Spring or Fall.
Our Scamp has most options available, A/C, awning, front bath, water heater, microwave, heater, side dinette, screen door, type 27 battery, largest fridge.
We did add a transmission cooler, and do have electric brakes. The loaded weight of our Scamp is less than 2500 lbs, and the difficult part is keeping the tongue weight down to 200. I have to remove the 2nd propane tank, and also fill the fresh water tank in order to get the tongue weight close to 200. We plan to relocate the battery to behind the axle, which would reduce the tongue weight and allow us to travel without having to fill the fresh water tank (which is used to offset the tongue weight).
I also added sway control since the tongue weight is less than 10% of the trailer weight, although Subaru says 8% is OK.
We have climbed the hills to Cherokee, NC, and it kept up with traffic and the engine didn't heat up much at all, although I don't have a transmission temperature gauge to see if the trans temp went up.