crazy question I know.. But has anyone towed a popup camper or trailer with the Fit? I am interested in this...

 

They do in the UK. When I was there for work last summer for a few weeks I spoke with a father and son pulling one to a outing while they were filling up for the drive. They said it pulls fine, but takes a while to get up to speed. The brakes are adequate if you use them properly. No short stops. They use it just about every other weekend and have the 1.4L engine.

 

I have a vintage 1969 Appleby pop-up camper that is quite minimalist and probably weighs 300 lbs plus or minus. I tow it with my 1983 VW pickup and would not hesitate to tow it with the Fit. I had a 950 lb small Coleman Colonial pop-up from the early 80's, a pretty basic model, and small by today's standards. I towed it with my mid-90's VW Golf, a car that I deem to be slightly heavier and more tow-worthy than our Fit. A car the size of the Golf was/is too small to tow the Coleman safely. There was a huge impact on handling, braking, etc while towing the camper. I'm pretty adventurous as far as vehicles go, and not a stickler for tow ratings, etc, but after towing my Coleman from Cedar Rapids, IA to Kansas City with the Golf I came to the realization that this was just plain unsafe. Even if the Coleman would have had electric brakes, which it did not, it was still too heavy and unwieldy for a car of the Golf's size, IMHO. Also, as a side note, starting from a stop in the Golf with 1k weight behind me was quite hard on the clutch. My auto Fit would probably handle that better, but acceleration would be dismal to say the least. Can't even imagine pulling hills in either car with a 1,000 pound trailer, my wife and I, and luggage, especially on the downhill side.

The Golf was a LOT torquier than my Fit is, and a heavier car in cross-winds, etc. So I would rate the Fit as less suitable for towing anything remotely substantial than my Golf. I would not even dream of towing a near 1k lb pop up with our Fit Sport. Would it physically move it? Sure. Would it be safe? No way. Not in my opinion. If you had to engage in anything remotely resembling an accident avoidance maneuver, or panic stop, the Golf and the Fit would be way out of their league with that near 1,000 pound camper. I can't even imagine towing that Coleman at highway speeds with my Fit for any distance. Anyway, I sold the Coleman purely because I came to the grudging realization that I needed a heavier tow vehicle to safely and securely tow a 1k lb trailer not to mention a couple of us in the car and gear. I was not willing to drive the kind of vehicle as a daily driver that would have been necessary to tow this properly the few times a year I'd use it. So, Coleman went bye-bye, and the Appleby stayed. I'll tow it with the Fit with no reservations. A 300 pound trailer with 1-200 pounds of gear is a totally different towing experience behind a small econo car with a small engine than a trailer twice the size and weight. No comparison.

I would advise anyone thinking about towing a camper with a Fit to seek out an old vintage Appleby or similar ( vintage tiny 50's-60's basic popup ) or to get a heavier tow vehicle if you need fancier accomodations.

Keep in mind that towing is mainly about what you can stop quickly, not what ultimate weight you can move in a straight line.

Anyway, not specifically answering your question, I know, but thought maybe my experience with small car towing might be useful in some way to you. If I had to, off the top of my head I'd say the 500 pound range of trailer plus the people in the car plus some gear in the car and or trailer would be all I would think a person could safely tow with a Fit for any kind of distance.

Might look into a teardrop trailer, which a Fit could tow OK, I'd think.

Just my 2c

 

The problem with this scenario is that yes, the Fit brakes are probably barely adequate under totally ideal conditions with a camper trailer unless it was absolutely tiny and weighed next to nothing (my minimalist 30 year old Appleby with zero amenities, just an aluminum body and tent comes to mind). The first time you have to do any sort of accident avoidance stop because you get cut off, deer jumps out, you have a blowout, who knows what, I think these guys are way on the outside edge of safety. CAN you do it? Sure. SHOULD you? I think you'd have to give some serious thought to that one. Part of being safe in traffic is having enough spare braking, acceleration, and handling capacity to react to the unknown in an emergency. If you are at 90% of your capability just cruising down a flat, straight road at 55mph with a trailer, then you are not being safe because you have no margin left for when conditions inevitably become less than ideal. Just my opinion.

 

I looked up and found a popup similar to the 1969 Appleby you mention. This looks like about the size they were pulling in the UK. I believe they said that is was about 250 kilos loaded. I think this works out to just about 550 pounds.

The UK Jazz is rated at 1000 Kilo (2200lbs) towing with trailer brakes and 450 Kilo (990lbs) without. I can't immagine starting from a dead stop up even a slight hill with 1000 Kilos on the back of my fit.

As a side note, I am always amazed by the size of tow vehicle for the size of trailer that they tow in the UK. Here we wouldn't think about pulling it without a Dodge Ram. There they pull the same size unit with an Audi A3. Thy just do it more sensibly than we do. You rarely see them towing on the motorways. They stick to the A & B roads which are like our State and County highways. Since they know that they are pulling with a small vehicle, they just take it easy, which can lead to long trails of cars behind the towing car. Luckily the designers of the rods there know this and built slow vehicle lanes for uphill sections and pulloffs every so often to let faster cars pass.

 

Thanks for the well thought out replies guys. I googled teardrop trailers and they are suprisingly heavy! one I figured was too small was actually 1000 pounds. Ill keep looking.

Thanks

 

I too am looking for a trailer for a Honda Fit. I don't want to take any chances on safety. I am looking at the Trillium 1300 (pull weight 225 lbs) but not too happy with a camper that is that tall. Any opinions out there? I am trying to find a small pop up, which I have seen on the road, but don't seem to be able to find anything on the internet. Ebay does have one of the teardrop campers that was mentioned before. I would welcome any advise.

 

I wouldn't do it. Fits are not designed to tow anything. You would put undue strain and stress on the brakes, tranny and engine. Do what I did and buy an old beater pickup for towing.

 

Thanks sage, I think I have reached the same conclusion. We have a 91 van that can pull a camper but it is so bad on gas. Guess maybe that's the way to go if we want to pull a camper.

 

Check for motorcycle popups or motorcycle campers. If a motorcycle can pull it the fit shouldn't have any issues, then again my Bike has more HP than my fit

Motorcycle Trailers- compact camper- pop up tent
Lite Tent Camper - Pull this lightweight tent camper/trailer behind a motorcycle or car.
Pop Up Campers Trailer

Some of them the tongue weight is less than a bike rack. Plus, many have racks on the top that will carry another cartop carrier or bike racks, so all the big/awkward stuff is behind the profile of the car instead of creating drag on the roof, and fuel mileage doesn't change more than having a 200lb passenger in the car. Mini-Pop-up tent trailer is the way to go. The car wouldn't even know it was there. You could even put gas cans on the trailer and make it dammed near from canada to mexico without having to go to a gas station.

 

FWIW - I pulled a 30' Airstream with a Dodge 2500 diesel for a few years. I went all over the US, Canada and Mexico. With a trailer you wind up in some pretty cheesy and pricey parking lots called RV parks. At the end-up it would have been cheaper to stay in motels. If you have a campground in mind you might be OK. But being at the mercy of what is out there is not fun. Most campgrounds are crowded, ugly, loud and unpleasant. I speak from experience.

Also, I would not want anything attached to the back of my Fit. It just does not sound like a good idea. A previous poster was right: it is not how much you can tow, it is how much you can stop.

 

I saw a Fit pulling a trailer with two jetskis ..awesome
If the Smart fo two could pull one of these we could ..
Post pics!!if you get it
RV Industry 'Downsizes' to Keep Pace with Slow Economy and Rising Cost of Gas



Arizona teardrop trailers lightweight camper teardrops trailer camping RV light weight camper

 

Thanks for sharing these ideas/pics zonianjohn! I too, considered the possibilities of towing something small like this with the Fit, but I kept running in to all of the realities mentioned in the above posts. I like the idea of a beater truck, I might have to look into this someday when we consider a boat as well etc....

What the hell is this, a rolling bomb shelter from the 40's?





And with this thing...getting so small it's ridiculous, just buy a regular pack tent!

 

I agree on this one, just more ideas to help you along.
Good Luck either way..

 

Hey guys, check this thing out. I was planning on getting one of these things eventually, as my fiance and I go camping whenever we both have a three day weekend, which is uaually around once every other month.

Little Guy Teardrop Trailers - Rascal

It may not be all that big, but it'll definitely help keep all the crap out of your back seat. I know that I could fit all of my camping gear inside that thing.

 

Yea the best part about campers is getting that crap outta the hatch area(great spot for dogs/ice chest in the car). And the trailer, even the dinky ones, have good payload and extra secured storage, and it falls into the windstream of the car, so it doesn't add much drag or kill your mileage, and the tongue weights are very light. Even using a yakima rack and box your mileage drops more than something behind the car.

 

Prsonally, I would just pack a tent and only camp when I could find a reasonable camp ground. When I priced out RVing, it was almost as cheap hoteling. You can save a bit cooking vs. eating out, however.

If you want to RV, here's an option:

Activity Trailer LLC Home Page

 

yea same here. i would bring a tent and camp outdoors. gives a good outdoor experience. with a RV it gives a luxury camping experience. both are good ways to camp outside.

 

Who doesn't like camping compared to a hotel? Sure, hotels have maids, but there is nothin like campin.

 

I love the vintage trailers like that. I could see pulling one those tear drops behind the Fit.
And I agree with zonianjohn, I'm not big on sleeping on the ground. I'd much rather have one of those.