Читать книгу RVs & Campers For Dummies - Christopher Hodapp - Страница 50

One result of typical cars getting smaller every year has been that the RV business has had to get creative when it comes to building and marketing trailers that can still be towed without a pickup truck or hefty SUV. Back in the days of yesteryear, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, the average American car was a colossal, steel behemoth, with a V8 engine and a transmission capable of powering an M1 tank. You could haul around a 40-foot aluminum trailer with an average fully-packed family sedan or station wagon, and still have plenty of horsepower left to drive it up to the top of Pikes Peak without breaking a sweat. But that hasn’t been true for several decades now. In the demand for smaller, lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles, the auto manufacturers have split their efforts between making littler (and seemingly identical) cars, while building massive and increasingly luxurious pickup trucks. The average “full-size” SUV in the 2020s is a pale imitation of the ones that dominated the market in the 1990s and early 2000s.

We talk lots more about tow vehicles in Chapter 7. The point is that not everyone wants to buy or own a pickup truck. If the only thing you have to haul a trailer with is a two-door, midsize car with a 4-cylinder engine and little more towing capacity than the average riding lawn mower, there are still towable options to consider if you lower your expectations a bit and keep the word cozy in mind.

Most so-called lightweight or featherweight trailers tend to tip the scales at 4,000 pounds or less. But be aware that adjectives like these are about as informative as seeing the word FRESH! on a bottle of dishwasher detergent. They’re advertising claims and not any sort of official industry designation. There are still several trailers that weigh no more than 2,500 pounds and still have enough amenities in them to please a single camper or a really friendly couple.

Lightweights are smaller and built of lighter or thinner material than their bigger trailer brothers. When Airstreams first hit the market in the 1930s, built with aluminum, they were considered “lightweight” trailers — and they were, at that time. Although average travel trailers are built on steel frames and have real wood framing, floors, cabinets, and more on the inside, lightweights often use aluminum underneath and thinner, lightweight material for walls and other panels. In recent years, more companies have attempted to fill this niche. But some manufacturers have been specializing in lightweights for some time and continue to innovate: Little Guy, nüCamp, and KZ Sportsmen are frequently cited as the top makers of these tiny trailers.

One way lightweight trailers can save on size and weight is by ditching the usual blackwater holding tank needed for toilet waste and using a cassette toilet instead. A cassette toilet is essentially a small, portable holding tank that slides underneath the toilet. When it’s full and time to dump, the cassette is pulled out and taken to the campground dumpsite or poured out into a public toilet. Cassette toilets have been popular in RVs in Europe for many years, and they’re also being used in camper vans, truck campers, and pop-ups.