empireOfLove2

Closing the door behind them

enjoy your moral high ground I guess, I'll keep getting stuff done with proper preparation. stuff is different in BFE

that's called "don't park in weeds dumbass" and not the fault of the vehicle or even the load itself. Manufacturer justified in denying any kind of warranty.

Any vehicle will do that, even passenger cars well under the weight rating, it's the exhaust and cats running at 600F+ that start dry brush on fire. It is physically impossible for a transmission to get hot enough to set stuff on fire itself before it will completely fail internally.

The point being, the points made above only apply to a vehicle in good condition

As well as vehicles without inherent design flaws. I did a 30 second google to discover the MDX for a while is well known for having massive transmission problems when not being driven hard at all. And any vehicle using a CVT (Subaru, Nissan primarily) should never be bought period, let alone do any towing.

this does not surprise me for a 4chan anon

YIPPEE

ewwwwwwwwwwww i might get cooties tho

yeah trucks are honestly overblown as "the only tow vehicles". Yes they're typically designed for towing with heavier duty rear ends, but they suck at being a normal vehicle when not towing. And they come with a very hefty purchase and gas-cost premium. For the small trailer and load you want? a truck, even like a ranger, is probably overkill.

Prior to the late 80s/ 1990s, most people towed camp trailers with passenger cars. American cars were built heavy and could easily pull 4000lb camp trailers slowly, but surely. Trucks were actually very uncommon. Modern vehicles prioritize fuel economy and lower manufacturing cost over versatility, but they can still pull off a lot more than people think.

I guess the main point I'm making above is that capacity ratings are guidelines and not hard limits like many people overemphasize them as. IF you know what you're doing, and make sure to prep correctly ala. electric brakes and tongue weight balance, you can push those limits and still travel safely.

donated! glad to keep a place like this running

So, I've moved a lot of really stupid bullshit with a really small "SUV" in my life. My venerable old Callie, a manual-trans 1999 Subaru Forester that's actually just a Impreza passenger sedan with a station wagon body on top, has successfully moved a flatbed trailer probably 12-15 times some pretty long distances with upwards of 5000lb on the trailer alone. The car is rated for 1500lb towing.
Let me tell you, she does NOT like it, and is not fast. But she can do it, because I'm extremely careful about it.

A vast majority of vehicles are actually fully capable of towing a lot more weight than their nameplate, in terms of engine power. The main things that limit their SAFE capability is braking force and highway stability. Manufacturers set the nameplate limits to where they can guarantee the vehicle stays safe even if operated very incorrectly, with all the weight in one spot, by a complete doofus. They're more for legal protection more than anything; "sorry you were 10lb over the rated limit, that crash isn't our fault."

You can actually go over the rated cargo capacity by a few hundred pounds and not worry too much, just make sure it's spread out evenly across the vehicle. I guarantee you a 4runner can hold more than 880lb inside, with it being a solid rear axle and all.

as far as towing goes:

1. Braking force. Passenger cars only have brakes with enough force to quickly stop a vehicle of the nameplate GVWR. There is a decent bit of engineered factor of safety here, so that's how you get a towing capacity around 2000lb higher. Once you exceed that, your braking distance is going to increase linearly, since brakes can only remove a certain amount of energy (and kinetic energy is =mv^2). This also can cause them to overheat if going down large mountain slopes.
   With 5500lb total behind my Forester, my braking distance effectively tripled. You can mash the brake into the floor and it would just keep going, it's really spooky if you're used to driving normal unloaded vehicles. I was doing my hauling on empty rural roads, but I would straight shit myself if I had to take that into traffic.
   To combat this, trailers use additional brakes on their own axles, powered either by an electronic brake controller or via a hydraulic cylinder on the trailer tongue ("surge" brakes). I added a junkyard brake controller to my Forester, and it restored a ton of braking force. On the product page for the NuCamp 320, it says it has electric brakes, so that's good. This does mean you need to have an electric brake controller on whatever vehicle you tow with. Tons of mechanics shops can wire those in for you though.

2. Vehicle/trailer stability. This is what is collectively known as "trailer sway"
   Basically, physics says the trailer needs to weigh less than the vehicle, and must be applying a minimum portion of it's mass to the rear axle of the vehicle so that the vehicle can continue guiding it. If the trailer weighs more, it must transfer an equivalent force via tongue weight to keep things stable; that's how semitrucks work with a 5th wheel right over the rear axle.
   With too heavy of a trailer, or too bad a weight distribution, the trailer will begin pushing the vehicle around on the road. If the imbalance is extremely poor, and the driver doesn't know how to stop it, shit happens.
   The general rule is you should have 15% of the trailer's weight on the tongue. Most SUV's these days have extremely low tongue weight ratings because of their independent rear suspension- usually less than 300lb, which gets you that 2000lb tow rating.
   The good part is proper trailer balance (aka store stuff in the front half of your trailer, NOT the back half) and using an electric brake controller can get rid of this; gently applying the trailer-only brakes helps bring trailers back to straight.

Of course, with those two things taken care of, you then have to worry about your transmission's capability and cooling, and engine cooling. Those you primarily just need to monitor closely using gauges or a OBD-II dongle paired to a phone running Torque app to get engine/trans data. My forester would like to start overheating if I tried to do 60mph in 4th gear too long.

I assume you're buying a new vehicle? Look at a Ford Explorer with the 3.0L V6. They give those a 5300lb tow rating and I can vouch for them actually being really good vehicles.

An engineer's rule #1: thermodynamics hates your guts

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