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So, you’re thinking about buying a teardrop camper – great! There are some things you should know before diving in.
1. Your tow vehicle is likely limiting your off-road teardrop camper, not the other way around.
What do I mean by this? Well, most V6 SUVs are perfectly capable of towing a 2000lb camper up a steep *paved* incline. If the vehicle starts struggling, just manually gear down and you’ll make it up the hill eventually. The pavement offers a high coefficient of friction and a consistent surface for your vehicle’s tires to grip. No problem!
The issue with off-road teardrops enters when you need to tow up the same incline as above, but instead on dry, loose, and chunky off-road trails. The end result of these conditions are a low coefficient of friction, so more of the tire’s energy is going into spinning the grip-less tires rather than moving the car forward. Unless your vehicle has insanely low gearing and excellent cooling (oil and transmission), there is a good chance you will have to back down from technical challenges to find another route.
When we tried to take our teardrop camper over Cinnamon Pass with a Honda Pilot, we got about halfway up and had to turn around since it was getting dark and we were in the way of some serious Jeepers. This attempt also cooked the Pilot’s transmission fluid and set the trip back an entire day.
2. Turning around on narrow trails is basically impossible.
If you want to take your camper up steep unpaved switchbacks or technical terrain with high consequences often, then an off-road teardrop is unlikely to be a good fit for your needs, as we have discovered.
Back to the Cinnamon Pass attempt above, we were extremely lucky to decide to turn around at the fork between Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass, so there was just enough space to make a 10-point turn and back down the road.
However, in another instance we had to turn around on a different technical forest service road at night. The road was too narrow to 3-point turn, so we ended up having to unhitch the camper, turn the car around, turn the camper around, and then re-hitch the camper – all at 11:30PM in the woods. We even had a Lock-n-roll hitch coupler (one of the best on the market right now), but no amount of hitch articulation can solve trailer lock-up. This was not fun, and certainly would have been impossible on a road with any sort of significant incline or obstacle.
3. Your camper will get dirty when towing during or after snowstorms.
The picture below was the end result of one night of towing through snowy weather on a Colorado mountain pass. Sand, snow, and road grime were packed into every crevice imaginable. A power wash cleaned things up, but it’s best to avoid pressure washing near seals and sealants to avoid damaging them, so it is hard to get the camper completely clean.
If your camper is this dirty and there are no DIY car washes at your destination, then you will be sleeping and cooking with a camper covered in road grime. If you don’t mind being a little dirty, then this won’t be a problem – it is camping after all!
4. Your tow vehicle will throw (a lot of) rocks at the front of your camper.
Yeah, this is kind of nit-picky, and it goes along with #3, but it is a huge bummer to find big dents spread across the front of your camper after traveling on a dirt road or getting unlucky with a rock in the road. This WILL happen to your camper.
Solutions to reduce rock strikes on your teardrop camper are out there – ranging from basic to extreme, but at the end of the day, each solution is just another thing to set up that is standing between you and being ready to camp, so keep that in mind when shopping for campers.
5. The most vulnerable scrape points of your towing setup are the hitch connection and bumper
When driving up steep hills, over drainages, and in technical terrain, a teardrop camper is primarily limited by the hitch point clearance and the height of the rear bumper from the ground. While teardrop camper manufacturers like to tout incredibly high axle clearances, axle strikes rarely happen because off-road campers typically have more axle clearance than most tow vehicles anyways. Thus, if the tow vehicle clears an obstacle on flat ground, then the camper will too.
However, short, steep hills and drainages add complexity to the towing situation, since the hitch point and bumper are essentially the “pinch points” on most teardrop campers. AKA – you’ll scrape in those places before ever scraping an axle or chassis member. On campers with A-frame jacks that don’t swivel up, there is a chance you will break the jack by driving through such a hill or drainage.
We actually ended up breaking our front jack in this exact method, but fixed the issue by turning the broken jack into a swivel jack (see image in section 3 above).
6. Off-road towing isn’t for everyone
Towing off-road can easily double or triple your travel time when compared to tent camping. If you’re in a hurry to get to your destinations, an off-road teardrop might not be the best option for you. However, if you don’t mind taking the road less-traveled, then sit back and enjoy the ride! This type of camper makes a perfect match with taking the scenic route.
Off-road towing can also be hard on your vehicle and camper. Even with airbag suspension, torsion axles, and the latest and greatest in trailing-arm independent coil suspension, the addition of a payload on your hitch will put weird loading on your car when going through rough roads. Sand pits suddenly become a deathtrap unless you can hit them with a lot of speed. That being said, off-roading in general is hard on your vehicle, and takes certain skills and passion to enjoy. Aside from some of the beasts coming out of the US and Australian markets, most trailers will take a beating when going off-road.
The traits that make a vehicle perform well off-road are: short wheelbase, low weight (and low distribution), high power, and grippy tires that are aired down. Many existing off-road trailers trade these characteristics for creature comforts such as storage space, headroom, and amenities.
Conclusion
While easy to miss when looking at campers in the lot, it is important to consider the ways that any camper will fill your needs. If you do any sort of steep, technical driving, then there are a few aspects about an off-road teardrop that might surprise you.
So… who are off-road teardrops right for? If the most adventurous road your camper sees is a moderate-grade forest service road with the occasional deep pothole and a bit of washboard road surface, then an off-road teardrop might be the right camper for you. This type of camper excels in extending your capabilities when a road gets a bit more rough than you expected. It can carry a surprising amount of cargo and offer a massive sleeping capacity when paired with a roof-top tent.
As with any choice, it is important to consider the pros and cons of an off-road teardrop camper before buying one. While this article listed several considerations and reasons why an off-road teardrop might not be your best fit, there are just as many reasons why they might be the right camper for you!