The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Once, I went through a period of liking towing a large white caravan with a Datsun 260C coupe. Towed it to Sydney and back for my honeymoon in 1985. Never again. The van, a twin axle was too heavy for the 2600 engine and I soon found out that towing at 70-80 kph can be boring. To top it all off I like being different and towing a large white van with (nowadays) a 4x4 is not very unique- the bloody roads are full of them.

Following owning Guppy, that small van I towed with tweety a while back, I came to the conclusion that the least weight towed the better. Now, towing the camper trailer at a GVM of 300kgms is a breeze. In fact apart from long accents you dont know its there.

There must be many of you that take your Brumby camping. With the additional cargo area you have there must be many tenting/camper options for you. I noticed there are many roof top tents now. Saw one on a Hyundai Getz recently. Mount one high up above your Brumby tray and you still have heaps of storage under it. And no towing at all.

The ea81 in the Brumby is just adequate power IMO. My new engine with the sPFI manifold and weber 38/38 and torquey cam moving 660 kgms of trike is fine, towing 300 kgms is fine too but....the engine is on song meaning it is fully recoed and apart from a jetting tune is running well. I also lose 14 hp with the auto trans. What I'm saying is that your brumby towing 400 or so kgms of trailer would struggle in terms of a comfy touring machine. Better to look at options like that roof top tent and not tow at all.

Also touring around cheaply is easy. But a $65 "camps Australia" book that tells you where the freebies are, and all sorts of info.

What are your thoughts?

Have always thought about towing a camper trailer of some sort, but none of them are below 600kg Or $15k for that matter! I was pretty impressed with your guppy Tony, would suit me fine as I don't need a double XL queen sized bed plus toilet, shower and 42" plasma screen.

The one or two times I've been camping with the Brumby I've just taken my swag, and saved the tray for storage (I don't have a fiberglass canopy) I couldn't see myself sleeping in it or on it (the roof) As for towing in the Brum well I've never towed anything yet so I don't know what it's like, but considering 500kg in the tray see's you nearly riding on the bump stops and sapping a considerable amount of performance I wouldn't like to go long distances with a heavy trailer. When my wagon resto is finished I had images in my mind of towing a small camper trailer, on-board water tank (under the car) compressed air outlet in the rear bumper and touring around the Eastern states a little bit...but even with the super duper twin carb EA81 that amount of weight might be a bit too much

What we do is have everything in the camper we need. So water, power, etc etc. If you have water in your Brumby in a permanent receptacle then it causes issues if you swap cars. eg a relative borrows your camper.

I've had a full size camper an outback camper, cheapest one. And it isnt justified unless one has children. The Detour motorcycle) camper is great in weight size, brakes etc for 2 people. A Brumby would easily tow one without much loss in performance or economy.

As for the Guppy made by Chevron the same van is made by Avan and called a 'weekender'. The Avan model doesnt have fridge sink etc and weighs 370 kgms compared to 450 kgms. But they are hard to find and think they stopped making the Avan model. The Guppy is still being made and comes in a 4x4 version. Google it. If I had a Brumby I'd want an EJ in it to pull it. Ea81 would do it but would struggle a bit at times.. I judge that on my ea81 weber carb and VW auto. Trike weighing 660 kgms also...lighter rig in total. Reckon a manual would be so much better though with that handy 3rd gear.

Towed a few things with my old wagon. Doesnt even notice the little sailing dinghy behind it, though thats close to 150-200kg. I once towed Pauls MY wagon with mine......Yeeeaaaahhh lets not go there. Also towed small 6x4's full of crap no dramas. Only trailer I have had drama's with was a duel axle hire trailer I got for work. Loaded up with stuff it was a bit too much. Probably approaching the 900kg mark loaded up. The brakes give out pretty quickly. I do think subaru's rated towing capacity is pretty good ball park. Even not towing a trailer these cars struggle with steep hills.

If I were you tweety I wouldnt push it too hard up the hills to maintain speed, let it kick down and sing in the 4000rpm range and you shouldnt have too much drama's.

Regards

Doug

Yeh that's what I do Doug. I'm patient. I'm over 55. Lol