Palomini 177BH Recommendations/Towing?

[girlbuffalo1]

Hello! I currently have a Rockwood Premier A124 (hard sided a frame pop up) I am looking to trade up to something bigger and would prefer a permanent bed for 2, a set of bunks and somewhere to eat. I think one of the lightest ones I've found is the Palomini 177BH.

I have a 15 Toyota highlander xls front wheel drive, this comes with the tow package. Will I be sufficient to tow it--I know I am under specs (500 hitch weight, 5000 total weight) but wanted to see your thoughts.

Is this a good solid camper? I have read mixed reviews.

[keith_h]

The first thing to do is determine your payload capacity on the Highlander. I would expect there to be a max payload sticker on the drivers door pillar. If not you need to take the GVWR and subtract the vehicle weight to come up with the number.

From this you subtract the weight of all passengers, cargo, aftermarket additions and weight distribution hitch. This will give you the payload available for the tongue weight of the trailer. Looking at the trailer specs you have a dry tongue weight percentage of just under 15%. Using that number for the trailer's GVW you will get a tongue weight of 588 lbs which exceeds your vehicle's tow rating. So you would need to keep the total weight of trailer under 3300 lbs to get the tongue weight to 500 lbs. Looking at the general weights from the Toyota literature I suspect you will be close to or over your payload capacity as well at 500 lbs tongue weight.

If the Highlander is similar to our old 2001 Explorer you would also likely need a weight distribution hitch to put weight back on the front wheels. I don't know if the Highlander recommends using one or not. We certainly needed it with our Palomini 142CK which has a loaded weight of 3100 lbs and a loaded tongue weight of about 370 lbs (12%). We've since replaced the Explorer with an F-150 it isn't an issue anymore.

As far as the trailer quality goes I would say our Palomini isn't any better or worse than the RV industry as a whole. In other words it had it share of problems the during the first year from a one where I had a dealer fix them to others I just did myself with parts sent to me by Palomino. We don't regret buying it and plan on keeping it for another couple/few years before going to something slightly larger. One thing though is I would not get one with the wall mounted A/C again. It is too small to keep up with hot weather particularly if you are in the sun. The Palomini's are framed for a 13.5K roof mount and I would be sure to buy one with that .

[LuckyTraveler]

Hi! We drove to michigan in may to pick up our new 180fb Real lite (same thing as a palomini) we pulled it home to colorado with our Jeep grand Cherokee 3.7 Laredo. No tow package, but a transmission cooler. Camped once with it loaded. We LOVE it!!!!! The jeep has no problem pulling it, although my husband said it was working hard getting up steep terrain to 6,000 ft. (We live at 5,000ft) Its perfect, has everything we need, tons of storage (i had some empty cabinets on our first trip!) and easy to pull. Last Fall, we had a hard time finding reviews on it because its fairly new, but what i read was good. All RVs will have a few problems, we've encounted a couple silly things, that were quick fixes. Im so excited about this trailer, all i want to do now is camp!!!! I hope this helped! We have a sway bar and WDH. Good luck to you!