I built a camping trailer and towed it to Arizona

[grilled cheeseus]

Sharing this to inspire the curious and refute the naysayers regarding long-distance towing with a Yaris.

I built a camping/travel trailer on a $300 Harbor Freight "super duty folding trailer" frame and drove from NY to AZ over ~2 weeks last fall, about 900 pounds towed, zero issues with my '07 hatchback (on its third cross-continent trip).







Yes, it's slow going over 6000 foot mountain passes, but the roads are full of vehicles with a worse power/weight ratio (e.g. semi trucks), and they do just fine too.

Blog post about the trailer (written before the trip):

https://blog.c-mart.in/posts/hazard-...travel-trailer

Photo album of the trailer build last Spring:

https://imgur.com/a/3hfjtIH

Some things I've done to my Yaris:

• Curt 11050 "hidden-style" hitch bolted to the recovery points
• Curt 45028 ball mount with 4 5/8" rise (very recommended to lift your ball)
• Firestone 4136 air spring kit (very recommended, eliminates saggy rear, easy to install)
• This trailer wiring harness kit, spliced into the rear brakes and turn signals
• 5000 lumen light bar from Walmart (stupid and unnecessary, therefore necessary)
• Junkyard alloy rims from a Chevy Aveo (same as above)

Some shots of the trip to Arizona..

Random pee break:



If this is OK, then towing 900 pounds with a Yaris is definitely OK:



If this is OK (yes they are all connected) then what I'm doing is definitely OK:



Sleeping at a rest stop:



Stayed in St. Louis for a week to attend a conference. The motel let me to park next to the front office for security:



Spent a few days in Tulsa OK to help some people from the internet build a boat:



They taught me to weld, so I disabled the "tilt bed" feature on the trailer frame. Taking this slop out of the trailer tongue made the entire ride less jouncy:



Somewhere in New Mexico:



Final sleep on the road, I-10 in SE Arizona:



Rolling into Tucson (destination and where I am currently):



I've been living out of the trailer (in a friend's backyard) since October. I doubled the electrical system capacity (another AGM battery and solar panel) to take advantage of the Arizona sun and charge my Onewheel (which I use to commute to work).

Later this spring I'll de-snowbird back to NY, probably via the Pacific Northwest.