I presently own a '94 Dodge Caravan, 3.0 V-6, Automatic. The pop up models I'm looking at will probably weigh around 2400#GVWR. We are a family of 4.

Any comments?

George

Wish I could help. We just bought a Flagstaff 206 PU and the TV is a '04 Caravan with the 3.3L. Haven't even had time to get a hitch mounted to the van yet. Hopefully someone that is using one of these combinations will chime in.

You best ask Your dealer about the price of the new or rebuilt trannys.They are a weak,weak thing with the vans like Yours..John

George
We towed our Viking with a 98 Caravan 3.0 V6 before I got my truck. They redesigned the Caravan in 1996 so I don't know if my power train is different significantly from yours. Caravan transmissions make me nervous so we put on a transmission cooler and went with a very small pop-up. Our trailer is the 8 foot box with no options and probably weighs 1400-1500 lbs loaded. We also are a family of 4 and towed with the Caravan fairly well but I tried to baby it as much as possible while towing. We towed from Ontario to Disney World with 4 bikes on top of the trailer (alot of wind drag) and didn't have any problem. I towed with water tank empty and bought food, ice etc when we got there to cut down on weight. GVWR is about 2100 lbs I think.
If you aren't going too far with too much stuff you can probably do it, if you are going cross country keep it as light as possible. Our Caravan is at about 120 000 miles and no transmission problems but it is retired from trailer towing.
Don't know if this helps.
Pete.

You the Man one good tranny out of ?? a few Billion I whish no one tranny troubles.But You did give a lot of real good advice I hope with that He has a lot of good LUCK..John

I had a 89 Plymouth Voyger that I pulled a Coleman Williamsburg with. The van was the short wheelbase and had the 3.0 V6. the dry weight of the camper was 1500 lbs. If I remember corectly the weight limit of that van was 2000 lbs. I never had any transmission problems, but I did break a front motor mount.
When we traded for a Palomeno popup the dry weight of it was 2500 lbs. and I did not even try to pull it with the Plymouth. My wife had an Areostar with a 3.0 V6 so we tried useing it as a tow vehicle, but it just did not have enough power so we traded for a 1/2 ton pickup.

We had a 2000 dodge grand caravan se 3.3L. We were pulling an old Palomino (< 10 foot box) with it. Worked great! Even went across SD!

Dodge is known to have issues with there tranny, somthing in the design. You will get stuck with this weather you tow or not. It all depends on how long you keep the van.

Get a tranny cooler and change the tranny fluid once a year.

We had zero problems with our van. We owned it for 3 years before trading it for an Explorer. I needed more muscle for a bigger pu.

Good luck!

George what is the towing capacity printed in your vans owners manual? Knowing you George, Your going to have to "control" yourself as what you pack. A pound saved here, a few there and so on. Remember you will be camping with the "Pond Piggies" so you can borrow what you can't bring. I'll bring the firewood. I would pack very conservitively your first trip out, and go from there. Didn't you say you were thinking about adding something like air shocks ??? Our neighbor had two different Caravans between 90' 97' and had tranny problems in both.

quote:

Originally posted by Superslif:
George what is the towing capacity printed in your vans owners manual? ...Our neighbor had two different Caravans between 90' 97' and had tranny problems in both.

Our pop up has a GVWR of 2000#. Thus far, I've towed it with my 4-cyl/5-speed minivan, and that was without any camping equipment in the pop up or van. Yes, it would be better to tow it with my wife's 6-cyl/Automatic, but I'm afraid of the transmission problems so characteristic of Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth minivans. The cost of an ATX rebuild at the Dodge dealer starts at $1500.00, although a reputable local transmission shop will rebuilt it for approx. $1000. Whereas the cost of replacing the clutch module on the MTX (unitized clutch plate, pressure plate, and throw-out bearing) is approximately $350.

quote:

Knowing you George, You're going to have to "control" yourself as what you pack.

We are going to completely set up the camper right here in the yard. We will only pack the items that we need.

quote:

A pound saved here, a few there and so on... I would pack very conservitively your first trip out, and go from there.

Back when we owned the 2000 Trail Lite travel trailer, we weighed the unit empty, then we weighed each and every item that we loaded in the camper. We are very aware of trailer weights and balanced loading.

quote:

Remember you will be camping with the "Pond Piggies" so you can borrow what you can't bring. I'll bring the firewood.

That thought makes me feel good, and secure among friends.

quote:

Didn't you say you were thinking about adding something like air shocks ???

Yes I did say that to you. However I've since learned that this is a no-no on Chrysler-built minivans due to the presence of a load-sensing valve on the rear axle which adjusts rear braking power according to the load inside the van. So I'm not going to add the Firestone RideRite air springs as I once thought I would, unless I learn something differently.

George

I towed the pop up with the 4-cylinder 5-speed in my 1993 Plymouth Voyager. It was slow, but we went 211 miles and got 21 MPG !!!!! I can drive slower for that milage pulling a trailer!

George