I think one of the great things about the Happier Camper HC1 is that it feels so accessible, particularly for people like me and Mike where we don’t want to do hard core camping but are more like glampers. And if you are like us, towing the camper was an intimidating thought. So with that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to share a sort of ‘Towing the HC1 101’ with a run down of what I know from our own experience with the help of some visuals like the one below from Curt Manufacturing which shows all the major components for towing your camper. Spoiler alert - we needed something in addition so read on!
Let’s start with your tow vehicle
You’ve probably seen the Happier Camper video with the Mini Countryman towing the HC1 and thought - is that really possible? Yes, it is. We towed our HC1 for the first 2 years with a Fiat 500X and that includes our inaugural cross-country trip from California to Massachusetts as well as a trip up the Cabot Trail which, if you are not familiar with it, is wicked steep. But here is the question you are really asking…
I can, but SHOULD I? Yeah, I have no idea really. I know that the Fiat 500X’s owner’s manual in the US says, don’t tow with it. I know that in Europe, they tow with them. Cars are generally rated to tow 2k pounds and the dry weight on the HC1 is 1,100 pounds, probably 1,400 pounds when fully kitted out for a trip. I can only tell you we did and we didn’t have any problems.
Your hitch & electrical connection
I used to think of the hitch and the ball as a single thing, but for reasons that will become clearer below, I’m breaking these into two topics.
While there are 5 different types of hitches (receiver, 5th wheel, gooseneck, weight distribution and pintle - yeah, I looked that up), the hitch you want to install to pull your Happier Camper is a Class 2 receiver hitch which is what you see above. The receiver tube is part of the hitch and it let’s you connect the ball mount (which includes the trailer ball) so that you can pull your camper.
You also want a way to connect the camper to your car electrically - think, I want the brake lights on the camper to work while I’m towing it (this has nothing to do with the power you need in the camper for interior lights, plugging in your margarita machine etc so go check out the Power Article for more on that). To do this, you will need a 7-pin connector installed and they will do this when they install the hitch. The picture above shows it (trailer wiring harness) hanging down, but ideally it is mounted up under the bumper so you don’t run the risk of it dragging. And I’d be very specific on this point up front as a friend went to UHaul and they were going to install a 4-pin until he said something.
Looking at the FB group, there are four options people use to get a hitch installed:
You install it yourself. Yeah, probably don’t do that. This just feels like something a professional should do. Unless you are one of our super handy FB group members who feels totally confident doing this that is.
Your dealership installs it. This seems like a good option and there might be a warranty upside, but it’s probably a little pricey.
UHaul - We used UHaul on our Fiat 500x when we first got the HC1 and it was absolutely fine. I have heard from some people that their local UHaul didn’t seem to have a lot of experience with this, so I would just go with your gut. If they don’t inspire confidence, probably look at another option.
A local garage - We took this route when we got another car that we wanted to tow with. Why? Well, it was a new Porsche Macan and the dealership wanted extortionist pricing to install their version and I wasn’t confident about having the UHaul guys do it since the car has a big butt (technical car term) and it needed to mount really low and under… more on that below. But this worked out great for us and let me know if you are in Norwood, MA and you need a guy.
The ball mount & trailer ball
For starters, you need to know how high the trailer ball has to be to pull the trailer. I thought this image from etrailer was a good one to show you why you have to get this right. If the ball is too low or too high, you won’t be towing. It needs to be at the right height for the trailer.
Happier Camper says that the HC1 without a lift package should have the 2” ball sit 15” off the ground. If you’ve got the lift package, it should be 17”. Makes sense, right? The lift package lets the camper ride higher off the ground so the ball mount on the hitch has to ride higher to tow it properly.
We mistakenly thought - ok, we have the hitch installed, it came with a 2” ball mount so we are all set. Nope. We had something like this, which is noted in the above picture as the ball mount and trailer ball.
Looks pretty good, right? That’s what we thought too. Well thankfully before we drove across country to pick up the trailer, Mike somehow thought to ask about the height of the ball hitch and we were a couple inches too low. We had never towed before so we never even thought to consider this and finding that out when you know nothing about pulling a trailer freaks you out. But the solve was really simple, just get a raised trailer hitch, so we got this.
This was exactly what we needed for the HC1, driving it with a Fiat 500x. The raised trailer hitch goes into the receiving tube and is locked into place with a hitch pin and clip. Then the 2” ball mount goes into the opening on the raised trailer hitch and voila, you can tow! Here is my rather crude attempt to provide a modified version of the above.
And this was perfect for towing with the Fiat 500x. We were able to pick up the camper and driver her across country and everywhere in between for 2 years….
But then we got a new car and I wanted to be able to tow with it as well. And once again, it never occurred to us that we’d need to do anything other than have the trailer hitch mounted to the back of the car - we figured we would use the same configuration as you see in the blue box above. Not so much. And this is where the Porsche big butt comes into play. The receiver tube was so far underneath the back of the car, that we needed to get this.
This trailer hitch extension gave us the clearance we needed to be able to insert the raised trailer hitch, then the ball mount. But we did actually have an unusual problem that I should tell you about. When we got the extension, Mike went out to the car to put it on to make sure it was going to work - and it didn’t fit. It would go into the receiver tube but not all the way and we couldn’t get the hitch pin to slide all the way through. Thankfully my nephew is a mechanic who owns his own garage (hit me up if you need a guy in Dorchester, MA) and he was able to grind the edge a bit so that it would fit. Phew!
Here is my attempt at depicting the Fiat tow configuration vs. what we needed for the Macan.
And the moral of the story is… don’t freak out about towing. Each piece you might need is out there and probably really easy to get. What’s important is that you understand 1) can your vehicle tow the camper when it is fully loaded, 2) for your car, how high is the ball hitch compared to the camper requirement and 3) is the hitch installed such that you need an extension to be able to successfully put in the extension and/or ball hitch.
As I wrote this article and searched for pictures to help illustrate what I’m talking about, I found this article on Curt. It was a great resource that you may want to check out as well. Leave any questions or comments you have and I will do my best to answer!