Today’s tip is from the forum at FTRV.com
LindaH says:
If you have a toad that is towable 4-down, either “as is,” or with an after-market add-on (such as a lube pump or a transmission disconnect), towing 4-down is much preferrable over towing with a dolly.
One of the disadvantages of towing with a dolly is what to do with the dolly when you’re at an RV park. It may not be a problem if you stay someplace for a long time, but if you move every few days, it could quickly become a PITA to take the car on and off the dolly and then to find a place to store the dolly if the site isn’t big enough for your RV, your toad, and the dolly.
Another thing to consider is what happens if you get yourself into a position where you have to unhook the toad in order to back up a long way (and sooner or later, you’ll get into this position). With a toad 4-down, it’s a simple matter of unhooking the toad, having one person drive the RV and one person drive the toad. However, with a tow dolly, you have to drop the dolly along side the road, leave it there and come back for it later. That could REALLY be a PITA!
JungleJom says:
It is true that many people have problems storing their tow dollies in SOME RV parks. Using a tow dolly is usually a much more inexpensive way of towing than outfitting a towed vehicle for four down towing. The problem mentioned by the other post is really not that big of a problem, even if you do get in a situation where you need to unhook and drive the towed vehicle, just have a trailer hitch on your towed vehicle and hook the tow dolly to it if that happens. Tow dollies are very easy to move around by hand and can be turned around easily.
The advantages of the tow dolly is that you do not need to outfit your towed vehicle with any special equipment to tow it, you can trade in your towed vehicle without having all that expense a second time, and the front end of your towed vehicle as well as the windshield are higher off the road and don’t catch quite as much road debris coming off the MH tires.
Pretty much a matter of how much money you want to spend to outfit your towed vehicle and how long you plan to keep it. I used tow dollies for many years and never had a problem. I don’t see any more work to hooking up a tow dolly than a vehicle being towed 4 down, and most being towed 4 down also need a braking system on them, and a good quality tow dolly comes with brakes that just need to be plugged in. As I watch some trying to hook up their braking systems, I sometimes have to wonder WHY would they go to all that trouble every time they hook up.
What do you think? add your comments.
So its funny you post this cause i have the same issue. Just bought our first RV to drive from virginia to alaska so thinking all I can do is really tow a car on a tow dolly. then I learn about toads and towing 4 wheels down. I find out there are only certain vehicles that can actually do this. SO back to the dolly. i am surprised to find(not really thinking when we purchased our RV) that our RV can only tow 3500. The car we want to tow weighs very close to 3500 so adding a tow dolly(750 lbs) will take us over our limit.
Getting to why I answered to you, Through my frantic research to find out if there were ways around this weight issue and what it really meant for my situation…. I found that most motorhomes out there have a limit of 3500 towing (I looked up mainly C class). Then I looked into purchasing a tow dolly vs tow bar and found that they are similar in price (not including if you have to install the pumps in such). You ask why do people go through the trouble of hooking up the brake kits vs owning a tow dolly? Probably because of the extra convience of not having to deal with the tow dolly when your not using it and the extra weight it adds.
Well long road to my answer but I needed to vent 😛
I’ve always towed a Jeep Wrangler 4 down with smaller Class C. Just bought 2010 Jayco Seneca w/Duramax turbo diesel. Although Jeep was easy to hook up & tow, it was miserably uncomfortable to ride. Have ’07 Hyundai Veracruz Limited (extremely comfortable and can take passengers!). Can’t tow with bar, so am having to get a tow dolly. Although I’m not thrilled about this, it’s the only way I can do it (other than trailer which adds more weight) My new Jayco has 8000 lb tow limit. So figure the Veracruz & dolly won’t come near that. Agree that towing 4 down is the best & easiest. What to do with dolly can sometimes be a problem. But some conviently fold up making it easier. But you gotta do what you gotta do.
P. S. Ryan not all Class C’s have 3500 limit. Of course this means larger ones like one I just bought. Had 31 foot gasser that had 3500 limit however.
Okay, I’ve got to go the tow dolly route since my car can’t be “fixed” to do otherwise. So what’s a good safe speed (barring weather & terrain considerations) that most folks tow behind a big Class C? Thanks.