Break Aways

[Crankarm]

I am pretty new to RV'ing, and even newer to pulling a toad. Our particular set up is a Demco Kar Kaddy (surge brakes) with a Honda CRV on it.
I am interested to hear from those with experience just how break aways happen. Is there a common equipment malfunction, common operator error? I would just like to learn from those with experience rather than learning the hard way on my own.

[Jim Stewart]

I do not have a tow dolly, I have a tow bar. It has a coupler like your tow dolly and hitches to a ball on a receiver on the MH. In my case the nut on the bolt end of the ball came loose and after a few hundred miles, the ball fell out of the receiver.

I had on the safety chains and did not lose the car, but I did have to stop the car with the MH. All in all, not a horrible problem other than the $1,000.00 plus costs and a new pair of underwear! The same is one possibility on tow dolly.

Another potential problem on some dolly/toad combinations, is sharp turns causing the wheels on the dolly to impact the side of the toad. This is not true with all dollys, I do not know about yours.

[footdoc]

why even use a dolly when your CRV can go 4 down? A towbar makes a much more stable tow too...

[wa8yxm]

I agree with the 4-down. Easier to hook up, Easier to drop, Nothing to store (THe tow bar, depending on the type, remains attached to one or the other vehicle) I like the US-Gear Unified brake Decelrator instead of surge brakes but there if you like surge brakes Ready Brake is a good system too. Both are easy to hook up (US-Gear, if you do it right, takes about zero seconds to hook up. not counting the break-a-way cable, (1 second) My install is 2-3 seconds.)

And a very important fact is since you are hauling less weight you get better MPG... even if ti's only 0.1 MPG diffeent. that adds up