Dolly my car or pull it

[Grenadiers]

Originally Posted by Rockwood27

As far as brake wear is concerned, supplemental brakes in the toad or on the dolly will solve that problem. A dolly will add around 500 lbs to the tow weight. Most newer cars won't have milage added while towing.

You can't use a supplemental braking system on a vehicle that's towed with a tow dolly. The straps over the front tires will come loose, as the tow dolly brakes and vehicle brakes fight each other when applied. Did that once, almost lost the vehicle!

[Grenadiers]

We have a Remco setup in our RV by the PO for his car. Don't use it, but here's the info on it. Lube Pump Kits : Remco

We flat-tow our Jeep Wrangler, using a Blue Ox, with a Brake Buddy in the front floor. Quite a bit of setup time to get everything done, including running the separate brake lights out back. However, with the 8.3L Cummins engine in our Vectra, we hardly know it's back there. In the future, I'll investigate setting the Jeep brakes and lights for use.

I've done all three types of towing, trailer, flat-tow, and dolly. The dolly was the least favorite method of towing. Finding a place to store it, and me being older now, hard to maneuver it around a campsite!

[dix39]

Originally Posted by barmcd

I thought you couldn't back up with a four down toad either. Am I mistaken?

In my experience with both a dolly and 4 down it is not impossible to back, but very difficult to do and only straight back for very short distances.

IMHO, this can put a lot of strain on the towed vehicle and attaching mechanisms both between the dolly and vehicle and between the dolly/vehicle and tow vehicle. Also when 4 down the front wheels of the towed vehicle would always turn all the way to the left or right and slide.

In the very few times we have done this 4 down I had my wife walk beside the vehicle holding the steering wheel to keep the front wheels straight and backed very slowly. With the dolly it was also done very slowly and if the rear of the vehicle on the dolly turned left or right at all I would pull forward and try again.

That has been my experience. Others may be different.

Steve

[Bucky573]

if you ever strap a car to a tow dolly on a 86 degree+ day in high humidity, you'll wish you were towing four down. You'll sweat hooking up the tow bar and safety cables, but you won't need a shower. Don't even think about doing the dolly thing on asphalt in the heat.










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[POPPASMURF]

There have been no comments about hooking up the extra toad braking system in the toad vehicle and the service work that is needed to keep them in top working condition. My thoughts are, I like the dolly, if off roading and I brake a drive shaft or some other part that gives a problem- I can still get the toad home on the dolly.

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by Bucky573

if you ever strap a car to a tow dolly on a 86 degree+ day in high humidity, you'll wish you were towing four down. You'll sweat hooking up the tow bar and safety cables, but you won't need a shower. Don't even think about doing the dolly thing on asphalt in the heat.










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It is kind of amusing reading some of the problems with STRAPPING cars to dollys.

Sun to hot, drive to a shady spot.

Ground not level, drive to a level spot.

Ground muddy, drive out of muddy spot.

Blocking the road, drive to a wide spot.

Takes to long, what's the hurry, start sooner.

Raining, hook up, before or after.

Hands get dirty, no sink ?

Unfortunately for the anti-dolly crowd, it makes sense to some of us. I won't list the benefits.

[Scarab0088]

Why not rent a U-Haul dolly for a local weekend trip. That will show you if it is such a problem (it was not a problem for us). And if you do, please be aware, U-Haul uses probably the heaviest/strongest dolly made, but their dollies might not have brakes.

Then, as an informed customer, you can buy a nice dolly of your liking -or- sell the Honda and get a car that can be flat towed.

Best luck

P.S. We dolly tow. Our dolly has its own brakes. We can load and unload as fast or faster than our travel partners who flat tow. And our car will never have the wear and tear on the lower driveline or rock strikes on the nose, and there's no mounts or holes placed in the critical crush zone of the car like for flat towing.

[nothermark]

Might be that a lot (most) of us agree with twinboat as well are smart enough to hook up the car the night before. As far as that goes 10 minutes of hot and sticky is 10 minutes of hot and sticky. Then there is the basic fact that we do not let 4 down tow-ability dictate what we drive most of the time.

[Dennis Dean]

Originally Posted by Scarab0088

We dolly tow. Our dolly has its own brakes. We can load and unload as fast or faster than our travel partners who flat tow. And our car will never have the wear and tear on the lower driveline or rock strikes on the nose, and there's no mounts or holes placed in the critical crush zone of the car like for flat towing.

Good points by all the dolly owners. I understand the 4 down ease. I was all set to 4 down until I learned how limited the 4 down vehicle list was. I don't want to own a standard shift and most the automatics with the exception of Jeep require a pretty extensive list of add-ons to be able to 4 down tow. I am a part timer so I think that factors into the decision as well. If I was full time and lived in the southwest or west and did a lot of BLM camping, a jeep and 4 down would probably be a good investment for my coach. I don't, and I have no plans to either at the present. My Hyundai gets 35-40 MPG, seats 4 comfortably and is a great vehicle for just about any city exploration. I don't have to buy another vehicle just to pull, or trade a vehicle that I enjoy just to have it as my 4 down. My dolly has been very easy to load and unload, pull and has one of the best braking system on the market. I have a small rubberized mat I carry for all sorts of purposes, and use it when I put my car on the dolly for safety chains or just general purpose during hook-up. I've loaded in the dark and by myself, each take me a few extra minutes but I'm not in a dolly NASCAR race so who cares. I have gloves so if the straps are wet or its hot out again I'm protected. So I am a dolly person and very happy with my choice, each person has to weight their choice, but Dollies have been around for a long time. I don't think you'll find any safer way to tow or any statistics that say 4 down is safer or better than dollies. They are both good tow methods and each have their pros and cons.

Good luck

[pushtrk99]

I /WE totally agree with DENNIS DEAN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rich & Audrey
pauperspride.blogspot.com

[CampDaven]

I'm a simple Wrangler guy. It's what I love! 4-down is it. Pros and cons mean nothing. Going off-road is everything!


Dave and Nola, RV Mutants

[Bill Grimsle]

Grenadier,

Thank you for info. Being a newbie had considered getting a dolly with brakes and then adding auxilary brake system for toad. Your comment hit home, makes sense, and saves me money. Also, thought weight of FWD Camry rear end light compared to front end and dolly brakes should solve problem of any potential jack knifing.

[Forza Tom]

Originally Posted by paulchinnici

Hi guys my wife and I are new to the rv life and last year we had a blast but the problem was when we went places we were stuck there with no car and we missed out on a ton of stuff to do. This year we are looking into getting some sort of tow system for our car but are not sure what to get. I have herd people say that pulling your car can kill the breaks and adds milage and using a dolly puts added weight. just looking for some direction before the RV season starts. Have a great day everyone.

As one who has towed both with a dolly and 4 down I can tell you for me 4 down was the way to go.

I found dolly town to be a pain. Hooking and unhooking was more difficult and then you sometimes had issues with storing the dolly.

Getting set up for 4 down towing was a bit more pricy than the dolly but IMO worth it.

The other option not being talked about is renting a car.

Enterprise will deliver a car to you and depending on the are of the country you can rent for $50/day sometimes less.

So even though I can tow my Ford Edge 4 down sometimes I rent if I only need a car for a day or 2 rather than drag my car all over.

Just another option

[vsheetz]

Jeep here. Four down. No way I want to fool with handling and stowing a tow dolly, and maintain it.

As to cost. I have ~$750 in my setup bought mostly used. Blue Ox tow bar, Brake Buddy, Blue Ox bolt on brackets to aftermarket number, and lights.