We don't want to tow anything!!!

[chasfm11]

Originally Posted by azloafer

So, everything considered, it seems that towing something over four thousand miles would not be practical. Tow bars, Brake systems, need a tow-able car... a lot of fussing around!

Here is a question: Do any of your non-RVing friends ever give you the "a lot of fussing around" line about using your RV? We know quite a few people who have never been in an RV who think that the whole experience is just too much fuss and bother. Setting up, tearing down, etc.. "Why would you ever want to do that??" I'll bet that you feel differently and have a a hard time getting them to understand.

We were fortunate. We had our first toad as a daily driver before we ever thought of buying an RV. It even matched our MH. Let's talk about "fussing around".
1. A toad doesn't have to be only a toad. Our toads have always been daily drivers. Our first Saturn SL-1 had 80K miles on it before we made it into a toad. We recently found a very clean 2005 Vue. It is hard to tell that it is a toad just by looking at it. It gets lots of miles besides towing it. Note: towed miles do not register on the odometer.
2. Tow bars are a hassle. There is no doubt about the difficulty or expense of getting the first towbar. It didn't go well for us. The dealer put the baseplate on it took several weeks to get everything right. We were nervous the first couple of times out That was 5 years ago and the tow bar is now just a part of our RV.
3. Setting up a toad is a hassle. No doubt about that for us the first time around. When we got our Vue, I ordered the baseplate for it directly and put it on myself. It was a hassle. It turned out to be a $400 expense and a few hours of my time. I did my own wiring and installed the brake system myself, too. Neither of those was difficult, just a little time consuming. A couple of mores hours out of my life. We bought the brake system for our first toad and I simply moved it over. The advantage of self-install is that you know exactly how things go together.
4. It is a hassle to tow. All but a few hundred of the 40K miles that we've put on our RV have been with toad over 6 years. There have been less than a hand full of times when the toad was a hassle. Go down a narrow road and you may have to unhook to back out. In some CGs where you have to back in and there is limited space, finding a place to put the toad while you do that can be a hassle. Other than that, it is no problem at all. Length will driving is not an issue - I just have make allowance for it. Generally, if we could have pulled off someplace without the toad, the toad's extra length does not stop us from pulling off.
5. It is a hassle to hook and unhook. Nope. After you have done it a few times, it is easy. You do have to concentrate but that lasts for less than 2 minutes. As long as the toad gets positioned correctly behind the MH, hookup takes less time than it does for the air to come up and us to drive off.
6. The toad takes extra fuel. Nope. There is no apparent difference in fuel mileage with or without the toad. What takes fuel is pushing the heavy box through the wind. The toad just drafts behind.

I'm not trying to join the chorus of "you must have a toad". I'm simply trying to bust some myths about it not being practical to have a toad.

Now to the advantages:
1. In an emergency or breakdown situation, you have options. Sometimes, things can happen which would disable both vehicles at the same time. In all other cases, the toad would give us options in the case of problems with the MH. On longer trips, those options equal peace of mind for me.
2. It's your schedule. We've rented with Enterprise on trips and you can do it. But you now have to deal with another group and it can take hours. I can hook and unhook my toad hundreds of times for the extra time that we've spent renting cars. If you do it often, you've easily eaten up the savings for not buying a tow bar.
3. Sightseeing. As another poster pointed out, sightseeing with a toad is a lot easier. On a trip to Yellowstone, we were at Fishing Bridge for 5 days and the Grand Tetons for 3 more. We put a lot of miles on the toad in between moving the RV. Renting a car was possible in West Yellowstone but it was have been a real hassle picking it up and returning it. We just hooked and unhooked the same as a weekend camping trip.
4. You've obviously done well without a toad for short trips. We're the opposite and most of our trips are short weekend stays, too. We always manage to forget something or want to do an activity that is greater than reasonable walking distance. DW has a bad knee so having a way to shuffle back and forth, even shorter distances within a CG is helpful. We never go even 40 miles without a toad. It is just a personal choice. I can remember one New Year's Eve camping trip when we had a water heater failure. I sure would have hated to pack up up the RV and drive 70 miles one way to get the part. With the toad, DW was able to rest by the fire while I did the parts run in the toad. P.S.- we were only 40 miles from our house when this happened but because of the holiday, all of the local places were closed and we wanted to have the water heater for the rest of the 3 day weekend.

[Jimmyzw22]

Originally Posted by HMXDave

I wish that ATV/Quads were legal to licence for the roads like many European countries. We boondock 95% of the time with our enclosed ATV trailer behind us and it would be nice to be able to legally run into town for supplies on the quad. We are half-heartedly looking at the scooter idea though....

We own a house in Idaho near Twin Falls and there you can legally license quads for the street. It all depends on what the county rules are.

[69RoadRunner]

If you don't want a toad and can accept the limitations, then go out and enjoy.

I agree, however, with the reasons listed above that a toad makes the RVing experience more enjoyable. Once you have the toad set up, it's really not much hassle.

Now if you use a trailer, like I do when towing my Road Runner, that is a hassle. When I tow the Ford Taurus X 4 wheels down, it's a breeze.

I have 2 young kids and sometimes take the out-laws, too, so I wanted a toad that could handle 6 people and carry a double stroller. That's what works for me.

[HMXDave]

Originally Posted by 69RoadRunner

I have 2 young kids and sometimes take the out-laws, too, so I wanted a toad that could handle 6 people and carry a double stroller. That's what works for me.

That load wouldn't even fill the trunk and back seat of the Runner! LOL. (Mopar fan here....just teasin')

[RJay]

Originally Posted by azloafer

I searched all over and this seemed like the best place to post this. We do not have a toad. Our lifestyle has not required a toad. We are weekenders until DW retires. We pick out a nearby (within 2 hours) campground and stay put. We just got done driving so why would we want to drive around in a toad? When DW retires, which may be soon, we would like to drive 2,000 miles (one way) to visit our children and grand children. We feel that we can rent a car somewhere near our final destination and park the MH in a campground. If our kids can't come to us we can use the rental to see them. So, everything considered, it seems that towing something over four thousand miles would not be practical. Tow bars, Brake systems, need a tow-able car... a lot of fussing around! We don't tow now so why tow at all, even on other trips? I couldn't post this in the "toad section" because I would have everyone telling us that we should always tow. So, this forum section seemed best or at least "neutral territory."

What do you think? Are we foolhardy or not? Is there anyone else that never tows or are we alone? Joe & Mary Beth

That's what is nice about Rving, It allows for variations for every situation so everyone can enjoy the experience in their own way.

[69RoadRunner]

Originally Posted by HMXDave

That load wouldn't even fill the trunk and back seat of the Runner! LOL. (Mopar fan here....just teasin')

Well, I have bucket seats with the "buddy seat"/armrest, so I can fit 6. With the car seats in the back, it's a tight squeeze to fit someone in the middle.

[kjburns]

Short trips and longer trips are entirely different animals. I think you'll find that there are too many times when you forget something and have to run to the store or just want to drive somewhere. Renting is an option, but it really isn't very convenient. We rented on our first trip and it was a pain. Our second trip was 3400 miles and there weren't any car rental places nearby. After that trip, we bought a Jeep Cherokee to tow. There are just too many times that we need it.

[a k]

When the other half starts crabbing about this and that, cut the toad and her loose and send her home.

[Curtis in TX]

Originally Posted by a k

When the other half starts crabbing about this and that, cut the toad and her loose and send her home.

I confess! I used my Toad to take Melissa to the Airport to fly her behind home, one very long trip clear across the Country a couple of years back. Couldn't get the Big Bus into the Little Airport Gateway Parking Lot.

Some times you gotta finish go solo.

[sknight]

The biggest part of being an individual is doing things how you want to and not worry about anyone else.

If you're happy stopping to get a rental and paying the money then that's fine. If you have to buy a towable then that $10K (est.) you'd lay out for a decent vehicle and tow setup will go a long way on rentals.

Next time you're camping near someone with a toad ask them to let you help hook it up. That will ease a lot of the hookup anxiety.

Honestly there's pluses and minuses to everything, you have to weigh them out for you and no one else.

[azloafer]

Originally Posted by chasfm11

Here is a question: Do any of your non-RVing friends ever give you the "a lot of fussing around" line about using your RV? We know quite a few people who have never been in an RV who think that the whole experience is just too much fuss and bother. Setting up, tearing down, etc.. "Why would you ever want to do that??" I'll bet that you feel differently and have a a hard time getting them to understand.

We were fortunate. We had our first toad as a daily driver before we ever thought of buying an RV. It even matched our MH. Let's talk about "fussing around".
1. A toad doesn't have to be only a toad. Our toads have always been daily drivers. Our first Saturn SL-1 had 80K miles on it before we made it into a toad. We recently found a very clean 2005 Vue. It is hard to tell that it is a toad just by looking at it. It gets lots of miles besides towing it. Note: towed miles do not register on the odometer.
2. Tow bars are a hassle. There is no doubt about the difficulty or expense of getting the first towbar. It didn't go well for us. The dealer put the baseplate on it took several weeks to get everything right. We were nervous the first couple of times out That was 5 years ago and the tow bar is now just a part of our RV.
3. Setting up a toad is a hassle. No doubt about that for us the first time around. When we got our Vue, I ordered the baseplate for it directly and put it on myself. It was a hassle. It turned out to be a $400 expense and a few hours of my time. I did my own wiring and installed the brake system myself, too. Neither of those was difficult, just a little time consuming. A couple of mores hours out of my life. We bought the brake system for our first toad and I simply moved it over. The advantage of self-install is that you know exactly how things go together.
4. It is a hassle to tow. All but a few hundred of the 40K miles that we've put on our RV have been with toad over 6 years. There have been less than a hand full of times when the toad was a hassle. Go down a narrow road and you may have to unhook to back out. In some CGs where you have to back in and there is limited space, finding a place to put the toad while you do that can be a hassle. Other than that, it is no problem at all. Length will driving is not an issue - I just have make allowance for it. Generally, if we could have pulled off someplace without the toad, the toad's extra length does not stop us from pulling off.
5. It is a hassle to hook and unhook. Nope. After you have done it a few times, it is easy. You do have to concentrate but that lasts for less than 2 minutes. As long as the toad gets positioned correctly behind the MH, hookup takes less time than it does for the air to come up and us to drive off.
6. The toad takes extra fuel. Nope. There is no apparent difference in fuel mileage with or without the toad. What takes fuel is pushing the heavy box through the wind. The toad just drafts behind.

I'm not trying to join the chorus of "you must have a toad". I'm simply trying to bust some myths about it not being practical to have a toad.

Now to the advantages:
1. In an emergency or breakdown situation, you have options. Sometimes, things can happen which would disable both vehicles at the same time. In all other cases, the toad would give us options in the case of problems with the MH. On longer trips, those options equal peace of mind for me.
2. It's your schedule. We've rented with Enterprise on trips and you can do it. But you now have to deal with another group and it can take hours. I can hook and unhook my toad hundreds of times for the extra time that we've spent renting cars. If you do it often, you've easily eaten up the savings for not buying a tow bar.
3. Sightseeing. As another poster pointed out, sightseeing with a toad is a lot easier. On a trip to Yellowstone, we were at Fishing Bridge for 5 days and the Grand Tetons for 3 more. We put a lot of miles on the toad in between moving the RV. Renting a car was possible in West Yellowstone but it was have been a real hassle picking it up and returning it. We just hooked and unhooked the same as a weekend camping trip.
4. You've obviously done well without a toad for short trips. We're the opposite and most of our trips are short weekend stays, too. We always manage to forget something or want to do an activity that is greater than reasonable walking distance. DW has a bad knee so having a way to shuffle back and forth, even shorter distances within a CG is helpful. We never go even 40 miles without a toad. It is just a personal choice. I can remember one New Year's Eve camping trip when we had a water heater failure. I sure would have hated to pack up up the RV and drive 70 miles one way to get the part. With the toad, DW was able to rest by the fire while I did the parts run in the toad. P.S.- we were only 40 miles from our house when this happened but because of the holiday, all of the local places were closed and we wanted to have the water heater for the rest of the 3 day weekend.

You have given me a lot to think about. Thanks for taking the time. Joe

[wa8yxm]

I am currently w/o towed as well.. This does present a problem when going to church. But otherwise we are living well this way.

ONE campground I stay at has a rule that you must be in your rig at night (no more than one night out consecutive) and what they look for is a towed on site.

So far, I've not had a problem (Since I check in w/o towed, perhaps it's noted in the security log I don't have one, plus if you walk behind me you will see my "Towed" has 18 speeds and pedals, no motor and it IS on site)

I got to check out a law or two.. I may invest in a Vespa as a towed. I can get a nice one for less than a kilobuck and it should have enough HP to haul this 300 pounds to church.. Problems are 1: Do I need a special license endorsement 2: Weight (I have to haul it) and 3: WIFE

[wkdwitch]

Just another thought to consider, by no means for everyone. This past October on our way south the MoHo had an inside rear blowout. Not such a big deal since we could ease off the Interstate, park the MoHo SAFELY away from traffic and use the tow car to locate the nearest tire place and arrange the swap.

No annoying coach net phone tag with a million numbers to get an answer. NO HOURS long wait alongside buzzing traffic. Just www tire, go, and DO. Back underway in under an hour for less than the cost of the aggravation of needing assistance. Gotta love that tow car. NEVER will I leave it home for a trip over 25 miles. Just one of my humble experiences.

[RCtime]

Other than the obvious reasons stated above, I have always felt comfortable knowing I have a 2nd form of transportation in case of breakdown.
More than likely you allready own an auto, so a dolly or tow set up if its capable 4 down and then take it with you or not. Your choice.
We like to go and usually be in one place for a week or 2-3 at a time. An auto for basic needs is a must for us.