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Originally Posted by BCam
Good information. I have an EZE Tow but haven't had a chance to use it yet. Thanks.
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Keep a good eye on your mirrors. If you're on a lane that is less than 12' wide, such as I-75 inside Atlanta at 11' or side roads where the lanes may be 10' wide, it can be very easy for the passenger side dolly tire to be on or over the white line. More than once we saw that and there can be more debris off to the right on the berm of an interstate. Or a ditch on the side roads. :(
The dolly tows great and we had zero issues with it in the one year we owned it. We were towing a Hyundai Sonata and there were a number of things we had to keep an eye on.
For example, the inside of each basket strap can chafe on the shock tower so when crawling underneath to fasten the safety chains I always made sure I could reach up and stick a finger between the strap and the car's structure. If not I had to reposition the strap. Once I got it right, I took a picture of the strap so I knew where it had to be with respect to the rim to minimize the chance of chafing. But I still always checked. That one cross-strap had to be moved to a closer "slot" because it would not be so low on the inside of the tire. Looked odd but it worked.
The safety chain front end being slipped into the "banjo" slot bothered me and others. As others did, I added a carabiner to that end of the each safety chain and looped the chain back on to itself. That eliminated any chance the safety chain could pop out of the banjo slot on a rough road.
The Sonata is a bit wide and it always was a challenge getting it centered on the dolly and not on the dolly at an angle. It almost always required multiple attempts to get it right. Once we got it right I measured the distance from the edge of the dolly to the rim to assure I was within an inch of equal on each side every time.
If the dolly was not perfectly straight behind the motorhome when taking the car off that caused the car to be at a bit of an angle on the dolly. That meant I could not get a ramp hook in place. I made the rear of each basket strap look like a small inverted "V" to help get the ramps on. But more than once I had to really crank down hard on the winch on that side to smash the tire down so I could slip the ramp in place.
A ratcheting wrench from Home Depot works great and I highly recommend it.
Yes, it is entirely normal for one tire or the other to not be up against the front of the dolly if the dolly and car are not perfectly straight behind the motorhome.
Yes, you need to stop in the first few miles and tighten the straps. But not after that and once we towed the car for five days and only had to tighten the straps that one time.
When checking the strap tightness, look closely at the front of the tire where the strap enters the winch. You do not want the strap to be on an angle because the edge of the strap will chafe on the edge of the winch. If you see the strap on an angle, loosen the strap a bit and shove the front of the strap over and then tighten the strap again.
Hope this helps.
Ray
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