Tow Dollies

[TROONORTH]

Scarab, may I ask where you bought your acme 'eze'?

[Scarab0088]

Originally Posted by TROONORTH

Scarab, may I ask where you bought your acme 'eze'?

Craigslist
The Mrs. and I are bargain shoppers so we were looking at second hand dolly's...we stumbled on our less than a year old EZE-tow from a Marine that was leaving the area in his Class "C". He had sold his car and intended to buy a new car at the other end.

Since we have had the EZE-tow for a while, we know now that we really lucked-out stumbling on to that dolly.

We had used a friends dolly and also rented a U-haul dolly a couple times before considering the dolly purchase, so we had an idea what we wanted. But the EZE-tow is better than anything we had seen for quality and ease of use.

If I had to do it again (and couldn't find another one used) I would buy an EZE-tow new from the mfgt...it's just that much better than the others I have used...cheaper too.

Car Tow Dolly -The Lightest and Toughest Tow Dolly For All Car Towing Needs - Acme Car Tow Dolly Company

[Sequim Guy]

I bought my eze-tow dolly new 2 years ago and it is great.
Everything Scarab0088 says is true.

(even though his signature says EXE-TOW, we know what he means)


.

[Scarab0088]

Originally Posted by Sequim Guy

I bought my eze-tow dolly new 2 years ago and it is great.
Everything Scarab0088 says is true.

(even though his signature says EXE-TOW, we know what he means)


.

DOH!!!! I had never looked at that since I created it
Let's see if it's fixed now Thanks for pointing it out

[ChileRick]

Since we are talking dolly, EZE TOW at that, I have a couple new-bee type questions.
I have a EZE-TOW being delivered this week, what I discovered I overlooked were the coupling
recommendations from ACME and WINNEBAGO. ACME wants the coupler no more than 16 inches off the ground,
And WINNEBAGO says I should not use more than a 4 inch drop off my 24 inch high receiver. That leaves me 4 inches short!!! Thoughts? ...trailer and car together about 4,000 lbs, RV say 5,000 max
Second question for dolly users, when cruising first come/first served campgrounds looking for a spot you drop car? Drop trailer? just hope for the best?

Thanks Rick

[Scarab0088]

Originally Posted by ChileRick

Since we are talking dolly, EZE TOW at that, I have a couple new-bee type questions.
I have a EZE-TOW being delivered this week, what I discovered I overlooked were the coupling
recommendations from ACME and WINNEBAGO. ACME wants the coupler no more than 16 inches off the ground,
And WINNEBAGO says I should not use more than a 4 inch drop off my 24 inch high receiver. That leaves me 4 inches short!!! Thoughts? ...trailer and car together about 4,000 lbs, RV say 5,000 max
Second question for dolly users, when cruising first come/first served campgrounds looking for a spot you drop car? Drop trailer? just hope for the best?

Thanks Rick

Rick,
Your first question doesn't have a simple answer, but you should have no problems - get the right drop hitch to get the recommended 16".

First, the receiver hitch (just like mine) being rated at 5,000lb is the "load" or "pull rating", so you are good with a 400lb EZE-Tow plus 4,000lb Toad.

Second, I'm sure that most every dolly mfgt will state that the hitch should be at a prescribed height. That's for 2 reasons. 1. The angle of the surface where the tires of the car ride should be as level as possible. The EZE tow doesn't have a tray, but still should be level or there would be a constant pressure pulling the car off the back. Then 2., There is a second rating on your hitch called "tongue weight rating." That is the amount of weight that can safely be placed on the hitch - pushing down on the ball. For a dolly, as you lift the tongue, you shift the cars weight back on the dolly and if you don't have at least a minimal tongue height, the shift of weight could be pulling the hitch off the ball.

Second question: It's a personal choice, but I don't drop the toad until I know I have to. And, at a RV Park I visited recently, they told me that they ask everyone to pull-in first, then disconnect at their designated flat spot, so you don't have any accidents like roll away toad.

Of course if you have to drive around to pick your spot, then dropping the toad would make it easy to pick your spot...in the toad

[sgtstriker]

Hi Folks, It would appear that the "Eze Tow" is a winner. Let me ask another odd question. I may want to have access to both a toad and a motorcycle. Would it be insane to tow a small pick-up with a large motorcycle in the bed of the pick-up? And, I suppose that the pick-up would have to be front wheel drive?
(You can tell that this is all new to me can't you...:-)

[Scarab0088]

Originally Posted by sgtstriker

Hi Folks, It would appear that the "Eze Tow" is a winner. Let me ask another odd question. I may want to have access to both a toad and a motorcycle. Would it be insane to tow a small pick-up with a large motorcycle in the bed of the pick-up? And, I suppose that the pick-up would have to be front wheel drive?
(You can tell that this is all new to me can't you...:-)

Towing a loaded pick-up on a dolly?

If I was doing this with a regular RWD pick-up, I think this is the one time I would argue that a "flat tow" would be your best option. You could do it as long as you don't overload the load rating of your hitch and GCWR of your MH.
(See: Gross combined weight rating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

I've read EZE-Tow, Master Tow, and U-Haul literture - and they agree that the towed vehicle must face forward, so unless you have one of those crazy front wheel drive VW Rabbit pick-ups, the drive wheels of the towed vehicle will be on the ground. Having the drive wheels of your TOAD on the ground kind'a kills one of the high points of a dolly.

I'm sure there is someone here that has done exactly what you want to do...and I would like to hear their story too.

Best of luck.

[tomwalt]

Originally Posted by ChileRick

Since we are talking dolly, EZE TOW at that, I have a couple new-bee type questions.
I have a EZE-TOW being delivered this week, what I discovered I overlooked were the coupling
recommendations from ACME and WINNEBAGO. ACME wants the coupler no more than 16 inches off the ground,
And WINNEBAGO says I should not use more than a 4 inch drop off my 24 inch high receiver. That leaves me 4 inches short!!! Thoughts? ...trailer and car together about 4,000 lbs, RV say 5,000 max
Second question for dolly users, when cruising first come/first served campgrounds looking for a spot you drop car? Drop trailer? just hope for the best?

Thanks Rick

Scaraba has good answers.
I put a class 1 tow hitch on my toad (Chevy AVEO). I can disconnect anyplace handy and the DW can drive the toad (towing the dolly) and follow me in the RV or i can leave the toad & dolly and come back and oick it up later. These have been nice options to have.
P.S. my Acme EZE-Tow has been worry free. I don't know it's back there unless I look at the backup camera. I do have TPMS sensors on the toad read tires. I don't worry about the dolly tires - they are heavy duty.

[sgtstriker]

Why no more than a 4" drop? They sell 12" drops that are still rated at 5000 lbs. I too have a 24" high receiver on the back of my rig. I intend to buy a 10" drop, but now you've got me a bit concerned about that idea.... Comments?

[Sequim Guy]

Mostly a liability thing, so if you add anything that is more than an almost
straight pull on the hitch, they can scream, " It's not our fault, you didn't
follow our recommendations, you can't sue us."
Although a 10" or 12" drop seems quite a bit for #5000, IMHO.

[sgtstriker]

Well, either Winnebago and Eze-Tow are incompatible, or, we will have to trust that the 10" drop will handle the tongue and pull weights.... So be it....
Thanks Sequim Guy, and Welcome Home....

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by sgtstriker

Well, either Winnebago and Eze-Tow are incompatible, or, we will have to trust that the 10" drop will handle the tongue and pull weights.... So be it....
Thanks Sequim Guy, and Welcome Home....

You're going to leave a lot of scars on the pavement with that much drop and a long overhang.

[Scarab0088]

Originally Posted by sgtstriker

Why no more than a 4" drop? They sell 12" drops that are still rated at 5000 lbs. I too have a 24" high receiver on the back of my rig. I intend to buy a 10" drop, but now you've got me a bit concerned about that idea.... Comments?

They say "use no more than a 4 inch drop hitch" because as the length of the drop hitch increases, the leverage placed on the receiver increases. That's called tongue weight. This action increased the twisting action on the whole aparatus.

This is not a problem for a light weight tow-dolly that has a very low tongue weight.

The risk is when a person uses a long drop hitch on a regular trailer that has a typical 200lb-300lb tongue weight. Using a drop hitch will increase the weight placed on the ball at a rate equal to the length of the drop hitch.

Guys are visual, so to visualize this...think about using a small socket ratchet on a frozen bolt...doesn't budge? Now get out your biggest/baddest breaker bar and..."pop" goes the frozen bolt! Well, the drop hitch is like the breaker bar and the receiver is like that bolt. You DON'T want to make it POP

As a side bar, there is a cure for using a long drop hitch on a heavy trailer...Get a Load Leveling/Weight Distributing Hitch like this:
Equal-i-zer® Hitch - The “American Original” with 4-Point Sway Control™ and Weight Distribution . These are a MUST HAVE for towing with a lifted 4X4.