We don't want to tow anything!!!

[Curtis in TX]

Originally Posted by decodancer

I'm on the same page as you. Right now it's just weekends and a few long trips a year but will be fulltiming in the next few years and have no interest in towing. First of all, I travel alone. While I'm fairly fit, I'm a 5'1" tall woman and hooking and unhooking alone would be a chore. Secondly, I drive a small 23 foot class C. I can park anywhere and it's not such a big deal to unhook an electric cord or water hose if I even bothered to use it. Rarely use the sewer hookup, just dump on the way out. My bicycle will take me for a close jaunt and when I'm staying near an attraction I look for a place with shuttles to and from. I also use my motorhome to stay near friends and relatives without intruding and they are always happy to pick me up if we are going somewhere together. I plan on working part time while fulltiming either at dog shows or craft events, again no need for a toad. With so many friendly people in every campground I've ever stayed at, it's easy to hitch a ride to the local Wal-Mart. Since most of you have toads, I'll pitch in on gas.

Actually if you get the right tow bar, hooking and unhooking becomes a snap and pleasure. I use a Road Master for mine and it telescopes. So no having to be right on the money for alignment. Close is good enough and the arms all lock in, in the first 4 feet of straight driving. I have a quick release air connection for the air brake assist on the toad ( a nice option with the bigger toad I use sometimes) and plugs for the electrical at the Coachs bumper and the Toads Grill. In fact I have three different vehicle now that we use as toads and the Tow bar swaps from one to the other real easy.

It's nice to have out Base Camp set up with awnings, BBQ Grill, chairs and outdoor lighting and not have to break it down to go get a gallon of milk.

We enjoy scooters too, and Chuck I got a laugh at your description of the alligator death roll. My wife hates wearing helmets because they "mess up her hair".
So when we ride my (KLR) motorcycle, we go real slow and rairly in traffic.
Never on the highway without helmets. A Honda Trail 90 is a classic campers tool. Somtimes it nice not to have to depend on someone elses schedule to get a ride to town.

Enjoy the Full Timing. My wife will never allow that. I would be all over it if given the chance!

[User1011]

We've owned MH's on and off for over 30 yrs. We owned small and large.. gas and diesel pushers... C's and A's. We now own a 2011 Class C Monaco HR Augusta - 25 footer. We purposely downsized to make life easier.. tired of the toad and hassle. In the past when we didn't tow we simply rented a car for sightseeing in an area -- they bring the car right to the campsite and it proves to be very easy and convenient.

[Mopar1973Man]

That was one of the reasons I got rid of the motorhome. We found so many place we want to go visit but always required to pack up camp and us the motorhome to go shopping for food and other things just a royal pain in the rear.

So now I've got the Jayco TT now... Now you can setup the TT somewhere and use the pickup to get groceries, go site seeing, etc... But still leave you home parked and setup for many days.

But each his own...

[RCtime]

So now I've got the Jayco TT now... Now you can setup the TT somewhere and use the pickup to get groceries, go site seeing, etc... But still leave you home parked and setup for many days.

But each his own...[/QUOTE]

exactly the same if you were towing a toad.

but to each his own

[Hammer Down]

Not to debate the issue of two up or four down (to each his own) I have found that the flexibility of a dolly allows us to go to car shows and rally's with the 65 dodge and then to enjoy vacations with the volvo convertible to visit the great attractions of this country with the top down. The RV and dolly affords us the pleasures of life that we enjoy. One has to find what makes him happy and go for it. The factor of age,health,equipment and what your desires are determines your choice of RVing life style. The main factor is to be happy in what you do. Best of luck and enjoy your RVing.

[Dadeaux]

Like most things in life RVing is trial and error, try it first without a toad and you may very well like that. If not you can always resort to adding a toad.

[mikron]

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

We travel just like you do, we stay mostley in florida. We travel during week days to miss all the crowd. If we need a car we rent from enterprise, they deliver to the CG most of the time.

[azloafer]

I won a $40,000 5th wheel in 2010 in a Camping World Sweepstakes, but we just preferred the MH for some reason and had CW sell the trailer without us ever seeing it. I can understand the concept of unhooking the truck and going somewhere though. We started camping, many years ago, and went with a tent and then a pop-up and then a small MH and then a bigger one, etc. We just never happened to go with a 5th wheel. We see a lot of them and they are nice. In fact we will see all kinds of RVs this weekend on a camping trip. It's 2 AM and I had better get some shut-eye. Happy travels, Joe

[Ron & Dee]

Joe,

We started out just like you, tent, popups, and then a MH. Actually, I started out sleeping on the ground with nothing but a tarp to lay the bed roll on and cover up.

We have been motorhoming for 17 years, and have never towed. Our camping consists of weekend trips, my Astronomy Club's star parties, and Summer vacations.

Our vacations can be anywhere from two weeks to a month, 2000 to 7000 mile trips. Have never needed a vehicle or missed not having one.

Maybe we've been lucky

Ron

[RCtime]

AZloafer, You were sure lucky, good for you.
Looking back, many years, we did not tow, as we had a pick up and camper, (starting in tents also). Then a small TT, the smaller 22' class C. But as we aged and got into larger motorhomes, somehow the convenience factor overweighed our decicion to tow a vehicle.
I wonder if I was again 35 to 40 years younger I would feel that it was still a necessity as I do now.

[TGMarrs]

Originally Posted by azloafer

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

This is a LONG response, but you are in the same place I was, and I wanted to show you my journey from being anti-toad, to can't live without it...

I grew up and my family always had a motorhome, and we never towed anything. When I got married, a camper was our first big purchase (OK, after the big screen TV).

Several motor homes later, I swore I would never tow a car behind us. My last coach was 35' and we vacationed all over with our three girls and never had a problem getting into and out of any place we wanted. We were just like you!

When we decided on our "Great Adventure Tour", we purchased a 44' coach to live in for the year. I posted a question about towing a car just like you did - of course I did it in the toad section and got a resounding answer that I had to get a toad to full time. (what you were afraid of). I knew absolutely nothing about towing, costs, systems, time to hook up, etc. I was like you - if I needed a car I could rent one cheaper than paying insurance and toad setup costs.

My motor homes were 27', 30', 33', and 35' models. I could whip any of them around to anywhere I wanted. I ignored park road signs that said I needed to be 1-2 ft shorter and never had a problem. I was king of the road, master RV driver, unstoppable.

I disregarded the advise and we moved into the new motor coach and took our first big trip up through Montana and back home through Yellowstone. I found out a few things...

Although I am master of the universe driving a 35' coach, 9 more feet put me in my place. Initially I was fine. In Glacier NP we confidently drove into the camping area listed for max length 38' and found a great space. It did take a little bit of forward and backward to get there, but I did it. Then the kids wanted to go do stuff. I said everything within walking distance only because I was not about to spend another 20 minutes getting my coach out of and back into the camping space.

The next day, we took the free shuttle bus around the park. Disaster... lots of standing in line waiting to get around. Ate at an overpriced restaurant deep in the park because we were too hungry for the 1 hr line to get back on the shuttle back to the campgrounds (for a 10 minute trip)

If he had a car, we could have explored many more areas, but no worries, we had a good time and saw "enough".

We then drove through Yellowstone. I let my new found confidence in taking my 44' beast anywhere I wanted lead me into another campground listed for 38' max coaches. (same as in Glacier) After all, the feds must post the signs for RV drivers less skilled and qualified than me, right?

We again found a great spot, no problem, actually easier to get in and out than the last. As we made our way back out of the area to pay for the site, we got stuck. There was a switchback and I had a heck of a time going forward and backward to slowly inch my coach around the corner. We were there long enough for all the area campers to grab their chairs and sit outside to watch the show.

Needless to say, once free we didn't go back up there! We went all the way back to the north end where they had 60' long pull through spaces. Only problem here was that it was a 30 minute drive to see everything and then 30 min back to the camping spot. I had no learned my lesson, and I didn't even take the road that said max length 42'. We saw many roads and loops that we wanted to take that had length restrictions (some as short as 20').

On this trip I realized what the value of having a toad would be. Yes, it would cost more money to take one, but what about all the sights & activities we missed at Yellowstone because of not having one?

We still had a great trip - but it could have been better. But was it worth the expense and hassle of a toad?

I relented and purchased a 2005 Jeep Liberty diesel and a Blue Ox tow bar system. Our first trip with the toad was just 2.5 hours to Casper, WY to take the girls to a on-stage theater performance. I took the toad just for fun, because I could... and I wanted to test everything out and test the system before a really long trip.

We parked at Walmart and took the toad out shopping and going to the mall. It was fun and easy, and we returned to WalMart to sleep. The next morning we took the combination to a RV shop to fix a slide out problem. They fit us in, but it was a 4 hour fix. By pure luck, the Jeep was there and we got to go out sightseeing and ate lunch at a good restaurant instead of sitting in the coach waiting or being confined to walking distance from the shop.

I was completely sold on the toad with just this little weekend trip.

So in the end, you can live comfortable without a toad, and if you never have one, you won't know what you are missing. But kind of like a cell phone - you did fine without one, but now you can't imagine life without!

[ottffss]

Originally Posted by TGMarrs

.....Although I am master of the universe driving a 35' coach, 9 more feet put me in my place.....

Actually to your entire post.

A 45'er sure makes one heck of a difference doesn't it? Probably anything over 40ft in reality. You will never look at a NP or SP CG, or any "ordinary" CG, the same again. But man oh man, once you get all set up those extra feet are the bomb eh?

These beast RV's make you want to tow one of these....

[jfran304]

We aren't full timers and the only thing we have towed is the trailer with the motorcycle on it. If we need a car we rent when we get there or make arrangements along the way to pick up a rental if there aren't any rentals in the area we are going to. It's worked for us for 8 years now.

Jon

[Bucksmom]

we have a 27' super c and love NOT towing. we dont park for long periods,and we cant whip the thing in and out of anywhere. we have our bike rack and ride them most places. well rent a car for longer stays.