To Dolly or Not To Dolly

[akadeadeye]

We have a new 42-foot motorhome and are in the decision phase of how to tow. Our towed vehicle will be a 2008 Toyota Sienna minivan, front-wheel-drive. I have a price from a local RV Supply place of about $5,200, for a four-down option, including everything such as an Air Force One braking system w/coach air, lube pump, base plate, Blue Ox Aventa LX-2 tow bar, etc. This pricing is way more than I thought it would be, although we may go ahead with it. I checked with another dealer and it seems to be in line. But, we are considering a tow dolly, since we do have another vehicle we could tow also, as a substitute.

I just wondered what your feelings, thoughts would be as to the pitfalls, advantages, of one versus the other. I know one pitfall is price, but there is some convenience in the price compared to the extra work involved with a dolly. Is it worth it?

Thanks to all who respond,

Don

[Chunkybeastracin@aol.com]

We have towed with a Blu Ox tow bar and a Dolly. We currently are using a Dolly as it was much cheaper for us. The tow bars are car specific as you need to have the tow brackets installed that are specific to your car and can be very costly depending on the type of car. The tow dolly we use is a Stehl and takes us no longer to secure the car on it than it did to a tow bar. Loading is very simple as the ramps tilt.

The tow dolly is very light and one person can move it very easily. If you are tight on room you can disconect the dolly and slide the tongue under the back of you rv and it will only take up abouit an extra 3 feet of your space. (We have never encountered a campground that could not accommodate a tow dolly)We purchased our tow dolly used off of craigs list for $500 and bought new tie down starps for $58. We have towed thousands of miles with the dolly without any problems. For us, the tow dolly was more convenient and more cost effective than the tow bar we were using. (Also you can tow just about any car that is a front wheel drive on the dolly without any expensive modifications to your car)

Be very careful if you select a tow bar method and check with the vehicle manufactore to see what/if any modifications your vehicle may need or severe transmission damage can occur and if you ever decide to tow a different vehicle you will need to purchase additional bracket specific to that vehicle (our saturn brackets cost $380)

[NWJeeper]

We have two different Jeeps we tow. Prefer to tow 4 down with towbar which can be used on any vehicle only the mounting on the vehicle needs to be specific. Consider what you will do with the dolly when you get where you are going. Many of the places we go have barely enough room for our 37' motorhome and the toad. We have logged 1000s of miles towing the two different rigs with no problems. However for your given application the dolly might be the best choice but then that's why we bought our Jeep Liberty was knowing that nothing special was required to tow 4-down. Just put the transfer case in neutral just like most Jeeps

[garykd]

Hi Don,

Welcome to the FMCA forum. I use both a dolly and 4 down towing methods (not at the same time ). Each have their + and -. For me it doesn't matter which method I use. The bottom line is it depends on which car is best for that particular trip. I always reserve a camp site that will accommodate the coach and dolly. In 4 years of use (the current dolly) I have never disconnected the dolly during a trip.

[tbutler]

We are towing with a tow bar having purchased a vehicle which will allow this without modification other than the attachment baseplate for the tow bar and braking installation. We went with a Roadmaster Sterling Tow Bar and the Brakemaster braking system. We have been very happy with this arrangement since purchasing it. The Roadmaster people are at conventions and do inspections and maintenance at the conventions as well. After six years towing, I had to replace the tow bar due mostly to my insistence on backing up just a little bit once in a while when we got into a tight spot. You really can't back up without risking damage to the tow bar.

When we started we towed with a dolly. That lasted just over a year. The dolly didn't hold up well, it had surge brakes and the device was not strong enough to handle the job. After two repairs of the braking system (no I didn't back up even a tiny bit with the dolly), we finally convinced the factory to replace the dolly. I took the replacement tow dolly and sold it without using it. If you get a dolly, purchase the highest quality dolly you can find. Check with tire dealers to find out if they routinely stock tires for the dolly. The one we had came with a tire size that we couldn't find anywhere and I checked in several large markets and spent time going through supplier books with several tire shops. It wasn't just a matter of finding the tires in stock, no one had a supplier that had that size trailer tire. I can't imagine going back to a dolly. If I didn't use the tow bar, I would go with an enclosed trailer for a small car.

As my signature indicates, we have been on the road full time for almost nine years now. We had a 38' Dynasty before the current 40' Windsor. During that time we've towed almost 150,000 miles. The first 15,000 were with a dolly towing a Pontiac front wheel drive car, the last 135,000 were with a Chevrolet Trailblazer which requires shifting the transfer case to neutral and pulling two fuses after which it can be towed at highway speeds indefinitely. We've traveled all over the US and Canada with the Trailblazer in tow.

[kalynzoo]

I towed happily on a Demco dolly for over 30 years. Now, because the back and knees are not what they used to be, we have opted to tow 4 down.

The main advantage of the dolly, in my mind, is that you can change vehicles regularly. You tow the van, but for a trip with just the two of you, you may wish to take the smaller car. Heading into Yellowstone, maybe you can borrow the kids convertible. Really.

Just a point, the van is probably at or beyond the capacity of most tow-dollies. You will need a larger, heavier dolly, naturally with brakes (a must) to safely toodle down the road. This mean harder on the back and knees to push it around at the campsite.

Just some thoughts from someone who has been there.

Happy Trails.

[akadeadeye]

I really appreciate all of the replies. It helps to hear war stories like yours before making this decision. Thank you all for taking the time.

Don

[bebop]

I tow a pair of Saturns 4 down with disappearing brackets. One is a sc2 sports car bright yellow they called the yellow jacket only weights 2400 pounds and the station wagon LW1 only weighs 3000 pounds. No effort to tow and easy to hook up and go.

People here in Californina don't tend to use tow dollys or trailers due to the smaldl size of most rv spaces. We can barely get slides out on each side and still park a car only.

Bebop

[Butch39]

We have used both the dolly and the four wheel down tow systems. We were very good at loading and unloading the car while using the dolly, but the 4 wheel down system does seem to be easier and quicker to hookup and unhook. We still have the tow dolly, in storage, but at this point we are towing a 2009 Ford Escape XLT AWD. We purchased the bar system and brake system from Camping World, and they did the installation. We chose the Escape because for 2009 they are towable without any modification. Works for us...........

[jonrjen]

Years back when we had just got into the Class A style of RVing we went a little different route. We pull a 14' trailer which we hauled our car. This also allowed for storage for other items we felt we may need while on the road for a period of time. We never found a site or campground that could not accomidate the storage of the trailer. We did encounter one JellyStone Campground that the road through the campground was so tight that we could not make all of the turns just to drive through the campground. Hooking up to the trailer was a breeze with the use of the rear camera and audio. Another nice feature was that if I needed to back up, I could with no worries of damage to the trailer, or a tow bar/dolly system. Also the trailer came with axle brakes, so all we needed to add was a brake controller which was cheap and easy to do.

Later we tried the dolly system. It worked well, however I found it more work and dirtier to set up the car for the road than the trailer system. Ended up giving the dolly to my Uncle.

IN the end we went with towing a Jeep Grand Cherokee 4-down. A few hundred dollars for the custom brackets, a little custom welding to fab up a cross bar and a cheap $60 one size fits all tow bar. The only other cost was a set of magnetic trailer lights to mount on the back of the Jeep for lighting. This allowed for quick easy hookup and removal of the toad from the coach.

Now with our new National RV Pacifica we will start out towing either my F-250 reg Ford Truck (manual transmission)

4 down as I all ready have the Roadmaster brackets. I will however have to purchase a new tow bar. I will probally also go with an aux brake system. I am looking at the set up from Nite Shade, total for both bar and brake under $1,000. They can supply the proper end brackets to match to my Roadmaster hidden brackets. Or we may also hook up my 20' car hauler style trailer and drag along the wifes little Linclon LS. The only item I would need to do this is a brake controller installed in the motor coach. I have a couple of extra new controllers so there would be no cost to do this.

Both the F-250 and the Lincoln including the trailer weigh darn near the same.

ON EDIT:

There is one small little item I forgot to mention....Backing a 14' to 20' trailer behind a 40' motorhome is kind of an aquired skill or luck. This is due to the geometrics of the hitch location of the overall total of the combined length. Also do the the distance between the rear axle and the receiver hitch on the rear of the coach.....that long over hang can result in some unexpected complications. But, like many things in life, practice and if you don't over think what you are trying to do, it will come together.