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Old 09-02-2020, 08:51 PM   #21
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If you spend $9K + for a used car and $1K + for towbar, plate, & brakes, how many days of rentals would that pay for? Also, you wouldn't have the reduced gas mileage of towing? Is the convienence of having the tow more important than the $$$? I don't know. I would be interested in non-flaming opinions.

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Old 09-02-2020, 09:51 PM   #22
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Wow just spoke to my math teacher wife..she agrees we will rent or Uber if needed thanks
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Old 09-02-2020, 09:53 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by Scubawise View Post
Here is a document of every car you can tow based on year

https://www.motorhome.com/download-dinghy-guides/
That's a good place to start but the place you always finish, before handing over the bucks, is the owner's manual.
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Old 09-02-2020, 09:53 PM   #24
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Originally Posted by JimC View Post
If you spend $9K + for a used car and $1K + for towbar, plate, & brakes, how many days of rentals would that pay for? Also, you wouldn't have the reduced gas mileage of towing? Is the convienence of having the tow more important than the $$$? I don't know. I would be interested in non-flaming opinions.
I had a similar opinion when we first got our Axis. I ended up going with a dolly and simply tow a car we already own (hence we are only out the $$ for the dolly). It does mean that if we upgrade or get a new car that at least one of our cars should be dolly towable (usually that just means FWD).

As for gas mileage: The difference between towing and not towing is lost in the noise--basically no difference. If anything it is somewhere aroung .5 mpg. That is my experience with the dolly (remember the car is behind a huge brick in "the suck zone" (I know what video Bob will post to this) thus it only really adds mass and rolling resistance--once you are up to speed it doesn't take much more gas to keep you at speed).
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Old 09-02-2020, 10:06 PM   #25
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Originally Posted by JimC View Post
If you spend $9K + for a used car and $1K + for towbar, plate, & brakes, how many days of rentals would that pay for? Also, you wouldn't have the reduced gas mileage of towing? Is the convienence of having the tow more important than the $$$? I don't know. I would be interested in non-flaming opinions.
Well, you'll get two different opinions on rental/Uber but you need to change the premise of your question:

Most people don't buy a car for the sole purpose of towing it behind their motorhome, they use it as a daily driver when it's not being towed.

So now you're down to the cost of making it flat towable vs cost of rentals/Ubers. And as you mentioned, you have to take into account the convenience of having that toad with you ready to go in under 5 minutes not only when you're at your destination, but also if you run into trouble with the MH while traveling, especially in an area with no cell coverage.
And then, you also have to take into account that a lot of camping is not in an urban/suburban area, but in very rural areas where there are no rental/Ubers available.

So take into account all these variables, crunch them through your brain with your camping and traveling preferences and decide what will work for you. For me, 95% of the time my Sonic is behind my MH when we go out camping. It just opens up so much more availability for site-seeing from the campground home base without having to wait for that rental/Uber and worry about getting a rental/Uber.
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Old 09-02-2020, 10:10 PM   #26
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Originally Posted by JimC View Post
If you spend $9K + for a used car and $1K + for towbar, plate, & brakes, how many days of rentals would that pay for? Also, you wouldn't have the reduced gas mileage of towing? Is the convienence of having the tow more important than the $$$? I don't know. I would be interested in non-flaming opinions.


We rented during several years of travels but it’s a hassle and expensive. When we started “snowbirding” for 4-6 weeks at a time in one location renting didn’t seem to make sense. We replaced one of our everyday cars with a towable one (an older Jeep Wrangler because it’s easy to tow and I’ve always wanted one!). So, in our case we didn’t so much buy a toad as began to tow my car. It doesn’t affect mileage very much and it is a major convenience. I’m glad we did it.
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Old 09-02-2020, 11:19 PM   #27
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Yep! I check before I bought and there were only Two cars, other that Jeep's (which are just plain Crap!) that you can tow 4 whls down and NOT void the factory warranty. This Fact was important to me! The Chevy Sonic and Ford Fiesta. We had the Fiesta for 2 years, and it was fine, but decided on something different. We have the Automatic, Hatchback, Turbo Sport and love it!! We have the Invisa-brake and Love that system too. We tow behind our 2018 Miramar.
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Old 09-02-2020, 11:25 PM   #28
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BTW: We had a perfectly good, Luxo car when we started Full-Timing and we too tried the Dolly-Deal! UGH! Among other things we didn't like about the dolly, the worst was that it was actually WIDER than the RV! Yikes! No fun having to worry about that extra width when traveling down the road!
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Old 09-02-2020, 11:40 PM   #29
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originally you stated that you could 'tow' 8,000 lbs, but that's HIGHLY unlikely!
Just because you 'might' have a 8k rated hitch does not mean that the vehicle itself, with fully loaded weight, has that much capacity left to tow anything near that weight - even my diesel Palazzo, which has a 10,000lb rated hitch, can only allow for about 4,000 lbs when fully loaded.

Of course, my Ford Focus is only about 3,000lbs, so no worries.
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Old 09-03-2020, 01:00 AM   #30
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Originally Posted by Richie Rich View Post
BTW: We had a perfectly good, Luxo car when we started Full-Timing and we too tried the Dolly-Deal! UGH! Among other things we didn't like about the dolly, the worst was that it was actually WIDER than the RV! Yikes! No fun having to worry about that extra width when traveling down the road!
How much wider was your dolly? Our Axis is van based and thus "skinnier" (class-C skinny, not class-A wide) and our dolly barely sticks out--enough to see in the mirrors but not enough to cause any problems.

Not even something I've given a 2nd thought about until reading your response.
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Old 09-03-2020, 01:05 AM   #31
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Im going to tow our 2000 Pontiac Firebird. Got it from my son. Only problem is all the towing crap is about $2000. Probably worth more than the car is


Cheaper to buy a tow dolly, but they seem like more of a hassle than towing 4 down?????? Isnt that pretty much the feeling for those those that have done this? Of course I could then tow our Avalon which is the nicest car Ive ever owned!



Decisions decisions.
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Old 09-03-2020, 01:41 AM   #32
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Im going to tow our 2000 Pontiac Firebird. Got it from my son. Only problem is all the towing crap is about $2000. Probably worth more than the car is


Cheaper to buy a tow dolly, but they seem like more of a hassle than towing 4 down?????? Isnt that pretty much the feeling for those those that have done this? Of course I could then tow our Avalon which is the nicest car Ive ever owned!



Decisions decisions.


Yes. I spent nearly $3000 setting up my Jeep to tow though much of the equipment will transfer to other vehicles if we ever trade. Dolly certainly would be cheaper but so much more of a hassle.
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Old 09-03-2020, 01:48 AM   #33
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Yep! I check before I bought and there were only Two cars, other that Jeep's (which are just plain Crap!) that you can tow 4 whls down and NOT void the factory warranty. This Fact was important to me! The Chevy Sonic and Ford Fiesta. We had the Fiesta for 2 years, and it was fine, but decided on something different. We have the Automatic, Hatchback, Turbo Sport and love it!! We have the Invisa-brake and Love that system too. We tow behind our 2018 Miramar.


Older wranglers are sort of archaic but they are stone simple and built like a tank. It’s getting hard to find a good TJ and they’re pretty pricey but they’re just a blast and it’s super simple to attach a base plate and to tow.
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Old 09-03-2020, 09:14 AM   #34
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My ‘08 Toyota Yaris is a dual function commuter for work & set up to be pulled by our Thor Windsport. It’s a manual trans and we don’t use anything to supplement the brakes. We had CW set it up for towing 4 down when we bought our rig in ‘17. It’s so light, we don’t even know it’s back there. You can probably find a used one for less than 3 grand.
I’ll try & post a pic later.
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Old 09-03-2020, 10:21 AM   #35
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The game is afoot: happy hunting!
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Old 09-03-2020, 12:08 PM   #36
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Originally Posted by JoeDS View Post

Cheaper to buy a tow dolly, but they seem like more of a hassle than towing 4 down?????? Isnt that pretty much the feeling for those those that have done this? Of course I could then tow our Avalon which is the nicest car Ive ever owned!



Decisions decisions.
"Hassle" is relative. What are you willing to deal with? (Granted I've never towed 4-down since I've never had a car setup for it.)

I suppose the worst part of dolly towing is hooking up the safety chains: You have to crawl underneath the car and hook the chains from the suspension arms to the dolly. A couple of years ago my wife suggested I throw down a yoga mat prior to crawling underneath; that has made all the difference in the world.

Now if you aren't physically able to do that then yeah dolly towing would be a bit of a hassle.

For me, the best part of using a dolly is that I don't have to do anything to the car to be able to tow it. So far we've towed 4 different cars on the dolly, 2 of which have been lease cars. It may be 5 different cars come next year as a lease will be up.
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Old 09-03-2020, 12:58 PM   #37
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Originally Posted by Scubawise View Post
Here is a document of every car you can tow based on year

https://www.motorhome.com/download-dinghy-guides/
That is what I generally use when looking for a dinghy but I am not so sure all of the flat-towable cars are listed in that guide. When we went looking the last time we were assured that the manual transmission Fiat could be flat towed, but it is not listed. I was told that the manual transmission Mini Cooper could be flat towed but it is not listed either.
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Old 09-03-2020, 01:38 PM   #38
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That is what I generally use when looking for a dinghy but I am not so sure all of the flat-towable cars are listed in that guide. When we went looking the last time we were assured that the manual transmission Fiat could be flat towed, but it is not listed. I was told that the manual transmission Mini Cooper could be flat towed but it is not listed either.
Huh...
I’ve seen both of those vehicles towed 4-down behind an RV

In fact, I considered a Fiat when we were shopping for a City-Car/Toad, but with two doors it was very tight inside. Plus they were over-priced.

We opted for a new loaded 4 door Spark w/ manual trans. The baseplate install was an very straight-forward DIY. Just $400 for parts (+ $200 tow bar)
And as I listed above, I currently tow without supplemental brakes.
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Old 09-03-2020, 01:48 PM   #39
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Old 09-03-2020, 01:50 PM   #40
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"Hassle" is relative. What are you willing to deal with? (Granted I've never towed 4-down since I've never had a car setup for it.)



I suppose the worst part of dolly towing is hooking up the safety chains: You have to crawl underneath the car and hook the chains from the suspension arms to the dolly. A couple of years ago my wife suggested I throw down a yoga mat prior to crawling underneath; that has made all the difference in the world.



Now if you aren't physically able to do that then yeah dolly towing would be a bit of a hassle.



For me, the best part of using a dolly is that I don't have to do anything to the car to be able to tow it. So far we've towed 4 different cars on the dolly, 2 of which have been lease cars. It may be 5 different cars come next year as a lease will be up.


You’re right, “hassle “ is relative. For us the biggest hassle would be the dolly itself. Storing it when not in use or at a campground and moving it about when not using it if there’s a hill involved. If you set up your towed with an onboard brake system connecting and disconnecting is, literally, a 10 minute job. But, of course, whatever works is the best for you.
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