Car in tow, what's yours?

[Nursx2]

Love the colour! My 2013 Fiesta was white and matched the old class C Sunseeker perfect - especially after I placed $60.00 matching decals on it.

[neeliec]

Originally Posted by Druff

2015 Ford Focus, 5-sp manual. Tows great doesn't even have a steering lock, so I don't even have to leave the key in it.

Ooooh...I like this Ford Focus - especially the color!

It would go nicely with our set-up. Maybe when we decide to change from our little Suzuki 4WD, we'll consider the Focus.

We found our well-used toad here in town and got a good deal. It did great on a recent 3000+ mile trip.

Do you have to start up the engine at certain intervals? We have to do ours at around 200 miles.

Nice rig!

[Druff]

We purposely got the color to match the camper. We too have thought about getting some matching decals for it. No you do not have to start it at any particular intervals. The owners manual just says to put in neutral and take off parking brake. Only says not to exceed 70 mph.

[Dvan]

We use a 1988 Jeep Wrangler with a Stowmaster tow bar. We frequent our mountain property, and it's great to have the jeep to tool around in the hills!

[DenverTransplant]

We traded up to a Thor ACE 30.1 from a Keystone trailer this summer. We dolly tow a 2015 Mini Cooper S using an American Car Dolly. We first made a few short (100 miles each way) trips and just got back from a 2500 mile road trip to Northern California. Experiences are generally quite good. The ACE doesn't even know the Mini is back there, but climbing Vail Pass and the Continental Divide were a bit slow.

But there are few things -

The Mini seems a bit touchy about being towed with the front wheels up. About the half the time when we pull if off the dolly it throws up 2 to 3 diagnostic errors such as "Drive Train Malfunction" and "ABS Failure". If I drive the Mini a few miles, these errors clear. I've discussed this with my local Mini Service Department and they seemed unconcerned and say they have a program upgrade. So Mini will make a visit to the service guys soon. Behavior is inconsistent - We we can tow the Mini 100 miles and get the errors, but after the 1200 mile tow back from California, no errors came up.

The American Tow Dolly brakes and controller appear to be very sensitive. I've got the gain dialed way back and still can lock up the brakes on gravel and feel them grab at low speeds. I have to discuss this with ACD to see what they recommend. Possibly the Mini is so light that you have to all but turn off the brake controller. May need to dig under the ACE dash and find the controller connector and try my old Tekonsha controller.

I'm still looking for somewhere to attach a safety cable to the Mini. The bottom of the Mini is sealed up and I haven't found a spot yet. I've been checking the straps about every 60-90 minutes and find I need to make minor adjustments at most checks. Nothing so loose to be of concern, but it validates the need to regularly check the straps.

ACD standard straps seem to wear quickly. The originals are still OK, but I'm going to get a couple set of their premium straps.

[Mousemate]

Originally Posted by Dvan

We use a 1988 Jeep Wrangler with a Stowmaster tow bar. We frequent our mountain property, and it's great to have the jeep to tool around in the hills!

Dvan.
Are you towing your jeep off a aftermarket bumper or tow bar base?
I have a 1995 wrangler and am undecided on how I should set it up to tow. I was looking at towing it by the shackles, aftermarket tow bar or after market bumper?
Thanks Thomas

[Dvan]

Originally Posted by Mousemate

Dvan.
Are you towing your jeep off a aftermarket bumper or tow bar base?
I have a 1995 wrangler and am undecided on how I should set it up to tow. I was looking at towing it by the shackles, aftermarket tow bar or after market bumper?
Thanks Thomas

I removed the bumper and made a baseplate out of angle iron, bolted and welded it. Here are a couple pics, not sure if you can see the detail or not.

[dosbirn]

Originally Posted by Mr Sunshine

Attachment 1296

Here's ours, we tow a 2002 Mazda Miata, 6 speed. Over 50,000 miles so far. Blue Ox tow plate and bars, Protect-A-Tow rock skirt, and US Gear Unified Tow Brake. Tail and turn lights connected from the coach to the car lights.

It is light and easy to tow, but won't go far off the road. Only has room for two people, but it delivers a lot of smiles per mile! Zoom-zoom!

Mr. Sunshine, you have my car!

We just bought a 2016 Thor Freedom Elite 29FE and never towed a car before. We thought we might have to sell our 2002 Miata 6 speed SE (yes - it's even yellow too!) to get another car for towing...but maybe not.

My Miata has a Jackson Racing supercharger and appx. 150,000 miles. Anyone know if the supercharger or miles would present a problem?

[rmblaster]

2015 ford Cmax energi

[Mousemate]

Originally Posted by Dvan

I removed the bumper and made a baseplate out of angle iron, bolted and welded it. Here are a couple pics, not sure if you can see the detail or not.

Dvan,
thank you for the pic's
I am still on the fence keeping the oem bumper(depends on DW) but will add the angle iron (similar to yours) to mount the tow brackets..

[bakjong]

2017 Palazzo with 2004 Range Rover HSE

[G-mo]

I'll start by saying that I'm new to RVing, but my question about towing is this: Given that I have a Vegas (small, somewhat maneuverable), does anyone else out there opt for simply renting a car for a day or two (when wanting) instead? Given the reduced fuel economy for a long trip, I'm wondering if there's any good reason, other than preference of ease of freedom, to tow unless staying somewhere for weeks at a time? With a small RV, it really isn't difficult to schedule a run for a few necessities. I admit, it'd be nice to get away from the campsite at times, but I'm trying to weigh the utility of options.

[KNMIB]

Originally Posted by G-mo

I'll start by saying that I'm new to RVing, but my question about towing is this: Given that I have a Vegas (small, somewhat maneuverable), does anyone else out there opt for simply renting a car for a day or two (when wanting) instead? Given the reduced fuel economy for a long trip, I'm wondering if there's any good reason, other than preference of ease of freedom, to tow unless staying somewhere for weeks at a time? With a small RV, it really isn't difficult to schedule a run for a few necessities. I admit, it'd be nice to get away from the campsite at times, but I'm trying to weigh the utility of options.

Our Rv is about the same size as yours and we have elected not to tow. It works for use we have logged 19000 miles been all over the west and south and haven't needed a car. With that said the longest we have stayed anywhere has been three nights so we are fairly mobile. We have unhooked and did a side trip several times but because our unit is small and it literally takes us ten minutes to unhook water and electrical its not a big deal. If need be we will rent a car in the future. Happy Travels and be safe.

[Brown Ace]

We also choose not to tow with our ACE 29.2. We have rented from Enterprise and others several times. It just takes a little planning.

[tenbear]

Some of our best trips have been long trips, up to 3 months, where we drove the RV one day then parked the RV at the campsite for a day or 2, and explored the surrounding area in our toad. We would cover the surrounding area, up to about 200 miles or so, with the toad at 30 mpg and easy parking while leaving the RV, 9 mpg and oversized, at the campground.

[JamieGeek]

We've done both. For the first season with our Axis we simply rented a car and used that. At the beginning of the 2nd season I picked up the dolly. Now we can take either one of our cars on trips.

On the Axis/Vegas units the mileage hit for towing is pretty negligible. One of the intangibles is that the car is your car; not some junky rental (of course this depends on how much you like your car LOL). In my case: We can charge up the C-Max at the campground and drive relatively gas free (as long as its within 20 or so miles ).

All of this really depends on why you are camping at your destination? If you are sightseeing and driving a lot then it is worth it to bring a car.

[Oneilkeys]

We have owned four small RVs over the past ten years and have never towed and it has worked for us. We have driven over 100,000 miles, been to Alaska twice and lived in our Vegas and Axis for three months at a time. I think It really depends on how much time you spend at each campground and whether you like to go into larger cities. We generally do not stay in the same place more than 3-4 days at a time and we love to dry camp in the National parks and forests. We have found the Axis small enough to go into small towns and sightsee and have dinner and it is easy to unhook your electrical cord (if you have electric) and drive where you want to. For us, the hassle of towing does not seem worth it, if we stayed in same place for weeks at a time, we might feel differently.

[Druff]

The Vegas is on the same chassis as my class c , and towing our Focus I have checked the mileage and I seem to get the same either way. Once you get the car rolling back there it doesn't take much to pull it along. It is just free wheeling and doesn't even put any tongue weight on the RV.

[Bengal]

We took our first trip last weekend to St. George Island in the FL. panhandle. Love the ability to disconnect and tool around the area in our 2012 Wrangler Sport. Headed to the Georgia mountains in 2 weeks. I chose a Roadmaster Falcon All-Terrain bar and it works well.

[Bengal]

My wife and I rented a vehicle in the past and it was a good solution once we stopped at the rental agency. However, we wanted the flexibility our 4 wheel drive jeep offered us, we like to hike and explore a lot. We spent about 3800.00 for our tow package could of done it for a little less but we opted for a better tow bar and let the shop do all the labor.