Tow dolly vs. 4 down?

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jymbee

jymbee

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Ok, feeling cautiously optimistic thanks to input here that we could tow our Honda Odyssey 4 down. My next question is how does a direct, 4 down tow compare to using a dolly. Obviously 4 down has the big advantage of not having to deal with the dolly when you get to your destination. That can be a big factor. But how do the two options compare with regard to other factors such as  initial cost and complexity?

For example looking at Blue Ox I obviously need to do more research given there's so many options. Also with a system such as Blue Ox apparently there would need to be a fair amount of work done to your vehicle while with a dolly you wouldn't have to deal with that. Just drive it on and take off.

Am I being overly simplistic in this assessment? I general terms, would the initial cost of a dolly tend to be less than fitting a vehicle to be towed 4 down?

Could I save $$$ by maybe just towing 3 down?! Ok, ok... sorry, couldn't resist the dumb joke...  ::)

 
I think you answered your own question to a certain point.  Is it cost effective for the convenience. How much travelling and unhooking are you doing? I would not go any other way than 4 down. But we travel a lot. It is nice to pull in and unhook or hook up in the matter of a couple of minutes. It all depends on your situation. I dont think the extra cost is that much more by the time you buy a dolley and plates for it. I can do most my set up to tow 4 down myself though. so I dont have labor to install Lights, base-plate and brake controller. I have around 2K in setup cost.
 
Not all states require tow dollies to be tagged and registered. Either way, one will need the toads lights wired up, and the dolly will need to have brakes. That drives up the tow dolly price. If the dolly has electric brakes and not surge brakes, you must have a brake controller installed.
 
Ghostman said:
I can do most my set up to tow 4 down myself though. so I dont have labor to install Lights, base-plate and brake controller. I have around 2K in setup cost.
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I paid $3K to have the last 4-down install done. Since the work adds little to no value to the vehicle being modified, one could argue that it?s advantageous being able to sell a dolly later and recoup much of the cost. But as Ghostman stated, 4-down is much more convenient and I too wouldn?t go any other way
 
It is all up to you. 

To tow 4 down, you pay $2k to $3k to set up the first vehicle to tow, then a bit less for future vehicles.  You can hook up and disconnect in under 5 minutes. You have no dolly to store.

To dolly tow, you spend $2k - $3k for a dolly and can tow (almost) any car you like with minimal added expense (lights on the tow).  You get down on your knees to connect and disconnect the tire straps on the towed.  You spend 15 minutes or more to hook up and disconnect, and you have a dolly to store.
 
while with a dolly you wouldn't have to deal with that. Just drive it on and take off.
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That might qualify as one of the more optimistic views of the entire year.  I've done both dolly and 4-down, and dolly towing is never that simple.  Place and then cinch down the wheel straps, hook the safety chains over the car front axle, and tie down the steering wheel (if not a locking type wheel).  My front drive sedan was low-slung enough to require that we use a couple wood shims ahead of the dolly ramps to prevent the car from scraping as it drove on.  I'm not talking a sports model either - this was a Buick sedan!  Then we discovered that it was necessary to stop and re-tighten the wheel straps after 15-20 miles, not matter how tight we cinched them initially.  Also needed a level place to drive onto the ramp.

I'm not trying to knock dolly towing as an option, it worked well enough, but "just drive on and take off" is a gross overstatement in my opinion.

Cost factors: You can near always find a used dolly if you shop around, whereas used base plates that match a car take some luck. You may need to but new wheel straps for a used dolly, but that's not a big expense.  The dolly will need a brake controller on the coach if ithe dolly has electric brakes (but not if it has surge brakes).  Overall, a 4-down tow set up will cost more.

 
We've flat-towed our Chevy Suburban for 14 years, and flat-towed a Toyota sedan and a Ford Bronco for 10+ years prior to that. So I don't have personal experience with a tow dolly, but we've had a lot of entertainment watching folks who dolly-tow arriving at campgrounds.

FWIW we've been kicking tires on a replacement for the Suburban, and have come to the realization that many of the vehicles we've looked at (and like) are not flat-towable. Cogitating over this, we realize that, campground logistics aside, we wouldn't have anywhere to store a dolly or a trailer at home unless we got rid of a couple of boat trailers in the side yard. We're not out of options, and have found some flat-towable vehicles that would suit our needs.
 
We decided we never wanted a dolly after watching a man in Tok, Alaska try to get the mud off the tow straps so he could then clean the car off enough to move it off the dolly.  It took about 1.5 hours and, believe me, he was not a happy camper!  But he sure provided the rest of us with our daily entertainment!

ArdraF
 
When we purchased our last motorhome, not the current one, we had to drive to another state to pick it up.  Our car at that time was  a Matrix.  I can still remember lying on my back in the rain at U-haul to hook up the safety chains.  When we got home we sold the Matrix and bought a car we can tow four down.  Another advantage of four down is you do not need to find a place to store the tow dolly when you are parked.  The downside of four down is it limits what toads you can own.  On my current Honda, I have to remember to stop and go through the towing procedures every three hundred miles or so.  Also, I had to have a fuse cut off switch installed so the battery would not go dead.
I also had to have a special 12 volt accessory plug put in since the fuse that needs to be cut off controls the interior 12 volt accessory outlets.  Still with those problems, I would be very reluctant to switch to a tow dolly.
 
  We have both. Tow 4 down about 75% of the time. We have a Geo Tracker and CJ 5 jeep with baseplates. We have a Honda Accord that goes on dolly. Dolly is very handy to have. Both systems have pros and cons. Our dolly is very light and easy to handle. Will slide almost completely under coach at campground. No brakes. We use BrakeBuddy when on dolly and 4 down.
  Dolly is tilt type so never any problems driving vehicle on. It also has a locking swivel plate so it can be backed up carefully. I?m old and putter, but don?t notice a lot of time difference hooking up either way. I run winch straps on dolly up with 1/2 battery impact and have a piece of wood cut to lay on ramp for guide so vehicle is centered first shot.  Of course unhooking is much faster with 4 down.
 
Dolly is tilt type so never any problems driving vehicle on.
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The tilt ramp does not guarantee of "no problems".  Many newer sedans and even small SUVs have low road clearance and front air dams to reduce wind resistance and those can easily graze the ramp.  The fact that it is tilted is the cause of the problem, not the solution.  Taller vehicles usually do ok, though.
Likewise, newer vehicles often have electronic anti-theft systems, so don't use locking steering wheels. That means you have to come up with some other scheme to immobilize the steering so the dolly wheel tables will rotate as needed.

I don't want to come across as negative on dollies cause they have their pros as well as cons and I've used them successfully. I think folks with good tech skills find them reasonably easy to manage, but I suspect that others might throw up their hands in despair on the first attempt.
 
We are on vacation right now and I am tickled to death that this will be the last time we use our tow dolly. We plan to buy a Chevy Equinox that can be towed 4 down upon our return home and sell the tow dolly. On this trip, one of the wheel straps broke after only 4,000 miles on it and since I had the chains connected to the tie rod ends (the only part of the axle they would fit onto), I had to replace one tie rod end as soon as we got the car unloaded. Thankfully, I carry a set of old straps with me at all times so I didn't have to buy a new set - yet.

I don't like the idea of disassembling a brand new car to install the base plate for the hitch, but I'll be very happy to sell that dolly and be done with it. It's going to cost me close to $4,000 to have the work done because I won't touch the car myself to install the plate and wiring, and I probably won't get more than $900-1,000 for the dolly when I sell it, but the hassle involved with hitching and unhitching the car at every destination is getting to be too much for me.

And Gary is right about some cars not wanting to load or unload easily. I have been towing a Hyundai Azera that is built so low to the ground in front that the first time we unloaded it from the tow dolly, the tire stop on the dolly ripped the air dam right off the underside of the car. Not every car can be towed on a dolly without modifications.
 
After towing a Mini Cooper S on a dolly for three seasons, we decided to go 4 down with a low mileage used 2017 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. DW had enough of loading and unloading the Mini, and really was never a fan of riding in it - hated the tight ride. I miss the Mini but don't miss having to manhandle the dolly around and find places to stash it at campgrounds. While traveling with one night stays we spent a lot of nights in camp instead of going to dinner because of the hassle of getting Mini off and back on the next morning. We also lost what storage we had in the Mini because I hauled around a spare tire for the dolly and a spare tire for the Mini. That left room for a towel or two.

We had Roadmaster baseplates installed on the Jeep and use an RViBrake controller. Towbar is a Roadmaster Falcon All Terrain. Then we had to have the "death wobble" cable installed on the Jeep.

It cost us a total of about $4,500 to set up for towing, but only about half of that was car specific - You get to keep the tow bar and its accessories and the brake controller no matter what vehicle you have. One more expense I have coming is to get an extra set of Roadmaster tow arms and then have a welding shop cut off the tow bar adaptors and weld on my Trailhawk recovery hooks. The Trailhawk doesn't look right without its red fangs on the front.
 
I helped a U-Haul customer Dolly load a car recently. It was  a Tilt Tupe and there were indeed problems. (not enough clearance the Dolly wanted to grab his front bumper).

We got it loaded. a dealer had to unload it.
 
I have owned both. 

4-down has many expenses that easily match and exceed that of the dolly.  You have to install base plates, tow bar, auxiliary braking system at a minimum, but often a trickle charger and sometimes a fusemaster to bypass a fuse. That said it is so much easier to hook up and go.  And, I no longer have to rent a space to store my dolly or worry about where to store when I get there.  I no longer have to worry about whether or not I have cinched down the car tires  or where to stow the dolly when I arrive at a park.

That said I feel that the proportional brake controller that activated my tow dolly brakes were far more effective than the braking I get from my auxiliary braking system when towing my CMax with the active assist brakes turned off.
 
The dolly vs 4 down is a long debate.
To me, it?s simple. If you have an existing vehicle capable of 4 down, go for it.
If money is no object and you want to buy a vehicle capable of 4 down, go for it, with all of the ancillary hook up expenses.
We have a FWD Corolla that I?m perfectly happy on the dolly. Yes, it?s a bit more involved but not horrible. I?m just not inclined  to purchase a vehicle simply for 4 down capability.
 
BinaryBob said:
The dolly vs 4 down is a long debate.
To me, it?s simple. If you have an existing vehicle capable of 4 down, go for it.
If money is no object and you want to buy a vehicle capable of 4 down, go for it, with all of the ancillary hook up expenses.
We have a FWD Corolla that I?m perfectly happy on the dolly. Yes, it?s a bit more involved but not horrible. I?m just not inclined  to purchase a vehicle simply for 4 down capability.
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Bob, I can't agree more. We aren't made of money and I would normally not think of taking on the expense of a 4 down car just for that reason. However, my wife is driving a 2006 with 112,000 miles on it and it's ready to become a money pit. Since I already have one of those called an RV, I decided it's time to get another car and simply decided to kill two birds with one stone. We'll go down to one car within the next couple of years, so this will probably be the last one we buy. It might as well be capable of being towed 4 down.
 
BinaryBob said:
The dolly vs 4 down is a long debate.
To me, it?s simple. If you have an existing vehicle capable of 4 down, go for it.
If money is no object and you want to buy a vehicle capable of 4 down, go for it, with all of the ancillary hook up expenses.
We have a FWD Corolla that I?m perfectly happy on the dolly. Yes, it?s a bit more involved but not horrible. I?m just not inclined  to purchase a vehicle simply for 4 down capability.
Click to expand...

Great summary. I dolly-towed for a few years and enjoyed the versatility (we towed 2 different cars) and low cost. It worked great as a weekend/vacationer and I never experienced the ease of 4-down so I don't know what I was missing. ;) I owned two different dollies (both purchased used) and sold them both easily, to eventually break even when I was done with them. The dollies are light enough to be moved around by hand, and I always rolled mine under the rear end overhang of the motorhome behind the rear wheels, i.e. campground storage was never a problem. Mine also had "ramp" loading but I needed a few boards to get our Oldsmobile Aurora loaded without scraping the front end.

We didn't take the car on every trip (only the more vacation-type trips that were longer than a couple days) so the extra loading/unloading/hitching time... maybe 10-15 minutes... was not a part of every RV outing. If I were fulltiming or snowbirding and had financial resources directed toward extended RV living, than I'm sure the convenience of 4-down would be pretty attractive and might make the cost worthwhile in the long run.
 
We tow our 73 VW 4-down. We have a Pontiac that we tow on a dolly occasionally. We prefer 4-down but don?t want to put $$ into making the Pontiac towable 4-down.
 
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