Good Golly Miss Molly Do I Need A Dolly?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
motojavaphil

motojavaphil

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 22, 2006
Posts
673
Location
Rio Rancho, New Mexico
We are looking at getting an E150 Van or a 1500 Chevy Van, both cargo, as a toad.  Like so many things that look good it has to have a hitch (had to say it).  I checked in with Steve at Camping World here in Albuquerque and asked him what I would have to do to get one of these vehicles hooked to the coach.  He was great and did the research.  The entire hook up came to $5000-$6000 dollars.  The driveline disconnect was about $1800 by itself.  I know CW can be high but this seems really high.  I know very little about this so I'd appreciate some guidance.
Thanks, Phil
 
Best to contact Remco and they will tell you where the closest dealer is and how to contact them.  As far as a dolly goes I wouldn't recommend one of these to anybody.  Been there done that and my very strong recommendation is avoid a dolly at all cost.
 
As Ron says Remco are the people to talk to about the drive shaft disconnect.  They are the experts and can hook you up with a local Remco dealer.  As to the rest of the equipment i would start shopping on line.  I set up a Jeep Liberty last year for $1869 complete.  Now I didn't need the drive shaft disconnect but needed every thing else.  I bought a used Roadmaster Falcon II tow bar for $250 on ebay.  Everything else was new.  I went to a local body shop who does towing installs and he put it all together for me for about $350.  This is much more reasonable that Camping World or any new dolly will run you.
 
I can see around $4500 with the driveline disconnect, tow bar, base plates, toad brake & lights, but not $6000. However, the labor adds up fast when you pay somebody to do everything.

10,000 lb towbar: $800 (no installation required)
Base plates: $350 + installation (3-4 hours?)
Toad Brake: $900-1200 + installation (varies by type & vehicle) (1-4 hours?)
Driveline disconnect: $1200 + install (requires drive shaft alteration) (4-6 hours?)
Light hook-up: $30 + install (2 hours?)
 
I did my Cherokee Sport tow setup for
Base Plates $275 plus shipping plus four hours or my own time to install (easy job)
$250 for used Sterling tow bar
$500 for used Brake Buddy
$17.95 plus $16.95 for wire and socket for tail lights. (Plus two days of my time to figure out how to do it!) How I WISH I had bought one of those magnetic light kits that go on the roof of the toad.
Rankjo
 
I dragged a dolly around the country for a couple of years. Once, I was going thru a town and stopped to check everything. I found both straps had slipped off. I sold that puppy pretty fast.
 
Dolly?  No, no, and no.  They're much more hassle than they're worth and we'd only use one as a last resort.  There are many more desirable options than a dolly.

ArdraF
 
We're using a dolly to tow our '93 Explorer....only way to tow it AND Mike has to drop the drive shaft, too. It's a pain in the, well, you know where it's a pain. We've never done it before and wouldn't do it now except that it's only for a year and it was the cheapest, easiest way to get the Ford to Death Valley. I would not recommend it to anyone who had any reasonably priced option.

Wendy
 
Our next door neighbors bought a dolly and never used it, too much hassle to hook everything up.  He is a Cady mechanic and also drives the tow truck at the dealership and he said after hooking everything up one time to see how it worked he sold it.  Tow four down, much easier and you don't have to store the dolly when you get to your destination.  We tow our Wrangler everywhere.

Mike
 
Thank you for the advice.  We intend to tow 4 down.  I was going to hook up with a 6000lb towbar since I dont think we will ever go over that.  Then again the GVWR for the van is about 8000lbs plus so better to be safe than sorry and go with the 10000lb bar.  Pricing for the whole mess really caught me by surprise.  The disconnect I found exceptionally high.  I did have a question about curb weight.  How is that measured.  Do they fill the tank and put it on a scale?  In the motorcycle world we have dry weight and wet weight.  Defining  curb weight would be helpful.
 
Hi Rex, We are knocking on the door with the hitch weight.  We are rated at 5000lbs and the van comes in at 4750.  Once I put the motorcycle in we will be a hair over but I suspect it will not be too ughly.
Phil
 
Camping World found a plate for us so there should be no issue with that.  Never having pulled a toad your info is very appreciated.  Do you think the van would cause significant wind resistance behind the MH?  I had thought wind resistence would be a non-issue.  Bad enough with the weight!
Phil
 
Phil, That's why I put 'maybe' in italics. Without wind tunnel tests, there's really no good way to predict what, if any, effect it will have. For all we know, it could streamline the air flow and give you better mileage/handling. Wouldn't THAT be nice! :)
 
Karl said,
For all we know, it could streamline the air flow and give you better mileage/handling. Wouldn't THAT be nice! 
Click to expand...

Then Ardra said,
Karl, maybe he'll be "drafting."
Click to expand...

I don't think that's far fetched, at all. Truckers proved that, long ago, and they weren't following as close as a toad! (When you get up close joining a convoy, you can feel the "grab" as the draft catches you. You can feel the "let up" on the gas pedal!)

Actually, if I can fantasize the van breaking up the turbulance at the rear of the MH, I can fantasize getting better mileage, when the towing the toad than when not towing!  ;D ;D   ::)

Anybody got a wind tunnel they're not using for an hour or so?  ;D

Ray D  ;D
 
my parents got almost 50% better fuel economy towing a ford fiesta on a uhaul tow dolly behind a chevy astro minivan vs no tow.  Normally on a 600 mile trip they had to stop at around 300 miles to refill, and managed to make it about 450 or so mile before needing a refill.  I remember hearing dad talk about it for months afterwards.  And yes, he calculated actual MPG, I just can't remember what it was as it happened 10+ years ago.

You never know what'll happen.  ;D

jim

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,207 (members: 35, guests: 1,172)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,968
Posts
1,388,417
Members
137,721
Latest member
Dmac3003
Back
Top Bottom