Buying a tow car and trailer or tow bar??

Hi,

So, I have a few decisions to make this week.

1) Buying a tow car, has to be under 5000 pounds.  It is looking like my choices are a 99-00 toyota avalon, camary or a 03 taurus.

2) to dolly or not to dolly, that is the question.

I can use a dolly year round for moving service vehicles for my business, so the money spent on a dolly would be money well spent.

I really don't want to deal with pulling a dolly with my rv, I would like to utilize a tow bar.

It seems the costs are about the same, a tow bar vs. dolly.

How hard is it to install a tow bar on the above vehicles.  I have no problems with heavy work.  Where can I get a deal on a tow bar?  The mounting plates seem to be the hard parts to locate for a specific vehicle.

If I go dolly, should I get surge brakes or electric?  My RV does not have a brake controller (yet) it just has a simple 6 plug wiring receptacle with 5 wires going to it.  I will probably put a brake controller on it someday anyways.....

Thanks for advice and opinions.

Not an expert here, but if your choice of towed vehicle is a front-wheel drive automatic, a dolly is probably your only choice.  Be sure to fully investigate the "towability" of your choice before purchasing.

Molaker said:

Not an expert here, but if your choice of towed vehicle is a front-wheel drive automatic, a dolly is probably your only choice.  Be sure to fully investigate the "towability" of your choice before purchasing.

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Not true.  For example, the earlier Honda Accords with front wheel drive and automatic are towable four down without modification.

How about opening the box?? a small pick up that can also serve you with the ability to load the box with "nessecities", and tow 4 down with a standard trans or 4 wheel drive??>>>Dan ( Cheap and light weight)

the reason for my car choices are simple, actually 3 reasons, 3 kids = 3 CAR SEATS! lol!!

Ned, I just spotted a 96 Honda Accord going thru the auto auction Wednesday......  would that be a option to tow 4 down? 

Would a 03 taurus be able to be towed 4 down?

susann9090 said:

1) Buying a tow car, has to be under 5000 pounds.  It is looking like my choices are a 99-00 toyota avalon, camary or a 03 taurus.

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Are you limited by cost or because those are the only vehicles available to you? They are not good choices for toads if they have automatic transmissions.
There are many good used vehicles that can be towed 4 wheels down with automatic transmission in neutral. If you don't mind a manual tranny, then that opens up many more choices. A good resource is remcotowing.com. You can enter a vehicle and get the towing capability.

Your options will be: flat tow 4-down as is; flat tow with modifications like a tranny pump or a drive disconnect; tow on a dolly; tow on a trailer.
Dollys are fine if you accept what goes with them--mainly that you have a large extra unit to deal with, and loading and unloading are more involved. Surge brakes are fine except if you have to back up. Backing up with a car in tow is always iffy no matter what setup you have.

Putting a tow baseplate on a car is significant work, but you can do it if you are a capable do-it-yourself person. The equipment comes with pretty good illustrated instructions. Vendors like Roadmaster and BlueOx have good websites, and you can download the instructions for specific vehicles to see what is involved. I put my baseplate on. I was careful, it took me 3 days and lots of soreness from crawling under the vehicle to also install light wiring and the surge brake cable.

Good luck and enjoy the adventure.

A 1996 Honda Accord would be an excellent towed vehicle.  We towed a 1997 Accord for about 70,000 miles.  Is it automatic transmission?  There is a specific procedure to follow when towing the Hondas but it's easy to do and no modifications are necessary.

We tow a 2006 manual transmission Hyundai Tucson front wheel drive.  It needs no modifications, gets fairly decent mileage and will hold 3 car seats....

Marsha~

Toyota does not approve of towing any of their vehicles 4 down (tow bar), so those are poor choices. Dolly only for them.

View the Motorhome Magazine Dinghy Towing Guide here:
http://www.motorhomemagazine.com/dinghytowingguide/
That lists, by year, all the vehicles that are towable 4-down without modifications.  Others can be towed but the mods are fairly expensive - think in $1000-$1500 range.

If you decide to go the tow bar route, Brazels is having what they call a fire sale on them.

http://www.brazelsrv.com/

We frequently see folks with tow dollys having to find places to store them in parks and it sure makes us glad we tow four down.

Check out the link to MH Magazines towing guide which Gary just provided.  It's a great resource.

Rick

Ok - so, I am still not opposed to towing with a dolly - here is where I am at:

my motorhome is a 275hp cummins (99 winni chieftain w/ a Freightliner chasis) , i have been told that my tow max is 5000 pounds, that is where i came up with that.

i do not have electric brakes setup on the MH currently, but may add them  in the future.  would i be ok to purchase a dolly with electric brakes now and tow a small car now?  i don't think i have time to install the brakes before the FL trip.  that's why i was thinking a dolly with surge brakes.  however, surge brakes on a dolly raise the cost of the dolly significantly.  i have had a few people tell me to not worry about brakes on the dolly with my MH, but i error on the side of caution.

Ned, the honda going thru the auto auction tomorrow is a 96 accord with a automatic, so i may buy this.  but if i do decide to tow 4 down, can a automatic be towed 4 down?  the 96 is to old for Gary's guide, ( i can / will order the older guide )  is best case scenario to look for a manual tranny to tow?

Orick, i agree, i really dont want to mess with a dolly when my kids are ready to play.

Gary, thanks for the link, man that was great to review - i am keeping that link!

Marsha, very interesting.  i just went thru the list of 1000 cars going thru the auto auction tomorrow, guess how many hyaundai's were on there?  2!  what the heck does that say?  anyways, they are both Hyandaui Ellantras with automatic tranny's - however, in reviewing the guide Gary sent me, it says that auto trannys are a no no to tow - dang!

well, as you can tell, i am like a kid in a candy store having fun with this.  i am so excited to take my young family on this trip - i just want to do it right and SAFE most of all.  we literally have spent almost the past 4 years changing diapers and making bottles, so this is a totally needed trip!!!  thanks again you all, i do appreciate you and your time here, i will hopefully be able to pay it back in the future.

i am on a work trip this week, making my way back tonight / tomorrow morning, so internet is far and few between, talk soon.

The application guides at remcotowing.com cover most models back to the early 90's. A 96 Accord automatic (or manual) is definitely towable using the procedure prescribed by Honda for all its car.

Brakes for a toad or dolly are strongly advised and absolutely required if the combined weight of coach and toad exceeds the coach GVWR.  Surge brakes add about $400 to the cost of a new dolly and I would think electric brakes would be a similar price difference.  There are often used ones available as well.

Adding a brake controller to a coach is a few hours work for a competent shop - no big deal. Your coach is probably already wired with a plug on the rear, so you just need to add the brake controller for a dolly w/electric brakes.  Note that if you tow 4-down, you still want some kind of toad brake system, so that would need some amount of installation too.

Ned, the honda going thru the auto auction tomorrow is a 96 accord with a automatic, so i may buy this.  but if i do decide to tow 4 down, can a automatic be towed 4 down?  the 96 is to old for Gary's guide, ( i can / will order the older guide )  is best case scenario to look for a manual tranny to tow?

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Yes, that 1996 can be towed 4 down, if it's an Accord.  I'm not sure about the other models, like the Civic.  With so many automatics that are towable, I wouldn't limit your search to manual transmissions unless you really like shifting   Our first towed was a Ranger with stick shift and we don't miss that at all.

If you do get a Honda, come back here and we'll give you the proper instructions for towing it.

The Honda towing instructions are in our forum library here.

OK DUDES!

I'm off to the auction!

I have in my sites, a 2000 Malibu, a 2010 Malibu, 1996 Accord, and a few 05 to 08 Malibus.  They all seem to fly with towing, however, I could not open the pdf to see if the 2000 Malibu was listed, I am presuming it's ok - thoughts?

What about a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, 2007?  I couldn't get that open either.  It may be the network I am motel'd in.

I'm all over the place with a toad, but ultimitely, I think the 2000 Malibu will fly with the wife over the 96 Honda, and it will fly with my checkbook today over the Jeep (always wanted one anyway) and the 2010 Malibu.

Remco Towing charts show the 2000 Malibu is towable without modifications.
www.remcotowing.com

OK!

I did it!  I went new, a 2010 Malibu LT.  I thought about going older and cheaper, but .....  ,,,  I just like newer I guess.

So, now I need to get a tow bar and brake system.  I can put the tow bar on myself, where should I start looking?

I'm literally typing this at a truck stop!

susann9090 said:

OK!

I did it!  I went new, a 2010 Malibu LT.  I thought about going older and cheaper, but .....  ,,,  I just like newer I guess.

So, now I need to get a tow bar and brake system.  I can put the tow bar on myself, where should I start looking?

I'm literally typing this at a truck stop!

Click to expand...

Lots of places, but I found the best price for what I was after here.

Thanks, I just sent Vince a email

You need to decide what braking system you want.  I bought the Ready Brake surge system incorporated into the tow bar.  However, running the cable for the brakes in your Malibu might be a problem.  You may want to look at a Roadmaster, SMI or similar brake system instead of the surge-type brake.