What would YOU do? (4-down tow vs dolly)

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drisley

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Aug 11, 2013
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I know the whole 4-down tow vs dolly has been discussed alot, but curious about input in my situation. Plus, have some questions.

My wife and I both have Toyota Prius - and we like the cars. So, original plan was to pick up a dolly to tow the Prius. Was looking at American Car Dolly, since it seems to be friendly for low-profile vehicles like the Prius.

Most of our trips are fairly short and within Florida (where we live), but during the summers we do go on an extended trip, for 4-5 weeks at a time. We pick up and go fairly often, not staying in any one location for more than maybe 3 nights. So, I'm kinda envisioning the dolly/Prius being repetitively annoying. :)

So, I've recently began considering getting rid of one of the Priuses and replacing it with a vehicle which can be flat-towed. Perhaps a CRV. Obviously, there's the cost of the vehicle, but then whatever costs there are to prep it for towing.

So, my questions....

(1) Roughly just how much time/hassle are we talking to remove a car from dolly... and load it up? Is the experience of flat-tow REALLY a night-and-day difference in terms of time/hassle?

(2) Roughly how much would I expect to pay to prep a vehicle for flat-tow?

(3) Any experience with resale value on a toad vehicle? You're permanently altering it to use it as a toad and only an RV owner would appreciate it.

(4) In your opinion, is the additional cost of getting a different vehicle and prepping for flat-tow worth it vs spending $1500 on a dolly and taking a Prius. Consider that we travel quite a bit in the summers, and randomly through the year. I would imagine probably at least 2 months of every year, the vehicle would be used as a toad.

Thoughts? Thanks. :)
 
I have little experience with dollies and no experience with 4 down.  Remember this advice is worth what you paid for it.

If you will be loading and unloading the toad from the dolly  3 or 4 times a week, it will get real old real fast!!
Hook dolly to RV.  Wiring harness.  Safety chains.
Run car onto dolly. Align tire webs.  Tighten tire webs.  Web ratchet safety pins.
Safety chains from dolly to car frame (under car).
Check, tighten tire webs every stop.

With a 4 down:
Pull car close to RV. Attach 2 tow bars with clips.  Attach wiring harness and safety chains.
Set up car brakes.  Some are very simple, others a little harder.
Drive off.

Cost  Tow dolly cost.
4 Down depends on the toad and needed accessories.
Minimum is tow plate attached to Toad (removable before selling).
Tow bar, safety chains.
Braking system.
Wiring lights.
Others may also require transmission fluid pump.

Look at    www.remcoindustries.com    for specifics for any specific vehicle.

Personally, I like this braking / tow bar setup:        http://www.readybrake.com

Others will argue their point of view, I am sure.
 
I had both, a dolly for 4 years and towing wheels down on 3 different cars for over 10 years. It is much quicker and easier to install a toad 4 wheels down then installing the same on a dolly, I'd say 2 times quicker.
The dolly is a lot cheaper, let's say ? $2500 equiped with electric brakes, since you can use it for different toads.
Towing 4 wheels down, you'll have to spend ? $2000 to buy a tow bar and a nauxiliary braking system; then on every toad, you'll have to spend ? $800 to get a baseplate installed.
 
You have do store the dolly somewhere at the campsite and not when using it. At the campsite maybe you can leave it attached to the rv if its a pull through. Do you have a place to store it for free? That will be an additional cost also, but you could just rent one each time you need it. I have been flat towing mine and have used a dolly for towing vehicles before. It probably comes down to how much money you want to spend. I would flat tow.
 
Thanks for the feedback, guys. Right now, I'm thinking about going out to look at some CRV's and just see what I think about them.

I'm thinking, too, that I may be able to get the tow bars used and save some money, no? My problem is that I've never really closely looked at a tow bar system, so I'm not exactly sure how it works. I'm flying blind here at the moment. But, if I can buy a used tow bar and then just have the base plates installed on a vehicle, seems it might work. It is more expensive than buying a dolly, but certainly would be more useful.

I know Wranglers are popular, but I just don't care for them. :) Plus, I have 2 young kids to haul around, too... so need something more family-friendly.
 
I have not been doing this for long, but I purchased a 2013 GMC Terrain a few months ago that can be flat towed and it works great and has quite a bit of room.  While having the base plate installed is something you want to have done, you also need to have the electrical connections professionally installed then some type of braking system.  I bought the RVi Brake System - "http://rvibrake.com/products/rvibrake2-auxiliary-braking-system?variant=8804230277" after reading about different systems.  While I believe there are many good ones on the market, I felt this was a very good one and fairly easy to handle and ultimately switch to another vehicle when I trade. 
 
Nice vehicle. Probably a little heavy for my tastes. I've got the Workhorse.Chevy 8.1 and I can tow 5000 pounds around, but I figure, lighter the better. Less gas, etc. The CRV looks like it'd weigh in slightly less than a Prius/dolly combo. My Prius is heavier than it looks... probably because of the battery.
 
Just so you know the 2014 CR-V is the last year you can tow 4 down.
I towed with a dolly and it is ok if you don't have a car that you can tow 4 down. It is infinitely better than not having a toad on a trip.
Bill
 
The CRV would have to be used, 2014 or earlier. The newer ones are not 4-down towable due to the CVT transmission. Ditto for the newer Fits.

There are two factors in the dolly vs 4-down debate. Time and, for lack of a better term, "mucking around".  The dolly hook-up requires that you get down and strap the wheels to the dolly or maybe even hook a safety cable or chain underneath. Requires a bit more physical effort and flexibility, and may be messy if the weather has been poor. Whether that is a big deal or nothing much depends somewhat on your age and attitude.

Time-wise, the difference between 3-5 minutes and 10-15 minutes may not be decisive. Again, depends on your attitude.

One difference for me is that my wife can and does hook up our 4-down set-up. Typically I do the tow bar itself while she does the rest, but she is quite capable of unhooking by herself and will even do the hook-up if I'm busy with something else (or was ever unable for whatever reason). I can't iamgine here wrestling with wheel straps on a dolly.

All that said, we are in fact talking about using a dolly this summer. We would really like to take our Buick Verano with us and it is FWD and needs a dolly or trailer  [our regular toad is big GMC Acadia]. Since we will spend 4 months in one place, using a dolly just to get there and back seems practical even if not quite as convenient.
 
Yeah, I'm aware of the 2014 limitation. That's no problem.

The time difference (3-5 min vs 15) matters because of how often we move around. Having to do that every 2-3 days would be pretty annoying, I think. And, yeah, if it rains or something, I guess I'd look pretty special after getting down on the ground. :) I'm a younger guy (38) so don't have an issue getting up and down. Just a convenience thing for me.

And, even if I went dolly, its a necessity. Last summer, we took off into the New England area without a toad and it was definitely a pain. Ended up using the RV as our taxi to/from town several times. Went into Plymoth, MA with the rig and finding a place to park was a challenge. We ended up renting a car in a few places, but that's easier said than done. Couple times, it was hard even to find a car available. So, we basically vowed not to do that again. :)
 
Great discussion. I'm struggling with the same debate here.

An advantage to the tow dolly is that when you get another car there is no additional cost to prepare for towing and you have more choices in what car to buy. In my case we have two cars (Hyundai Elantra and Buick LaCrosse) both front wheel drive so no way to flat tow.

I'm still thinking of a dolly to save on cost and when I don't like it in the end I have to bite the bullet, sell one car and pay the price of a base-plate, tow bar, break system and not to forget labor for installation.

 
DutchEagle said:
I'm still thinking of a dolly to save on cost and when I don't like it in the end I have to bite the bullet, sell one car and pay the price of a base-plate, tow bar, break system and not to forget labor for installation.
Yep, same here. In my case, I'm just projecting forward and realizing I'm going to not like it - probably fairly quickly. :) I'm willing to pay more for the better experience, but I guess it depends how much more. Wont know that until I go out and look at a few cars and see what kind of deal I can get.
 
drisley said:
I'm thinking, too, that I may be able to get the tow bars used and save some money, no? My problem is that I've never really closely looked at a tow bar system, so I'm not exactly sure how it works. I'm flying blind here at the moment. But, if I can buy a used tow bar and then just have the base plates installed on a vehicle, seems it might work. It is more expensive than buying a dolly, but certainly would be more useful.

That's exactly what I did.  They are available all the time on e-bay.  I bought the braking system (Roadmaster Even-brake) from a gentleman here on the forum and the Blue Ox tow bar off of Craigslist.  I want to say I paid $500 for the brake and $200 for the tow bar, but I might be a little low.  I purchased a new baseplate.  I was going to install it myself, but I started in on the job and decided I was in over my head.  I paid my local body shop $200 to install that and wire the lights.  The issue was that it required removing and replacing the front bumper cover, which seemed a little more than I wanted to tackle.  I think if I ever decided to start towing my Suburban, I could probably install the baseplate myself.  All told, including installation, I think I have around $1500 in my towing and braking system.

And for what it's worth, I'd never trade that setup for a tow dolly.  It's very convenient to connect and disconnect.

Edit:  When I had my body man install the base plate, I just took him a copy of the instructions from Blue Ox and asked him if he thought he could do that.  He said, "no problem".  I think he charged three hours of labor.
 
We've always preferred to tow four-down and I can handle that if necessary.  After watching a guy really struggle to get the very muddy tie-down straps off so he could remove his car from the dolly, we agreed we never wanted a dolly.  Personally I don't think I could handle a dolly and then there is the limitation of finding a place to put it in the campground.  Some people say just back it under the motorhome, but that isn't always feasible if there are trees and such.  We know one fellow who had so much trouble moving his dolly from his RV to the other side of the house where he stored it that he bought a mover device to make it easier.  Guess who went back to towing four down?

ArdraF
 
We have done it both ways, and currently use a Tow Dolly. It is not a huge hassle, considering we get to drive what we want when we get there. We use a Brake Buddy and Magnetic Tow Lights for a fairly simple setup. I do recommend an umbrella and a yoga mat.  When it is wet out is about the only time we consider going back to flat towing.
 
Your first post said you were considering American Car Dolly.
That's what we've used for three years. I have no experience with 4 down towing, but I need to chime in on several comments about using a tow dolly. There must be different types of dolly setups / configurations because I've never experienced the headaches some have mentioned - never needed to get on my knees, the tow straps are not in a position to ever get mud on them. Attaching the vehicle takes about 10 minutes / taking vehicle off about 5. My hands get a little dirty because I need to place part of the strap on the inside of the wheel. That's it.
Not trying to persuade. Just trying to be clear for an informed decision.
 
My suggestion is to visit a couple of rv parks and compare the number of each. In my experience, the result will be between five and ten to one in favor of four down. We usually stay at mid scale parks. I suspect the ratio would be highest at true Resorts and lower at the other end of the spectrum. In other words,  it's as much an economic question as not.

Ernie
 
Ernie n Tara said:
My suggestion is to visit a couple of rv parks and compare the number of each. In my experience, the result will be between five and ten to one in favor of four down. We usually stay at mid scale parks. I suspect the ratio would be highest at true Resorts and lower at the other end of the spectrum. In other words,  it's as much an economic question as not.

Ernie

In my case economics would imply selling one of the cars, buy one that can be towed 4 down and invest in a tow bar etc. When I make the calculations my economics indicate a car dolly would be the most favorite for this moment. However I would like to tow 4 down but that is not in the budget at this moment. So I'm one of the few (Like I was before) Semper Fi :)
 

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