Will I regret having a car hauler?

Hi all, Trying to set up a new rig, please help me decide. I thought a small single axle 14' car hauler trailer(under 2000 lbs) with a honda fit(2500 lbs) would be a good choice for a tow vehicle set up. The motor homes I am looking at  have 5000 lb towing capacity,(ford v10 chassis) and I think the ability to back up will be a big plus, along with less wear on tow vehicle. My question is... what about when I arrive at campground? Will I regret that trailer then? Or will towing that extra 2000lbs suck? thanks for the input

Only you can decide that, and it likely will depend on what campgrounds you use. I see people using car haulers and they rave about the pluses, but there are campgrounds where having a trailer to store, even overnight, is going to be pure PITA. Obviously those folks avoid that sort of park in favor of ones with long open spaces or they stay long term and the hassle of moving a trailer to a storage area is not a major factor.

I will also note that backing up a relatively short trailer with a long tow vehicle is rarely easy. Easier than 4-down or dolly towing, but still short of "easy" [IMO]. If that is your only reason for choosing a hauler instead of 4-down, I personally think it's a poor tradeoff. If you also wanted greater protection for the exterior finish, or to carry other stuff besides the car, then it begins to have more value. It all boils down to your priorities.

Many of us will be interested to hear your assessment after you get a few trips under your belt.

fatnfur said:

Hi all, Trying to set up a new rig, please help me decide. I thought a small single axle 14' car hauler trailer(under 2000 lbs) with a honda fit(2500 lbs) would be a good choice for a tow vehicle set up. The motor homes I am looking at  have 5000 lb towing capacity,(ford v10 chassis) and I think the ability to back up will be a big plus, along with less wear on tow vehicle. My question is... what about when I arrive at campground? Will I regret that trailer then? Or will towing that extra 2000lbs suck? thanks for the input

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I can't imagine having a Honda Fit and towing it on a trailer. All the fit's I know of are towable 4 down. Keep it simple and tow the fit 4 down. No you can't back up when towing 4 down. That is a minor problem, I have had to un hook to back up once so far (3 min to do) in the last 4 years. Finding some place to park a trailer at most campgrounds is a challenge. Can you push the trailer around by hand? Up hill in the rain?  Trust me I had a dolly, now I tow 4 down. I could not manage a trailer.
Bill

I too vote for towing 4 down. I have had to back up once in 7 years of owning our coach. The very few people in our RV park in Arizona that show up with a car trailer, have to  pay for storage for their trailers at a storage facility because there is no room on the sites. And yes, a Honda Fit can be towed 4 down.

I have only once wished I coudl back up and since it was only about 20 yards I simply dropped. backed, turned around and re-hooked,  (To be honest I could have parked the RV on site and walked back to the car from there only about 2x as far,,, Did that the next AM anyway).

I think if you try different modes you will find stowing the trailer to be more hassle than not being able to back up.. Plus some places charge you extra to stow the trailer (At least one).  and even with a light weight car you are pushing your 5K OR LESS tow limit..

Something you need to consider.. You say "most class A's you are looking at have a 5,000 pound towing limit.. This is not correct, they have 5,000 pound HITCHES.. This assumes a short receiver adapter or tow bars used WITHOUT a drop/rise hitch adapter.  (they are not really rated for use with a drop/rise hitch adapter)

And then there is the other tow limit

Your RV has two (three) weight ratings/weights... ONE is the GVW (Grosse Vehicle Weight)  This is the heaviest your RV should be all by itself loaded as though starting out on ta trip.. Mine the Max GVW rating is 22,000 and yes. I'm there.

Then there is the MAX CGVW.. This too will be on the sticker.. This is the maximum COMBINED vehicle weight rating, Motor home and anything you are towin.. For me that is 26000 pounds.. 

Your real tow rating is the lesser of the hitch rating and the (Max CGVW - actual GVW)  and as I said, if you drop the hitch with an adapter that ratign (hitch) drops like a rock.


Took me a few thousand miles but towing 4,000 pounds of car on a drop hitch adapter tore the 5,000 pound hitch right off the RV.... Cost me a new rear wheel for my Bicycle (About 80 buicks)_ and about 50 bucks worth of welding .. The welders did a 1st class job and seriously over bulit the replacement.

The great majority of campgrounds hand you a set of rules (along with the site map) when you check in.  I would guess that maybe 75 percent of them specify One RV + One Car per site.  I'm sure this it to minimize parking on grass and a million other reasons but the point it they want to limit the number of vehicles per site and they probably include a dolly or trailer as a vehicle.  Few have enough room on the site to store them.

Towing four down usually is the easiest.  Any trailer has to be unhitched and then moved.  Consider how you will move it.  Some of them take a lot of muscle and moving it to a storage area can't be very easy.

ArdraF

Personally I think a car hauler is a great idea that's how I would do it

Campingnut16 said:

Personally I think a car hauler is a great idea that's how I would do it

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You obviously never have.
Bill

We have towed 3 Honda CRVs four down for about 125,000 miles and each of them do not allow towing with two wheels on the ground on a tow dolly. This may be a requirement of the all wheel system or specific to a CRV but I would read the owner's manual very carefully.

Thank you everyone for the input, it seems like the car hauler will be more trouble than its worth!

We tow a Honda Accord 4-down and it works great.  Like the others, we have only had one time where we needed to unhitch the toad and back up.  I had driven behind a shopping center and it turned out to be a dead end.

If you don't already own the Fit, make sure you get one that is towable 4-down.  At some point in the last few years, Honda changed automatic transmissions (perhaps to a CVT?) and the autos are no longer towable.

I do both (4-down and trailer). I used the trailer exclusively for about 9 years, 60,000 miles and three different motorhomes (including a gasser). I only had to disconnect the trailer once even though there was room for it, just a rule that the RV park had. All it takes is a little planning by selecting RV parks that have sites long enough. I tow a 16' tandem flat bed trailer and the overall length between it and flat towing my 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee is the same so I ask for the same length pull through site either way. The trailer is a steel unit with a wood deck and weighs 1800 lbs with a total weight of 6500lbs. While 4-down is slightly easier overall I prefer using the trailer because of all the advantages.

One other thing to consider is the type of parks you plan to stay in.  Many commercial parks have pull-through sites where a trailer would not be inconvenient.  We personally prefer to stay in state or county parks that are always back-in sites, rarely more than 45 feet in length, and without a convenient spot to park a trailer.  Hauling a car on a trailer would be very inconvenient for us at most of those parks.

Why spend the extra money for a trailer to haul your Honda Fit?  The Honda with an automatic transmission is one of the few cars you can tow without doing anything special.  I have a Honda Fit I've towed across country a couple times with four wheels on the ground. I've only had to  disconnect once when I blindly followed the GPS and got stuck in the sand dunes in Arizona. 

sluggermike, what year is your fit? are you limited to 55mph?
Thanks

The Honda Fit will move itself, under power, wherever you want to put it. The trailer will at the very least have to be muscled around by you to perhaps hook it to the hitch ball on the Fit and store it somewhere. All this of course if you do not have have a pull through site. Not to mention getting the car on and off the trailer, tying it down. And someday you will find yourself in some form of a dead end, needing to unload the car, unhook the trailer, turn it all around, (trailer by hand, of course) put it all back together.

For me, a very easy choice.

In  ten years and 45,000+ miles of towing four down, I've never had to unhook to get out of an unintended situation. I have had to back up a few feet a couple of times to make a tighter turn, but that is doable with care.

Already had the  #3500 12ft single axle trailer ...I alternate between Smart Car and Motorcycles..Trailer is also indispensable for yard and garden supplies, so it's a no brainer for me not to spend the$$$$$ for mounting plates and hook up for a 4 down tow vehicle..The park we visit in Florida during the cold winter months hook my trailer to an ATV and park it for FREE in their extra overflow area and return it when we are ready to leave..I do not like the thought of my 4 car wheels / tires/bearings etc. whirring down the highway behind my RV...much rather trailer my baby....We usually stop at the nearby Walmart...take the car off the trailer before entering the campground..this reduces the time when signing in and relieves congestion...I have seen people plug up the whole access  roads fiddling with their  4 down set up but they don't seem to give a darn about anyone else...seems to me, they are very selfish and should realize that there is an alternate procedure both getting in and out of the camping sites..

NY_Dutch said:

In  ten years and 45,000+ miles of towing four down, I've never had to unhook to get out of an unintended situation. I have had to back up a few feet a couple of times to make a tighter turn, but that is doable with care.

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There are those who have had to unhook and those who will have to unhook.
I use to say I had never unhooked but a park ranger in West Virginia cured that when he routed me down a road that looked good to start with but after going around a curve quite. It literally went from a two lane residential street (at the end of the block) to a one lane jeep trail. There were big tree branches across from both sides at about 7-8 feet. ;D
The big takeaway is it only takes a couple of minutes to unhook the toad. It would take about 10 to unload the dolly (I have used one extensively) but I don't know how I would have gotten a trailer unloaded, the trailer moved out of the road (while you turn the coach around) and re hooked up and reloaded. 
Bill 

WILDEBILL308 said:

There are those who have had to unhook and those who will have to unhook.
I use to say I had never unhooked but a park ranger in West Virginia cured that when he routed me down a road that looked good to start with but after going around a curve quite. It literally went from a two lane residential street (at the end of the block) to a one lane jeep trail. There were big tree branches across from both sides at about 7-8 feet. ;D
The big takeaway is it only takes a couple of minutes to unhook the toad. It would take about 10 to unload the dolly (I have used one extensively) but I don't know how I would have gotten a trailer unloaded, the trailer moved out of the road (while you turn the coach around) and re hooked up and reloaded. 
Bill 

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Oh, I agree, Bill! I know that sooner or later the situation will occur, and I'm fully prepared to do what's needed, but it hasn't happened yet except when planned that way. I am a firm believer in the "Plan your exit before you enter." concept...