the Dinghy

[spyknee]

Plan on getting a Class A diesel pusher, plan on towing my mid size truck with it.

Now in my mind, I feel I should tow my dinghy, with it on its own trailer, so as to cut down on trucks travel wear, tire wear, etc.......I notice that most peeps just tow there dinghy's with out said trailer, why? Is it ultimately not necessary? Too much trouble? Gets in the way........................

Any thoughts on subject appreciated.

ty

 

[Kim (skyking4ar2) Bertram]

You will get tons of conversation on this topic, and it has been discussed here often.

If you travel a lot, especially if you are a full time, a dolly is a huge pain. You have to put it somewhere if you want to use your towed, there may not be room in your site, yada yada.

For folks who don't travel all the time, a dolly makes sense because you don't have to rig brakes on our towed vehicle and light it, etc.

As far as wear and tear, we towed a Honda Accord for four years, no perceptible wear, other than some tire wear, but not all vehicles tow well. Weight is always an issue to be dealt with.

An informal survey I did one Saturday on the Interstate has 30 folks towing, only two with dollies. Not scientific, but...

I think you will be well pleased with rigging your truck, considering your Class A AND your hitch is rated to pull it, and you set up the auxiliary braking system and it will be a more manageable solution.

We have never regretted towing four down.

Kim

 

[spacenorman]

We went with the "4 down" approach to towing - pulling a little Jeep Liberty behind our coach.  Most of the dolly setups I had seen involved nylon straps to secure the vehicle being towed onto the dolly and that didn't inspire my confidence much.  Couple that with the headache of what to do with the dolly that SkyKing mentioned and ... well, "4 down" just seemed to be the way to do it.  The fact that it seems like I see 4x as many folks pulled their toads "4 down" as compared to using a dolly was certainly a consideration as well. 

We've been pulling our Jeep this way for roughly 3 months - and have had zero issues.  It's quick and easy to hook and unhook.  If it wasn't for the rear view camera reminding me that there's something right behind me - it would be easy to forget it's even there. 

You'll simply have to make sure that your truck can be towed "4 down" safely.  The FMHA "Dingy Guide" and your truck's owners manual should be able to answer that definitively. 

 

[billwild]

We have towed our Honda CRV for 6 years now with zero problems, do not even feel it back there.  Were very fortunate to find all of our towing hardware, tow bar, cables and the towing baseplate on the front of the  Honda, all on Ebay. Saved a lot of money that way. I agree with the above statement, would not want to have to find a place to store the trailer at the RV sites when camping. The sites are pretty cramped as it is, and the loading and unloading does take a while to do, compared to four down.


Bill

 

[driftless shifter]

Nylon straps creep you out? Make your own with chain, I did. A dolly like anything gets easier and quicker to load/unload the more you do it. Haven't had a problem fitting a site yet with a 34' class A, drop the dolly and back up over the tongue, adds about 5' to overall length. For an overnight while traveling request a pull through. Changing toads does not require new base plate. A dolly will tow most all front wheel drive cars, particularly those that can't be flat towed, thus saving the expense of trading in a car that can't be flat towed for a car that can be. A dolly has its place in the methods of toading.

Bill

 

[bucks2]

If towing with a dolly, or as the OP's original question asks about, a trailer, were an easy well liked method, then the majority of people would do that. But....... by far, the majority of people with toads, tow 4 down. Now think about it and decide why they do that. Could it be because it's the easiest, fastest, most reasonable way to tow? I think that may be it.

A trailer is by far, for our way of traveling, a large encumbrance. We stay at a lot of Elks lodges. Many simply don't have pull thru spots. Many simply don't have a lot of extra room to park a MH, a trailer AND a toad. It just doesn't work. Many of the parks we stay in for month long stays charge extra to store a trailer in another area because your space doesn't have room for a MH, a toad and a trailer. I think you'll regret trying to use a trailer for your toad, Ty.

Ken

 

[spacenorman]

Nylon straps creep you out? Make your own with chain, I did. A dolly like anything gets easier and quicker to load/unload the more you do it. Haven't had a problem fitting a site yet with a 34' class A, drop the dolly and back up over the tongue, adds about 5' to overall length. For an overnight while traveling request a pull through. Changing toads does not require new base plate. A dolly will tow most all front wheel drive cars, particularly those that can't be flat towed, thus saving the expense of trading in a car that can't be flat towed for a car that can be. A dolly has its place in the methods of toading.

You'll get no argument from me that a dolly has it's place.  However the things that that make it work for you - don't apply to everybody.  In my case, our coach is nominally 43' long (it's actually 44'+ if you use a tape measure...) - and finding sites can be an issue.  Add a dinghy AND a dolly and things get real crowded real fast.    Same applies to towing a front wheel drive vehicle.  We've been planning our transition into RV'ing for close to 20 years ... and timed the replacement of my wife's daily driver such that we purposely purchased a vehicle that's suitable for flat towing specifically for that purpose.  I also agree with your point that things get faster with practice.  We've been flat pulling the Jeep for a little more than two months now - and can't imagine anything being much easer and/or faster (and most importantly - more fool proof and secure!) than the two locking pins our towbar/baseplate setup uses. 

 

[Lou Schneider]

Unless your pickup truck is front wheel drive, you'll have to carry it on a full trailer, not a dolly.  They only work for front wheel drive cars.

When you get to a campsite, you'll have to disconnect the truck's tiedown straps, rig the trailer for unloading (tilt the bed or put the ramps in place), carefully back the truck off of the trailer, then find a place to store the trailer.  It's unlikely it will fit along with the motorhome and pickup truck in a standard campsite.  Much more work than disconnecting a 4 down tow from a motorhome and folding the drawbar up against the MH's rear bumper.

Then when you're ready to leave you'll have to reverse the process.  Hitch the trailer to the motorhome.  Tilt the bed or put out the ramps.  Carefully drive the pickup truck into place and secure the tie-down straps.  Again, much more work than just driving the truck up to the rear of the motorhome and extending the hitch arms out to engage it.

Plus a 4 wheel trailer will add 2500 lbs. or more to your weight.  That's almost as much as towing another whole vehicle behind the motorhome.

 

[bucks2]

It looks like many have forgotten the OP said trailer not dolly. He doesn't appear to have ever intended to dolly tow his truck, which is most likely rear wheel drive and not a candidate for a dolly. Can anyone name a  "mid size truck" that is front wheel drive? I don't know of one.

Ken

 

[Kim (skyking4ar2) Bertram]

Indeed he did talk about a trailer, which is even more of a problem than a dolly!  :'(

 

[spyknee]

Dodge Dakota 4 WD, not interested in disabling tranny to tow. Trailer seemed best choice for my Dinghy, might even build a custom one once I know whats out there now, legal, and easy to deal with. I'm a lifetime stagehand, been modifying, building, repurposing my whole life, a custom trailer would be ez.

means I prolly get a shorter Class A not a 38'ter.

 

[Jim Godward]

Doesn't the Dakota use the same type of system as the Jeep, put the transfer case in Neutral and Transmission in park to tow.  I towed my 2002 Jeep for more than 80,000 miles and only had a problem with the rear end, needed new differential and rear wheel bearings.  I was told that that particular model Jeep usually needed  the differential changed about 2 or 3 times per 100,000 miles.  It was once in over 180,000 miles and was as we sold it.

There was some tire wear but not significant in my mind.

 

[spyknee]

maybe so, I have never towed it. Its a 2000 with less than 50k on it. The 4 wd selector does have a neutral. Now I we'll have to run this done. TY for knowledge.

 

[Ernie n Tara]

I think you'll find that a 4wd pickup is simple to tow 4 down. Transfer case in neutral and trans in park should do it. I've towed my Jeeps about 40, 000 miles that way with no problems.

Ernie

 

[Jim Godward]

maybe so, I have never towed it. Its a 2000 with less than 50k on it. The 4 wd selector does have a neutral. Now I we'll have to run this done. TY for knowledge.

The owners manual should have the directions.  IF you don't have a manual, check "Mopar.com" Or search for the 2000 Dakota owners manual.  I believe they are on line and downloadable.

 

[ArdraF]

I've noticed recently that a few campgrounds and/or resorts have started stipulating the number of vehicles per site.  It probably started to keep large groups with numerous vehicles to a reasonable size.  But as I read them it also appeared to restrict extras like trailers on which you would have your car.  I don't remember the exact details but one said only one motorhome/trailer plus one car/truck per site.  That would mean any trailer for your car would have to be stored elsewhere and probably not for free.

Four-down towing is so easy and hassle-free when compared to either trailers or dollies that there would have to be serious extenuating circumstances for us to change from towing four-down.

ArdraF

 

[Larry N.]

I think you'll find that a 4wd pickup is simple to tow 4 down. Transfer case in neutral and trans in park should do it. I've towed my Jeeps about 40, 000 miles that way with no problems.

Ernie

While that's often true, Ernie, some are not towable, my 2007 F-150 Lariat for example. The electronic 4WD control is nice in many ways, but there's no apparent way to put the transfer case in neutral, and the manual says DON'T.

 

[Kim (skyking4ar2) Bertram]

The electronic neutral is an interesting paradox.

I have spoken to two different owners of vehicles that were specifically listed as not towable, yet they were able to get the transfer case into neutral, the dash light says it was in neutral, and they had both towed thousands of miles without apparent issue.

Notice I said "apparent". All they know is that their vehicles, one a Toyota 4Runner, the other a Chevy Blazer, don't "appear" to have any functional issues. And both were "experienced" vehicles, i.e. not that latest models.

The moral of this story is that one size does not fit all, and if you chose to color a little outside the lines from what the factory says, the burden rests squarely on you. For my money, sometimes you live on the edge and win! If not, well you tried!

 

[tedandcandy]

I bought a Chevy equinox to flat tow and the DW started driving it full time and her 350 SLK M Benz has been sitting in the garage since 2014.
She can haul the grand kids around in the back seat and loves the high up driving position. If I had known that could have saved a lot of money!
All are cars are 2 setters and none were flat towable. I looked at enclosed trailers first and decided just to much hassle so in summary the MH
we bought for a week camping led to another car and a 48 X 24 garage to park new toys in, who knew! 

 

[John From Detroit]

I think you'll find that a 4wd pickup is simple to tow 4 down. Transfer case in neutral and trans in park should do it. I've towed my Jeeps about 40, 000 miles that way with no problems.

Ernie

Some say to stop and do a procedure from time to time.. plus you have to do a procedure when you hook up (Procedure,,Start engine, run through gears or modes or some other pattern of shifting)

And many people think of AWD as 4WD (not the same)  JEEP now makes some AWD rides.  And since so many people DO tow Jeeps they address "Recreational Towing" in the owner's manual

For their AWD and automatic 4WD with the electronic clutches and such they say DO NOT TOW.. Not 4 down, Not 2 down,, You may flat bed or trailer.

For 4WD with a manual transfer case.. In some cases it depends on the transfer case..They once had a design that could not be towed wheels down.. Others can (Generally but even then not always if they have specific options or modifications).

You got to read the instructions.