car rental vs towing

Your choice. I don't use a car at all on trips, only when using the motorhome in a fixed location as a temporary home away from home.

I'd rather tow a vehicle, then rent a boat (or other watercraft) at the river, lake, or ocean ... You can't drive a boat to any land locked destination, if you have an emergency enroute.

I tried renting when we first got a Class A. It did not take long to see the advantages of towing!!! Enterprise says that will bring the car to you - NOT, I had to pick up every time and have dw drive the rental to where we were camped. Enterprise says that will return you to your site after you drop the can off - maybe, but you will have to wait for a free salesman and if there are more customers to be returned, you will be at the end of the route, maybe a two hour ride back to your site. Went thru the above scenario on several trips and finally said we would switch to towing the wife's work car, which we still tow. And finally, the salesmen get all huffy if you are camped in a local state park, telling you about all the damage that happens to rental cars that go into those places!!

Have been to may places that do not have rental agents close by. Also it is handy to have a toad if you have a breakdown. One road it the long 23 miles down to Cedar Key in Florida... no place to rent a car, another was in Helen Ga the closest rental car is 30 miles away, then there is Gamble Rogers State Park Flager Beach in Florida that is about 5 miles to any town or resturant. It is best to have the toad and not worry about it. Use it as your daily ride when not traveling.

Some great suggestions already given. I would say that it really depends upon the type of destinations and areas you like to stay at. Sounds like you want water access.

If you want to spend time in national parks, many of them are a long distance from car rental areas. I only throw that in because we use NP campgrounds whenever we can. Not sure how close a car rental agency is to Yellowstone, Bryce Canyon, etc.!! :B

Depending on rentals can be a tricky affair, depending on where you are going. You would think a popular destination like Orlando would have plenty of vehicles available... not so. Despite making reservations months ahead of time with Enterprise, we got to Orlando (Davenport specifically) for our 4 day stop, called Enterprise to come pick me up... no car was available, despite the reservation. 2 out of 4 days, no car. Let me tell you, groceries were quite a hike away from the campground.

wa8yxm wrote:
I just spent the weekend in a very sweet Rental JEEP (had 12 miles on it when they handed me the keys, 333 when I gave 'em back) Cost me 350 bucks.

(That is the weekly rate, including insurance since Nationwide will not extend the Motor Home's policy to cover it.. at least not yet)

So, you now have the math 2000 to set a care up for towing /350 per week or long weekend (It would have been less save Enterprise was closed on Monday) and you have less than six trips to recover cost of towing mods. Add in a bit because most Motor homes burn more gas when towing (The towed I had "Spoiled" the air flow just enough to balance the added weight) and six weeks to recover.. Without insurance make it 10.

We had a similar experience a couple weeks ago. We don't have the new motorhome set up to tow yet so we had to rent. Hertz was $450.00 for 5 days. Avis was $350.00 for the same time period. We found a car dealer that rented cars and rented a 2007 Ford for $200.00. The closest rental location was over 30 miles from our destination so we also had to work that into the schedule.

I just spent the weekend in a very sweet Rental JEEP (had 12 miles on it when they handed me the keys, 333 when I gave 'em back) Cost me 350 bucks.

(That is the weekly rate, including insurance since Nationwide will not extend the Motor Home's policy to cover it.. at least not yet)

So, you now have the math 2000 to set a care up for towing /350 per week or long weekend (It would have been less save Enterprise was closed on Monday) and you have less than six trips to recover cost of towing mods. Add in a bit because most Motor homes burn more gas when towing (The towed I had "Spoiled" the air flow just enough to balance the added weight) and six weeks to recover.. Without insurance make it 10.

We tried renting a few times. It may not make sense but it bugged me beyond description to have to fork over the extra hundred or so, for a car rental, in the middle of a trip. It seemed that there was always something that would be better to spend the money on (beer, food, amusement parks).

It cost me about the equivilent of 15 rental weekends to pay for a dolly and equipment but personally I was happier with the one time expenditure as opposed to the car rental which seemed like death by a thousand knives.

Now if a boat was important to me I would likely put up with the rental costs and enjoy myself on the water.

I prefer to tow because if there is a break down between nowhere and small town usa, there is a way to get around.