car rental vs towing

If you will mostly go where you don't need a car, then renting is a good option for those times that you do. I have been places where there is no rental agency, and only one cab for the whole town. We do not tow, but if we stay within the state (SC is not that big) the wife will typically follow in her car.

If you decide to tow then you have the issue of 4 down, trailer, or tow dolly and all methods have their pros and cons.

I use mine about the same as the OP. Most of the time we travel to the same few destinations where renting has been easy with Enterprise. They come the campgrounds and pick us up and return us when we are done. I usually pull a cargo trailer with a golf cart on those trips as well.

So renting has worked well for us so far. Usually spend about $80.00 to $120.00 for 3 or 4 days of rental.

I recently purchased a new Honda CR-V that will become the toad later when we travel more frequently to new destinations.

Michael

It sounds like from your question you'd rather pull your boat and rent a car. Otherwise you tow your car and have no boat. If you rent a car you have both. I don't have a boat so the decision was easy. Tow it. I would much rather have my own car that I know has not been smoked in, can be packed with stuff and is an extra vehicle in case I get stranded. Not to mention it's free aside from the initial cost of setting it up. At a rental of $50/day (guessing but I'd need a larger vehicle), I'd only have to rent 4 weeks to equal the cost of my dolly.

Our motorhome never moves without the wrangler toad behind.
The boat for sure could add some questions though. I like boats, would not have to choose between a boat and the wrangler.

I think it comes down to how much hassel is it to be without a toad maybe more than the cost. How far from your camping spot do you have to go to get the car and then take it back? How do you get to the car rental place - drive your MH? Do they have parking for it? How much time will that take to get the car and then return it. What if you're all set up and then you're out of bread or propane? Everyone is different. Try it a few times without. Enterprise seems to work fairly well if you camp near towns. You can always start pulling a toad if it doesn't work out.Bill

Eventhough we have a 5th wheel and have the truck to use for getting around, there are times when we rent a car for sight seeing and other trips. It saves having to drive one of our cars separately to the campground.

I would calculate how often you might need to rent a car and then do a cost comparison to see where the break evan point might be. Keep in mind eventhough you may tow the car there will still be some maintenance costs to consider..tire and brake wear on the car as it is towed.

I guess it depends on where you plan on traveling. If it is near an area where car rentals are handy, then rent. I assume that you plan on using your coach to launch your boat, which may be a hassle to leave the RV Park, launch the boat, and then come back later on and hook up at the park again.

In my case it would cost somewhere north of $2000 to set up our car to tow. So far we have been successful in renting at our destination. Our preference has been Enterprise as they regularly do pick up and drop off. That saves us having to deal with trying to maneuver our motorhome in their lot.

If we were traveling for longer periods of time towing would probably be a more logical option for us.