Preferable Toad

HARLYGL94 wrote:

WyoTraveler wrote:
Jeep seems to be the most popular 4 down toad. Works well for us. Just seems like a dolly would take up extra space when in an RV park.

I know that about the dolly but it came with my motor home.

Sell the dolly and put the money towards a 4 down towable vehicle.

I had a dolly for 11 years and now 11 years of 4 down. If I ever have to go back to a dolly I will give up RVing.

I was going to go the 4 down route until I saw a friends tow dolly. The Acme dolly with the surge brakes he has is pretty slick ($1,200). A good dolly does have some advantages as there are a lot more choices for a towed vehicle, you can easily switch vehicles, they are cheaper. No extra wiring, pumps, lighting hook up, etc. needed. Lock the steering wheel and it's easier to back up. Backing up 4 down is pretty much impossible.

The draw back is it takes a few more minutes to load and as stated above you can't tow most 4WDs. Something I can live with.

You're asking a pretty open-ended question. You can dolly tow nearly any front wheel drive vehicle that physically fits on the dolly in question and does not exceed your motorhome's towing capacity. On the flip side, there are virtually no 4WD or AWD vehicles that can be dolly towed, but many (not all) of those can be towed 4 down.

We have a tow dolly. It cost us $1300 and came with surge brakes. Price the cost of going 4 down. Base plate, tow bar, brakes, lighting, and installation. I can guarantee you it's a lot cheaper to go the tow dolly route. Then there's the issue that if you want to change cars or need to change cars, you will have to get another base plate and have it installed along with the lighting. Additional cost. Many cars that are towed four down also have special requirements, such as stopping x amount of miles and running the car...shifting through gears...etc. As far as easier....perhaps four down might be a little easier. But we can have our car loaded in almost the same amount of time as one does four down, but I didn't think it was a race anyway. When we are RVing, we don't worry about time. The only thing that some may find difficult is the fact that you will have to get down on the ground to hook the chains. If that's a big deal and you have a hard time doing it, then you might need to reconsider whether or not you should be driving a rig like that.

As far as storing it at the campsite, we are able to back our coach over our ACME tow dolly and cover most of it. When you get ready to leave, just pull forward a few feet and put the dolly on the hitch and you are ready to go.

I haven't read any stories on here about people tearing up their cars with a tow dolly. But have read numerous about their cars being messed up with four down.

As far as your question about what you can tow....we tow a 2007 Toyota Yaris. It weighs in the 2000 lb range and gets 37 mpg. It's my daily commuter car. Setting it up to go four down was going to cost me twice as much as the dolly. The car as 183,000 miles on it. It's running like a champ, but tomorrow it could go. If I went the four down and something happened to the car and I had to get a new one, then it would cost me another $300-400 for another base plate and then have to pay for the installation and having the lights set up...no thanks.

Sell the dolly and buy a toad that can go 4 down if you don't have the toad yet. Only YOU can decide what you think you want a toad to do. Go off road? How much can you tow? Gas or diesel? 2 seats or 4 (or more)? The list is nearly endless.

BTW, the best toad is whatever I have.

WyoTraveler wrote:
Jeep seems to be the most popular 4 down toad. Works well for us. Just seems like a dolly would take up extra space when in an RV park.

I know that about the dolly but it came with my motor home.

I also would not mess with a tow dolly.

To keep the weight of the Toad down we have on order a 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek. It is the Limited package as that is the only one that you can get a manual trans in. You can't tow 4 down with the CVT trans. It is a AWD and has 8.7" of ground clearance so you can do some off roading with it. That is one of the reasons I went with it is I love to explore forest service roads and such. Also the cost of a manual Crosstrek is very reasonable. This car well be mostly used as a toad so I wanted to keep the cost down for the toad.

Jeep is a good one also in fact we have a Grand Cherokee that is 4 down towable but it is heavier than I want to tow with our Sprinter based MH.

HARLYGL94 wrote:
Can anyone recommend a toad to pull on a tow dolly?

A lot of front wheel drive vehicles can be towed on a dolly. Find one you really like and check the owner's manual under "recreational towing."

HARLYGL94 wrote:
Can anyone recommend many different codes that I might be able to use?

I don't understand this question at all.

Jeep seems to be the most popular 4 down toad. Works well for us. Just seems like a dolly would take up extra space when in an RV park.