Ready to go

jwiz7 wrote:
Wells thanks to advice from everyone on here i bought a 2007 National Dolphin 5355 (36") with 23000 miles (beautiful) and a kadkaddy to tow my mercury mariner.
My question now is do you guys have some advice on what your procedure is when you pull into a campground of unloading the car and what to do with the karkaddy. It is actually a fairly long piece of equipment and does not fold up. I am also traveling by myself.

I realize you haven't had it long, but do you like it so far? We are going tomorrow to look at a 2000 National Dolphin 35 ft, 46,000 miles. I'm trying to research the best I can. Does it have heated basement storage?

Thanks

We too have a older Demco with surge brakes and my solution was to buy a third wheel that folds down, that made life easier to move around and finalized my decision not to go 4 down, I normally unload toad then drive little past site then roll dolly either into or along side site then back MH in, worked for us the last 6 yrs, I also found it just as easy to hook up dolly then drive toad on , straps tightened without a problem, we have two different toads so 4 down is not a option " money wise " to us, we are in our early 70's so everyting takes a bit longer but so what-Safe travels my friend -Rich
pauperspride.blogspot.com

You would have to be extremely skilled to back up a dolly using the MH as “Dale.Traveling” suggested. But if you do you must reinsert the “locking pin” into the dolly first. Without that pin being in place you can back the dolly a very short distance and in a straight line only.

In almost 11 years and 50,000 miles of traveling I’ve never had to unload the toad anyplace other than my campsite. We pull to the site, unload the toad, park it in a nearby empty space, disconnect the dolly, push it to the back of our campsite, park the MH over the dolly tongue and then park the toad in our campsite. If I have to move the dolly any distance or uphill I have a “trailer dolly” that I can hook onto the dolly tongue to move it around. I’m lucky in that my back bay can hold the trailer dolly. At 76 it’s getting a little harder to move the dolly around but still doable.

Do you have any idea how old your KarKaddy is? Is it the SS model (folds in half for storage)? If it’s more than 10 years old it might not have the down hill tension spring that keeps the dolly brakes from being activated too much on steep down hill travel. Mine didn’t have this spring. Demco shipped me the spring with instructions and I installed it.

If you don’t have a “operation manual" for the dolly I’d suggest that you Google “Demco KarKaddy SS” for a manual.

Good Luck and Happy Camping

Dave Bates

Backing up with a dolly attached and no one to assist in that job is probably not impossible but sure come comes close. The shorter the trailer the more difficult it is to back up. If I recall the Mariner is a heavy vehicle. Does the Karkaddy have that much capacity and does it have brakes? I would sure like to tow 4 down as a single traveler. All I need to do is get close and the adjustable arms on the tow bar let me hook up by myself. Now that I have the Roadtrek I don't need the toad but will with the GMC. I also travel alone.

Pull thru sites is your best option but it not you have a couple of options.

1. If you backing skills are good just leave the dolly connected and back into the site, disconnect when the dolly is at the end of the parking area then back the coach in as far as possible over top of the dolly. Might want to practice this a bit to find the stopping point before the coach rear axle contacts the dolly.

2. Next would be to connect the dolly to the Mariner, use the Mariner to back the dolly into place then pull the coach in.

3. A variation of #2 but park the dolly under the front of the coach.

4. If the site is long enough just park the dolly anywhere.

5. Park the dolly in the camp ground over flow with a good lock on the hitch or a wheel lock.

If you haven't already get a hitch on the Mariner. If you body is up to it you can also man handle the dolly into a corner of the camp site also. Under the coach as far as possible is probably best to get it out of the way.

If yo don't mind telling what did it cost you?

Enjoy it and safe travels!

Congrats on the motorhome.
When we towed with a dolly. Always looked for campgrounds with pull-thru sites.
When parked for a length of time we put dolly at back of site. If site was long enough. Put the dolly tongue under rear of RV. Also installed a trailer hitch on car to use for our bikes and moving dolly when on uneven sites.
We have since switched to a vehicle that is tow-able 4 down.

At some parks you'll need to unload your car near the check-in office, while at others you can unload at or near your site. Pull-thru sites of course, are not a problem. In either case, having a trailer hitch on your Mariner will make moving the doll around easier. You can usually drop it at the rear of your site and then back the coach up tight to it. Other sites may call for parking it off to the side.