towing with a tow dolly

Super camper mentioned about no where to stow dolly at state park. The acme tow dolly and be stowed in the straight position, only taking up a couple feet cand they say that most of it will fit under the back of most motorhomes.

Thanks for all the good response. Now just waiting for the snow to melt, won't be long now.

campmansd wrote:
I have a 32 foot class C motor home. I am thinking of towing a car behind and both of my other cars can not be towed 4 down. So I need to tow with a dolly. I would like to hear from people who use them how they pull?????? cornering and easy of hooking up. Thanks

We towed on a dolly with our class C for a while before going 4-down. The dolly was behaved well enough and we had very few problems in that regard, we did have a couple of issues in state parks trying to find a place to put it.

By far the biggest issue we had is the dolly simply fell apart, I mean just about every piece broke or stopped functioning. For this reason I would only ever recommend a Mastertow dolly to my worst enemy, and that's only if I really wanted to be extra mean.

SteveL1948 wrote:
I used a Acme tow dolly and had no problems. They have surge brakes, are light weight and pull great IMHO! It doesn't have a swivel pan or wheels that turn but I never had a problem. It follows your RV just like if you was pulling a trailer and I never had a problem with tires wearing. Good luck and safe traveling!

Exactly what we are getting next month. The good thing is that they are located about an hour away and we can pick up directly from them. Not sure all about the swivel pan thing ,but I noticed in the new video hey have hat the steering column needs to unlocked. You can actually see the steering wheel turn as they make turns. Pretty cool.

I used a Acme tow dolly and had no problems. They have surge brakes, are light weight and pull great IMHO! It doesn't have a swivel pan or wheels that turn but I never had a problem. It follows your RV just like if you was pulling a trailer and I never had a problem with tires wearing. Good luck and safe traveling!

I towed for 3 years with a dolly with a swivel pan. I disagree with the folks who say you need swiveling wheels. The swivel pan worked just fine for me. The dolly towed and tracked true behind my MH. I never had any problems with it. I do agree that you need brakes.

I agree with what Lee said in the above post. Brakes while not needed in CA sure do make a difference in the mountains. My dolly has the turning wheels and I wouldn't even know that it was behind me if I didn't see it in the camera. It tracks my MH perfectly. It does take more time to hook up, but I don't want to buy another car at this time. JMO

Here are links to other discussion here:

http://forums.goodsamclub.com/Index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27487959/gotomsg/27488394.cfm#27488394

http://forums.goodsamclub.com/Index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27445463/gotomsg/27447565.cfm#27447565

http://forums.goodsamclub.com/Index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27445463/gotomsg/27445695.cfm#27445695

I used to tow my 2000 Civic on a dolly.
Things to know:
1. Add the weight of the dolly and car to the tow vehicle to ensure you are not over your GCVWR of the TV.
2. Contrary to some, you really do need brakes on the dolly. Remember that you will have at least 2500 lbs. pushing your TV every time you brake. Every little bit of brake power helps.
3. I wired my toad for towing after a few pulls with supplemental lites. My problem was the cord rubbed on the paint no matter what I did to try to prevent it. A wiring kit is available at Camp World. I had a mechanic install it. Worked very well!
4. You need to get the type of dolly that has wheels that turn with the TV. There are the kind that has a swivel on the dolly and only the toad turns, but I think they are not as desirable. For one thing, when you turn a tight corner the dolly wheels turn to match the TV which cuts the "cheat" of turning down. You will also have to learn to turn wider to make right corners because of cheat.
5. I added a jack and wheel to the dolly so that I could wheel it around after arriving at a CG. I then put a hitch on my toad so I could use it to move the dolly. The dolly weighs in the neighborhood of 600 lbs.
It was ok, because I couldn't tow the car 4 down. I now have a veh. that can be towed 4 down and I like it much better.
Good luck.
Lee

I think one of the biggest things with tow dollys is you probably are like me and like to really drive as for right as you can - Its just human nature for me...

Doing this with the dolly may end up running the right most wheels of the dolly off the payment. I have done some of this associated with work and the end result is not good. I went through tires quiet abit back then... The sidewalls would get damaged real easy doing this... In my case however the dolly wheels extended out wider than the width of the work tow vehicle which added to the problem as well.

Although I had good vision I would apparently be running alot with the right most wheel(s) of the dolly off the payment until someone would flash lights at me...

Todays hitches are really great. You can hook at almost any angle now and when you pull forward the hitch bar will snap into place and lock-in...

just a couple of my work days observations
Roy Ken