car dollys

I have a demco dolly with surge brakes and love it. I used it with 2 different cars and 2 different motorhomes and I love it. Don't let these nasayers scare you off. After nearly 50 thousand miles I have had only 2 things to cause trouble once a light was replaced and when I traded toads I had to upgrade to 17in wheel straps. I do not have any extra lights just whats on the dolly itself. I do check my straps at every stop and on occasion have had to hit them a notch but they have never come loose. Main thing is make sure reciever is the correct heigth for your dolly, thats kinda important to keep from wearing out your tires. O yea and when its raining DW follows me around with a big umbrella and when I have to Kneel down on the ground a big beach towel comes in handy. Load that thing and hit the road.

Have decided against it so far. Thanks to all the great info. Will keep all in mind if we change our minds.

Loose tire straps are not a problem if you make 2 changes in your loading procedure:
1. Don’t pull the toad all the way forward on the dolly. Leave about 1 inch between the front tires and the front wheel stops.
2. Tighten the straps down until the tires squish.

When you pull all the way forward the straps will not slide over the tire leaving them a little loose behind the tire. By allowing the 1 inch gap in front of the tire the wheels will roll forward tightening the straps on both sides of the tire.

Since I started doing this 7 years & 40,000 miles ago I’ve never had a problem with loose straps. I still check then after the 1st 50 miles and each time I take a rest stop (about every 2 to 3 hours) but rarely can tighten them any further.

Two other things to watch for. A dolly is wider than the toad & in my case a little wider than the MH so watch when you park next to a curb that you don’t rube the lettering off of the curb side dolly tire. Also make sure that you have plenty of room to pull way from a curb. The sharper you turn away from the curb the more the dolly tongue will swing into the curb causing the dolly to jump the curb.

Dave

Roman Duck wrote:
One inportant thing is to stop after 10 to 15 miles and check the straps on the toad, quite often I can tighten up the tie down straps an additional couple of clicks. and if your TM Dolly didn't come with the safety chains, get some Don't let 10.00 dollars worth of chain and hooks ruin a great trip. The surge brakes are great to have, no electric brakes problems. The DW and I upgraded to a MS Tow dolly with the surge brake option, and can really feel the difference with them.

X2 on re-tightening after you get moving. I do it after about 200 yards and (almost always) I tighten each side by a click or two just in that short drive. I then try to check it again at my next stop with might be 30 to 50 miles down the road.

Also note that the dolly might have (probably has) zerks to grease. My manual says to grease them every 2,500 miles. I just learned that on this forum a couple days ago.

We're using a dolly for a 2013 Ford Fusion. What I found out is the newer vehicles do not have steering locks in the column any longer and we have to use a strap to tie the steering wheel so the front wheels don't pivot and cause car damage. The dolly's wheels steer and the cars need to be fixed. From what I've read, if the dolly doesn't steer, the car must and vice versa. Read up on your vehicle and check the dolly's requirements.

X2 to all of the above. We had a Mastertow 80THD with surge brakes, radial tires, led lights and safety chains. Towed a sebring convertible which was fairly wide and had no issues but needed 2x10's to raise the ramp and keep the cowl from catching.

Suggest securing locking pin for ramp hinge to the arm so you don't lose it or forget to put it back after loading and securing your vehicle.

One inportant thing is to stop after 10 to 15 miles and check the straps on the toad, quite often I can tighten up the tie down straps an additional couple of clicks. and if your TM Dolly didn't come with the safety chains, get some Don't let 10.00 dollars worth of chain and hooks ruin a great trip. The surge brakes are great to have, no electric brakes problems. The DW and I upgraded to a MS Tow dolly with the surge brake option, and can really feel the difference with them.

I can think of several things:
1. Do you have the proper tire tiedowns? Must have these.

2. Generally speaking, if the towed car extends over 4' behind the taillights on the dolly, you need lights on the back of the toad (depending on your state's lighting requirements-see your vehicle code)

3. You need a checklist to make sure you have properly prepared your dolly and toad for towing. Many, many times, the biggest issue is automatically setting the handbrake after loading the toad on the dolly and forgetting to release it until someone flags you down or you see smoke in your rear mirror.

4. Safety chains. MAKE SURE your chains are adequate to keep your toad from taking off down the road if the tire tiedowns fail. Yeah, I know, small chance of that happening, but........ I found that some dollies have lightweight chains that would part if the weight of the toad was suddenly pulling on them.

I had the toad wired so that when plugged into the MH, the brake lights and turn signals operated from the MH, not the toad. Total cost including installation was around $150. A good investment. Also saved toad battery.

Good Luck.