Concerned over ACME Tow Dolley Straps

willald wrote:
We towed a Kia minivan with an ACME EZE tow dolly just like yours. Great choice there, I personally wouldn't have any other dolly. If we ever go back to dolly towing, it will be with an ACME dolly.

As to the straps on your tires: I remember having very similar issues first few times I put the straps on. I remember just having to play with it for a while, before I figured out how they're supposed to go. One thing I remember that was important: the straps that go across the tread of the tire, from inside to outside, need to be at the '10', '12', and '2' o'clock position on the tire. Yours are a bit too far back. Kinda hard to explain, but in order to do that, you need the side straps to be a bit longer as well. With the straps I had, you could adjust and make the side straps longer, by adjusting and pulling more 'slack' from the front strap, back over to the two side straps. Not sure how else to describe it, I think you'll just have to play around with them. Thats what I had to do.

Also, 'dbates' gave you very, very good advice. Having the straps 'pull' the car forward the last inch or so, makes a huge difference in getting all the straps tight. You should try that approach, I think you'll like it better.

Ultimately, we gave up on dolly towing and went to 4 down, 'cause I could never trust those straps. However, for peace of mind while we did tow with the dolly, I beefed up the chains significantly that go from the dolly to the car. Also made sure those chains were short enough that they would not let the car off the dolly even if both straps totally failed. I made dang sure that if those straps did fail, that car was NOT going to go off the dolly, no matter what. I'd recommend looking into that as well, for more peace of mind.

I do really like the design of the ACME dolly, better than any others. Really like how they take the fixed platform approach, and design their wheels, fenders such that it is just about impossible for them to EVER make contact with your car, no matter how tight a turn you make. Between that and the way it can be stored almost completely under the MH at campsites, IMO its the best way to go for dolly towing.

Yes, when we first used our ACME dolly (never used a dolly before), we were having trouble with one of the straps with a little play in it. We realized it was us and we did not have it set right. We do not have 20" wheels though. BUt I would take it off, readjust and keep trying. Pay attention to the inside of the wheel. I think that is where we were having our issue. But with that said, the straps will work as you have them on there. They are there to keep the vehicle from coming off the back. The single strap that is on the front of the tire will keep it going forward. I will tell you that the straps will stretch some and they recommend stopping after about 50 miles and tightening down. We've put around 2000 miles on our towing 2 different cars. It was a learning curve on the first trip and I was nervous. I even took the car off the dolly and put it back on a couple times in the first few hours. lol