Downsides of Towing? Newbie concerns

Honeybee8888 wrote:
We are considering towing for the first time. We have RVed for 14 years in a Class C, 27' and now about 29 feet, and never had a toad. It's worked fine for us given our previous style of travel, where we had to make the most of every day and rarely stayed anywhere for more than one night (all our trips are at least 2 weeks, and we've gone as long as a month several times). But we have recently retired and presumably will no longer need to be constantly on the move. I'm thinking we may want to stay in one spot for several days or even several weeks, and in that case may want a toad. In May we spent 4 days in Madison, WI and rented a car, and that made everything so much easier. But it seems maybe a toad will maximize that flexibility in the long run.

To make life easier, btw, we currently own a Jeep Wrangler, so purchasing a toad is not necessary-- just the expense of the tow gear to get set up.

First off, you already have one of the best toads on the planet, a Jeep Wrangler. You don't say what year. About 99.99% of the Jeep Wranglers are the same in getting setup for towing. One can either get a base plate or, change the front bumper to an aftermarket one that already had tow points (recovery tabs) on it. I won't go into all the benefits right now but, it's just better to go the aftermarket bumper route. Your choice.

Wiring it for toad lights, again, is almost the same on just about all Wranglers, all the way up to around maybe '15 and up 'cause Jeep changed some of the wiring characteristics and operational characteristics so, on the later models, it's way better to just acquire a wiring harness from many of the aftermarket companies. I've done it multiple ways and, none of them are hard or, even very expensive. There's a lot of details here I'm omitting but, you'll figure that part out. If not, ask, you'll get loads of answers.

Now, you'll also need a braking system for the Jeep. There's a good 1/2 dozen of them out there. I'm not a fan of the big robot boxes you have to put in front of the brake pedal, each and every time you get ready to tow, then, when done towing, you have to remove it and stow it someplace. The Ready brake system is a surge brake cable system that is somewhat fairly easy to setup with ZERO ELECTRONICS involved. There's others but, again, look them up and decide which you'd like to contend with.

Once you've gotten all this hook-up and disconnect stuff down pat, you'll thinks it's second nature. If I'm dragging my feet, it takes us around 2-3 minutes for a complete hookup and we're ready to rock & roll. When it comes time for disconnect, same thing, about 1-2 minutes and, we're disconnected. If I really need to hurry for some odd reason, (like disconnecting in a gas station misjudgement) I can be completely disconnected in under 30 seconds. It's old hat to us.


I know all the arguments in favor-- increased flexibility, safety in case of a breakdown, and convenience. So here are my concerns, which may sound naive, but which I'm trying to get comfortable with. I'm hoping you experienced towers can give me a true perspective.

1) Overall size of rig--this is my biggest concern:
A)FOR FUEL: It is already sometimes a tight fit to put fuel in our gas-powered C. Getting into fuel islands with an extra car behind us seems like it will often be difficult if not impossible. I'm thinking of your average Flying J type situation, where the convenience store is all-too-close to where the cars pull out of the gas island. It's a very tight turn for 29 feet. What about with a toad?

Getting fuel is a concern for all of us. Dealing with it, is handled in different manors. We don't use Flying J or, Pilots primarily for one reason, they're normally phenomenally CROWDED! And, you've got idiots that will park their coach or car in front of a pump and go in and start shopping. So, we opt for getting fuel ANYWHERE we feel will work. Don't get overstressed about this. There's plenty of gas stations that have large enough entrance/approach areas and departure areas that you'll not have any problems. This is where you'll learn to scan as you approach.

If things don't look good, you abort the approach and DRIVE ON. If things look like you're good for the entrance AND departure, you pull in and fuel up. No biggie. Our coach is an '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the CAT C-7 330HP and, we often tow our '11 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 Extended Cab. Total length hovers between 55' - 60'. Yep, we plan our fuel station ops as we drive up to them, or, drive on. Again, don't overthink this and worry about it.


B)PARKING LOTS: Also, what about in your standard parking lot? Many are too small to accommodate an RV with an additional car length behind us. How do you handle this? I really don't want to end up hooking/unhooking the toad during the day if we are traveling someplace and we want to stop. No more backing up with the tail overhanging the grass at the edge of the lot, either. How inconvenient do you find this?

Well, just how many times are you stopping in PARKING LOTS anyways? If, IF, we need to stop in a city/town for whatever reason, get fast food, an auto part, anything, we'll stop alongside a curb someplace that's near where we need to go. We stay the heck out of parking lots for a few reasons. (1), You can get bound up real easy by now knowing all the clearance at all the corners, in an unfamiliar parking lot, with a ton of cars in it. (2), although it don't happen very often, you can park your coach, waaaaaaaaaaaay off in the back someplace, being very considerate of the business owner and not disrupting his clientele parking, and, leaving yourself a way out and when you come out, from what ever you were doing, some %$&*#$%@ air head will have parked in front of you. That will either cause you to have to back up which, backing a toad, in an already kinked position, is not good, or, you disconnect. We don't use parking lots!

2) Cost: My husband says that we will lose approximately 2mpg if we tow. Is this about right, in your experience?

Fuel mileage? I've said this many times before, if you're driving and operating a rolling Kleenex box or a rolling gymnasium, (take your pick), fuel mileage doesn't come into play. You're traveling, having a good time, seeing new things, meeting new people, camping in new places and areas, DON'T WORRY ABOUT FUEL. I get flamed for this but, if one is worried about fuel, then get a VW diesel and hotel it. I don't mean to be sarcastic but, you're in the better part of life now, enjoy it and don't worry about fuel.

3) Driving: How awkward is it to pull a car behind you from the "oops" point of view? Too put it bluntly, will we have issues banging into things as we go around a tight curve? (You can probably tell, I've never towed ANYTHING before!)

This is something that takes practice. Some learn easily and some, don't adjust that easy. It's a matter of your own mechanical skills and application of judgement. You already know what it takes to drive your coach. Now, just add a few feet of length. Backing a toad is for the most part, not gonna happen with the exception of maybe a foot or two, at the most. The reason, too many places for some SERIOUS BINDING and potential damage or breaking of a part or attachment point. You just learn to NOT put yourself in a predicament that you'll need to back up.

The smartest and wisest thing to do in a learning situation like this is, get your toad all setup, hook it up and go find an abandoned parking lot some place in the evening or a weekend etc. Put some cones out and PRACTICE some turns. It won't take that long to teach yourselves that it's not hard. You just can hot-dog it around like you can your toad. Ain't happening. You learn city/county handling, grade handling, grade/slope down hill braking, and more. Appropriate gears is the name of the game for up and down hill running. This keeps both your coach and you, in good health.

4) Campsites: We love state (and national) parks, and try to stay at them whenever possible. We are always happy to take a back-in spot rather than a pull-through, and in fact many of those are just nicer anyway. Do you end up spending more time/money finding pull-through spots just to avoid unhooking the toad if you aren't staying long? Do you ever have trouble finding an available site because your overall rig is perceived as "too long for the site"? Or do you just unhook and leave the toad in an auxiliary parking area if there's really no room for it?

This one is not an easy answer. The choice of campsite/RV spots and, availability varies by the minute in the U.S. There are so many travelers, Full timers, Snow birds, younger folks now taking to the road with their kids, (Watch "Going RV" on TV), retired folks, following where the work is folks, live-ins, and more that are taking up many, many spots, all across the U.S. that, even if you want a back in, or a pull through, without getting reservations in advance (sometimes a day, sometimes as much as a year), it's getting a bit harder and harder to be choosey. But, it's still doable.

Where to camp, state, fed, private, corporate (membership), and all others is a preference thing. RVs, in many, many cases, are not welcome in some due to the camp sites are seriously small, mostly for tents. You just have to ask or call or really plan for a trip. When we travel, many, many times we just take off from the house, not knowing where we'll end up for the night. It's a gamble, but, we've had good luck for the most part.

5) Time: How long does it actually take to hook up/unhook a 4-down toad? Is this going to become a big PITA?

This is handled differently by all RVers. Some make it seriously harder than it is. I've seen men take 10 - 15 minutes or more to hook up when prepping for tow. I took several naps while watching them. For us, even moderately moving quickly, start to finish and we're in the coach putting it in "D", about 1 - 2 minutes. I mean, two attachment point for the tow bar, two for safety cables, one for brakes and one for electrical umbilical, how hard can that be? But, again, some make it harder than it is.

6) What else do I not know?

Folks,
As you can see and read, there's lots of opinions of whether or not to have a toad. We don't move an inch without our toad(s) hooked up. MOBILITY is the name of the game and, SAFETY is right up there with it. "Renting" a car isn't even in the thought process. Heck, we've even parked along a curb, in town someplace, quickly disconnected and went shopping for lunch. Done that quite a few times. Sooooooo easy.

RVing, no doubt about it, does have some drawbacks as well as super benefits. Getting a VW diesel and a couple of suit cases for the travel part is about as cheap as anyone can get. Then, look for the cheapest hotel rooms for additional cheap. But along with that is, NONE of the benefits of having YOUR OWN BED each and every night, your own shower, your own rest accommodations when driving, your own food and snacks and your own cooking, (or choice for going out for food). You already know most of this. So, are you missing something? Well, I could go on and on but you'll figure out that, once you start using a toad, you'll ask yourself, "why didn't we do this years ago?"

Good luck and happy RVing (and toading)
Scott

I appreciate any and all advice-- I do think we will end up taking our Jeep with us next winter when we try snow-birding for the first time, but in the meantime I'd like to know everything I can find out. This forum is the best place I know for getting information, so...THANKS IN ADVANCE!

Debbie