questions about how to set up a TOAD

You are correct that the tow bar will not have any tongue weight. A tow dolly will add extra towing weight which may or may not put you over the rated poundage for the hitch. Most class C's have hitches that will have a label that reads \\Max 3500lbs and 300lb tongue weight. Naturally towing 4 down you will want/need a supplemental brake system. For years I avoided buying a supplemental brake system since by law in Oregon I did not have to have one with the vehicle I towed. Had to make a panic stop one day and it made a believer out of me.

Here is a pretty good overview article about towing a vehicle with an RV... Towing A Vehicle Overview

From the article... "The reason most folks choose towing with all 4 wheels on the ground is simplicity. If you use a dolly or trailer, you will have to find a place to store these items when not in use, and many destination RV parks don't have accomodations for tow dolly or trailer storage."

blw2 wrote:
I've towed a lot of trailers of all types, but I've never set up to tow a car behind an RV before.

Thinking about getting into the motorhome world and trying to wrap my head around this...

How much tongue weight is applied the the MH with a towbar set-up? I'm thinking none, right? I'm looking at Class C's where it seems that the load capacity is a bit limited.....

Waht are the pros and cons of the tow bar set-up vs one of those two wheeled a Tow Dolly things?

• I'm guessing the tow dolly incorporates brakes so brake mods to the car wouldn't be required...
• Obviously the dolly save wear and tear on one of the toad's axles.....
• what else?

if you flat tow the tongue weight is minimal and not a factor.

the advantages to flat towing is convenience and a quick connect/disconnect. it takes me maybe 5-7 minutes start to finish. you also do not have to deal with a third set of wheels when it comes to parking.

the primary disadvantage as I see it is that your choice of toads is limited to those vehicles that either are natively capable of being flat towed or those that can be modified to be flat towed..a relatively small number of vehicles. the other disadvantage, especially in your case, is that the dolly will add to the weight you have to pull. and a flat towed vehicle should have an aux. braking systems as the brakes on some MH's are designed only to stop a load equal to the GVWR of the MH.

before you decide you need to know and understand the various weights and weight ratings of your MH. you want to be sure that the vehicle you tow will not exceed the motorhome's ability to pull it.

GVWR: Gross Vehicle Weight Rating is the total weight the MH chassis can support, including itself. the GVWR is broken down into gross axle weight ratings for each axle (GAWR). The sum of the GAWR's is usually the GVWR.

GCWR: Gross Combination Weight Rating is the total weight the MH can propel including itself. The difference between the GCWR and the GVWR is not the maximum amount of weight the MH can safely tow.

in general, the maximum amount of weight you can safely tow will be the lesser of the following:

• the GCWR (gross combination weight rating) of the MH minus the actual weight of the MH as it is loaded for travel (includes fuel, fresh water, food, clothing, people, pets, supplies, etc.)

• the weight rating of your tow bar

• the weight rating of your hitch

to know how much weight you can tow you have to know what your MH weighs as it is loaded and configure for travel before choosing a toad. Your MH will not collapse if it is overloaded but you will experience handling issues as well as longer braking distances and accelerated wear on suspension, brakes, steering, etc.

be sure to get individual axle weights when weighing a MH. when we were buying new back in 2000 and had the MH weighed we found that the front axle was underweight by a greater amount than the rear axle was overweight. we would not have known that had we simply weighed the MH with both axles on the scale.

good luck.

Thanks all..... that's sort of what prompted my question....
As I'm looking into these, it seems that many class C's don't have a lot of margin for load and tongue weight, after the gas and LP are filled, some fresh water, a little grey & black + family and stuff.
I didn't think to check, will have to look tonight if my wife's Honda Odysee would be towable 4 down or not. My Silverado I know would be too heavy for any MH I'm considering.

blw2 wrote:
Thanks all..... that's sort of what prompted my question....
As I'm looking into these, it seems that many class C's don't have a lot of margin for load and tongue weight, after the gas and LP are filled, some fresh water, a little grey & black + family and stuff.
I didn't think to check, will have to look tonight if my wife's Honda Odysee would be towable 4 down or not. My Silverado I know would be too heavy for any MH I'm considering.

very low payloads (the amount of "stuff", people, food, etc) that you can add to the basic chassis + fuel and LP are not limited to Class C MH. Class A's are sometimes afflicted with the same problem. but as long as you stick to flat towing the tongue weight is immaterial.

blw2 wrote:
....I didn't think to check, will have to look tonight if my wife's Honda Odysee would be towable 4 down or not..

Depending on the year, you may be able to flat tow your Honda Odyssey. You'll need to do some research, but as I recall, Honda certified them to flat tow for a while, then changed their minds and said they could NOT be towed, and pulled factory support for such. However, there are still some people flat towing them without issue. You just have to follow the 'emergency towing procedure' to a 'T', noted in your owner's manual.

If flat towing is not an option, a dolly will work, but your choices for a dolly that would work will be very limited. Honda Odyssey vans are pretty heavy, weighing around 4700 lbs I believe (depending on year, model, etc). If your MH has a 5,000 lb hitch limitation, could be tough finding a dolly light enough that its weight + the van would be less than 5k, but it (dolly) still rated to handle a vehicle that heavy. The only dolly I know of that would fit that bill would be the Acme EZE tow dolly.

Regardless whether you use a dolly or not for that van, make sure whatever MH you get has a hitch receiver (and drivetrain) rated for 5,000 lbs, not 3,500. Your van weighs significantly more than 3500, so a MH with a 3500 lb limitation will not work for you.

I meant to look in the manual, but got sidetracked.
I found on another forum a lot of discussion about towing Hondas 4 down. Appearently around about 2005 Honda changed and said it's not allowed for several models. There were lots of testimonials of folks who tow using some procedure of running the engine, shifting from low to drive, then leaving the key on then stoppig to run the engine in drive for a few minutes every few hundred miles.
I didn't catch the logic or reasoning for all of this.... but appearently this is what you had to do when Honda allowed it, and if it wasn't done tranny problems ensued....
I think there might have been a requirement to stick your tongue out and bite your lip in a certain way while doing this too.....

Thanks for the tip on that Acme Dolly. I'll keep that in mind.