Tow Dolly VS flat tow

I’m reasonably mechanically inclined and as such have installed multiple Tow Bars And Baseplates on various vehicles over the last 20 or so years!

I can see that many people are uncomfortable installing their own hardware and that’s alright ,we can’t all be the same.

I have also observed that finding a place to Store a Tow Dolly and the effort involved attaching the Towed vehicle onto those things appears to me to be just as difficult as installing and connecting any Tow Bar!

Now I am reading that they are only reliable for a couple of years !

robatthelake wrote:
I’m reasonably mechanically inclined and as such have installed multiple Tow Bars And Baseplates on various vehicles over the last 20 or so years!

I can see that many people are uncomfortable installing their own hardware and that’s alright ,we can’t all be the same.

I have also observed that finding a place to Store a Tow Dolly and the effort involved attaching the Towed vehicle onto those things appears to me to be just as difficult as installing and connecting any Tow Bar!

Now I am reading that they are only reliable for a couple of years !

We had one installed and I installed the second one. We bought the Suzuki Aerio new and took it to the "professionals" to have the tow bar installed. It cost a small fortune, but I thought it was worth it. They had to take the entire front end off of that car to install the base plate. What I didn't realize until later was they only put half the front end back on. They left out the bumper core, no doubt because it would have had to have been modified to fit around the base plate. That meant the front bumper was a hollow piece of plastic. A piece of a tire thrown up from a car in front of me tore most of the front bumper off. Can't imagine what would have happened if we actually hit something substantial. We didn't own that car long...

I installed the base plate on our Ranger. It took a couple of hours but I would do it again. Not nearly as invasive as the Suzuki. I miss the Ranger. It was a great truck.

robatthelake wrote:
I have also observed that finding a place to Store a Tow Dolly and the effort involved attaching the Towed vehicle onto those things appears to me to be just as difficult as installing and connecting any Tow Bar!

Never had a problem storing mine even in the most cramped of NPS campgrounds at Yellowstone, GC, Tetons, Zion, a KOA or three, or countless state parks. If we can land a 50 foot pull-thru, we don't even need to disconnect. On a 35 foot back-in site, you wouldn't even know the dolly was behind the motorhome unless you looked.

My wife can drive up the dolly ramps and secure the wheels just as well as I can, and has done so on trips she took without me.

Somehow, I can't imagine her trying to remove the front end of the Jeep to install a baseplate...

robatthelake wrote:

Now I am reading that they are only reliable for a couple of years !

Huh. My dolly is seven years old, and showing no signs of unreliability aside maybe from a set of tires now and then.

Thanks for all the responses, I appreciate the insight on both sides of the question.
Ill take to heart all the comments about all the pros and cons and will have to decide pretty soon.
I do like the idea of renting a tow dolly from u haul for a trial run. Never gave that a thought until it was mentioned.
Thanks

One more consideration... since you have a relatively short wheelbase compared to most RVs, and you must be using a hitch extension with the camper (?), you'll be able to easily turn sharp enough to put the fenders of the dolly into the door of the car. Even when I was dolly-towing my little Fiesta, I couldn't turn full-lock without things rubbing (it was a turntable model... maybe a steerable version would have cleared better).

Carringb
Thanks for that heads up, its something I didn't think about. I'm pretty sure I'm leaning toward flat towing.

camperdave wrote:

mowermech wrote:

Just keep in mind that there may be a huge difference between what others say can't be done, and what YOU can do!

Truth!

personally since were usually toadless, I find it best to rent a uhaul dolly the one or two times a year I want a toad. That's best for me.

In fact, that's not a bad idea if you are not sure, and already own the Rav4. Rent a Uhaul dolly for a trip and see what you think. It's only ~$50/day, and will give you personal experience instead of other peoples opinions.

I like the way you approach this! This coming weekend we cracked that nut by renting a car in our destination area thru Costco. $60-something bucks & we're good.... not having to be subjected to CA's 55-mph speed limit for towing is a good thing if you can swing it!