Towing a VW Beetle or? on an Acme Tow Dolly

We towed our type1 baja 4 down never a problem. just a tow bar and a light set. no brakes required. it went every where we did for several years.

When you get to your camping area, a tow dolly can be a real PITA. One more thing to deal with, park, and haul around. Towing four down is , by far, a better choice.

We put 10k last year towing our 2010 VW Jetta sport wagon TDI
with a manual 6 speed trans 4-down with no problem. Works good
Ken

Glad everyone is happy towing 4 down but that is not an option for me.

The Acme dolly is light weight, can be stood up or stowed mostly under the m/h. I would like the option of buying/selling a front wheel drive car with no investment in braking etc.The Acme dolly has surge brakes and would be readily saleable should I do not want to continue to tow and is reasonable in cost. The car HAS to be an automatic as DW has never been able to master a standard.

I just wanted opinions if any models on a dolly performed better than others

I have a Fiesta ST and use an Acme dolly. I don't think the car matters much in this equation. Almost any FWD car will work equally well, including the Beetle. The Azera would work too.

My car is pretty low and it went up the ramps without scraping. I have only pulled it once, but it wasn't a problem at all. Four down is preferable, but that's the price we pay to drive some cars. Fiestas are generally towable, but not the ST.

If I'm Pulling a trailer, ( a tow dolly is a trailer) I putting all 4 up. Then it doesn't matter what car.

We have the ACME tow dolly. Picked it up in Kernersville ourselves. We tow a Toyota Yaris (weight in the 2000 lb range). The tow dolly is good up to 5000 lbs. We love it. And for $1300 with surge brakes, it can't get any better. We did a trip down to Destin Florida with it and back. No issues at all. Stayed in 3 different campgrounds. Unhooked and hooked at each with no problem. Takes no more than 10 minutes max to hook up. The ACME is the lightest one made. The first campground was a pull through and we didn't have to disconnect it. The second campground, we unhooked the car at check in and when I got to the site, I got out, unhooked the dolly and pushed it to the back of the site and set it down. My wife guided me with the RV into the site and I was able to back over the dolly, where only a couple feet stuck out. When we went to the next campsite down the road, I unhooked it at the site and was able to roll it off to the side as the entire site was gravel. It was out of the way. We store it in our garage. It can be stored in the upright position if you have some 4x4 wood blocks.

It is by far cheaper to do it this way over 4 wheels downs. A base plate for the car was over $300 alone and that is not including installation. Installation is also going involved cutting the fascia, which I was not happy about. Plus if I trade in this car, I gotta start all over with the base plate thing. I'm good with the dolly. You also have to include the tow bar, braking, lighting and etc. A coworker priced out getting a car set up 4 down for his Class C and he was quoted twice as much as I paid for the dolly. For being a weekend warrior camper and maybe a couple weeks out of the year for vacation, we feel this was the best decision for us.

seb1899
I tow a 1963.
See the attached post

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27667983/gotomsg/27776332.cfm#27776332


No break system (under 1,500lb.) easy to set up.

Towing my VW Bug TDI 5 speed was what I wanted to do and ordered a Blue Ox base plate.
After a PIA 4 hrs I got the front of the car taken apart and was already to mount the plate, but it wouldn't fit because I have an aftermarket heavy duty skid plate to protect the venerable oil pan on the VWs. 1 large rock or pothole can ruin your engine.
It took about 6 hrs to put the car back together. What a pain with all the plastic parts.
So, I bought a Jeep and it took about 2 hrs total to mount the base plate.
I looked at the Acme tow dollys and they seem to work well.
I believe the front wheels need to be able to turn left/right with the dolly and with my car the key needs to be turned to the first position to unlock the steering. This pos will drain the battery. If yours is the same, you will have to find a way to keep from draining the battery.
I think this would be a good option for you.

We have never used a tow dolly but may have to if we get the class c motorhome we're looking at. When you get to a campground, what do you do with the tow dolly? How do you keep it secure when you're away from the campsite?