Forum Discussion

ECones's avatar
ECones
Explorer
Aug 06, 2015

Tow dolly and wheel size

I'm looking at a tow dolly to pull our 2013 RAV4, but the specs for the RoadMaster model 2050-1 specifies 12" to 16" wheels.

I wrote them the following:

I want to buy your tow dolly model 2050-1 at Camping World, but they cannot tell me if I can tow my 2013 RAV4 with P225/65R17 tires. Your specs say most cars with 12” to 16” wheels, but there are many tires fitted to 16” wheels with diameters larger than my P225/65R17 tires.

Can you tell me, please, if I can use this tow dolly with my tires?


And received the following reply.

Your tires are to big we only have straps that fit 16" tires.


I guess I didn't get the point across. My RAV4 uses 225/65 x 17 tires, and my Tundra pickup uses 245/70 x 16 tires, which actually stand about an inch taller.

I guess the RAV4 tires are too large for the dolly and the larger Tundra tires are not :?

Anyway, I'll shop elsewhere. I've looked at a Master Tow at another dealer, and it looks comparable to the RoadMaster.

4 Replies

  • Update:

    Since starting this thread, I've gotten a response from Roadmaster regarding my comment on Camping World's site. As expected, the dolly will work fine with our RAV4.

    Camping World forwarded your below comment to me. The short answer is yes, the straps that come with the tow dolly will fit all of the sizes of tires you listed. Your tire will be a little less than 30" in diameter and a little less than 10" of tread width. The included straps will fit the 17" tire with some to spare.

    I apologize for the confusion. As you know, wheel sizes are not ideal as a smaller wheel size can actually have a larger tire than a larger wheel size might. But short of listing hundreds of tire sizes, using wheel sizes is a time saving, albeit not exact, way of identifying most fits.

    I appreciate your query. If you need anything further, please let me know.
  • emblethen, Emails were to and from Roadmaster. When I asked CW, I got a firm "I dunno." ;)

    rekij71, no to measuring the straps. The only unit they have is boxed, and I wouldn't use a unit the manufacturer says wouldn't work anyway.

    I responded to the last email with basically what I've said above, and to their credit, they said they'd pass my suggestion along to engineering. But I'll probably go with the Master Tow unit when I buy. Right now, I'm sort of hoping to find a used unit, and my next long trip isn't for a few months, so I'm in no rush.
  • Common sense says you probably can as they should have stated tire diameter not a wheel size. RAV-4 tires aren't that big. I rented a dolly from U-Haul once and they said it wouldn't fit my off-road tires, but I still rented it to get across country on a move, and let the air out of my tires once on the dolly to get the straps to reach, then aired up when I was ready to take it off.
    Can you measure the length of the straps to get an idea if it would reach around?