Car Dolly

[dgtjhatt]

Just bought our first Motor Home. She is a beauty.2007 Joyco Grayhawk33SS.We bought it from a private party and we could not believe it when we saw them drive out of an RV garage where it had spent most of it's life. Then we saw the odometer and it read 7,500. It still has the plastic that was on the cab carpet from the factory and a tag hanging from the dash that tells about the air bags. We took one look and said we will take it. Our Ford Escape can't be towed with all four tires on the ground so we will have to use a car dolly. I would like to hear the good, bad, and the ugly about your experiences with car dollies.

Thanks,

Don

[Grit_dog]

Like most things RV, they all have compromises.
From ease of setup to ease of using the vehicle you already have vs buying a differnet one.
In and of themselves tow Dolly's are easy to use. Can't Back around a corner with a dolly or 4 down.
Ideally, 4 down is more convienent though if using the toad regularly.

[pushtoy_2]

tobydad wrote:
The biggest disadvantage that I have found is time and work. With 4 wheels down when arriving all you have to do is lift the tow bar off the ball and you are good to go. With the dolly undo the straps (not always the easiest thing to do) then SLOWLY back the car down the ramps. When leaving you do everything in the reverse order. figure with a lot of practice 1/2 hour to get on the dolly and ready to go. Must check straps at every rest stop as they tend to stretch out. The dis advantage of 4 wheels down is initial cost, but after using my dolly for four years I think I should have paid the cost.

if it takes you 30 min. to load and ty down the car on your dolly your doing
something wrong.

[Racine96]

I have a dolly and it's is not a big deal to make it work. Probably 10 minutes at worse case to load the car. To unload it is about 5 minutes. It is cheaper alternative, and can load both of our cars. Weight added to the MH is probably around 50 pounds as most of the weight goes over the dolly wheels. We trade cars frequently so the charge for bases and other things every time I change cars would be too much.

[Charles2222]

Did it both ways.My behind got just as wet installing the Aux brake as hooking safety chains on toad.I put chains around some solid part of the front of car and safety chains with grab hooks with snaps and all I Had to do was reach under and hook them

[Big_Katuna]

daveb1256 wrote:
I appreciate the dolly advice. Perhaps I am uninformed, what is a transmission pump? Can it be added to any auto with an automatic transmission? My vehicle is a Hyundai Elantra Limited and the service department at Hyundai says there is no way to tow it 4 down. Is there something I don't know

Call or lookup Remco.

[daveb1256]

I appreciate the dolly advice. Perhaps I am uninformed, what is a transmission pump? Can it be added to any auto with an automatic transmission? My vehicle is a Hyundai Elantra Limited and the service department at Hyundai says there is no way to tow it 4 down. Is there something I don't know

[77rollalong]

I just bought a replacement car last week off kijij a Saturn S series that was already setup for a Blue Ox tow bar setup with the tow bar, but I had picked up a Demco the previous weekend. Still waiting to try the setup out, but its does look a lot easier to setup and tow than a tow dolly. Other thing is a tow dolly is classified as a trailer in some places, and on toll roads its an extra charge in places too.

[txnese]

For short trips I just rent a car. For longer trips I have an ACME tow dolly. Its a little inconvenient to install/remove ramps and strapping it down, but well worth with it. Pretty easy to tow. Just make sure you get one with brakes, hydraulic or electric. Some states don't require them, but most do. Better safe than sorry.

[ronfisherman]

I have done the tow dolly. TheDemco's seem have thee least problems with loading and unloading. The SS model is the most expensive. But has the foldin tongue. Never had problems with storage. Towed 2 different cars on it. Then got a towable car. Went to 4 down. Towed both ways for 40k miles. Best reason to dolly tow is ease of switching cars. Worst reason is having to get it in a storage place at home and RV park.

[tobydad]

The biggest disadvantage that I have found is time and work. With 4 wheels down when arriving all you have to do is lift the tow bar off the ball and you are good to go. With the dolly undo the straps (not always the easiest thing to do) then SLOWLY back the car down the ramps. When leaving you do everything in the reverse order. figure with a lot of practice 1/2 hour to get on the dolly and ready to go. Must check straps at every rest stop as they tend to stretch out. The dis advantage of 4 wheels down is initial cost, but after using my dolly for four years I think I should have paid the cost.

[Dusty_R]

There a couple different types of tow dollies. I fell the the type that Demco makes is by far the best type. I don't know if that type is made by any others. There's one less pivot point. It tows like a 4 wheel dolly, where the front wheels pivot.

[Big_Katuna]

Another advantage I forgot to mention is it is the cheapest way to go, if you can buy a clean used dolly, which is not hard to do.

You can usually sell it for about what you paid for it.

A trans pump is $1000 and up.

Tow bar, baseplate, brakes, etc is several thousand.

[T18skyguy]

It's added weight. A pain to store/fit at the campsite. You might check to see if they make a transmission pump for your Escape that would enable 4 down. If I we're to get a dolly, it would be a Demco that folds up two ways.

[Big_Katuna]

We did it a few years.

The negatives are loading it in the rain; tire spinning.

Dirtier.

A toad tracks inside the RV footprint. Dolly can hit gas pumps, etc.

Unhooking for overnight stay.

A few parks won’t let you keep it at your site, so unload, drop off, drive both vehicles, etc.

Extra set of tires and bearings.

If you’re going somewhere for a week or longer, no big deal.

If you’re traveling everyday, not so much..

I’ll never go back.