Car towing

[somertime]

We sold our small Casita and now looking to buy a Class C. We will get car to tow, but not sure what kind of car we can tow. I'm thinking about all 4 on the ground, but I am open for any advice. Thanks.

[tenbear]

I have towed Subarus for the past 10 years. They can go almost anywhere. There are no restrictions on speed, no fuses to pull, no limit on miles, no requirement to stop and run the engine, no requirement to disconnect the drive shaft. The only catch is you can only tow the manual transmission which is fine with us.

[Dakzuki]

You have to start with what you want your toad to do and what size before asking questions. Buying a Miata to go off road is not a good idea.

[wbwood]

We bought our Class last year. Didn't bother with towing the first year. We have a 2007 Toyota Yaris which is my daily driver with 180,000 miles on it. It can be towed 4 down, but opted to go with an ACME tow dolly instead. We don't go long distances but once or twice a year for a week. Other than that, most of our trip are within an hour or so. Given the cost to set up 4 down and not knowing how long I would keep my car, we decided the tow dolly was a better deal for us. To have our Yaris set up, it was going to cost twice as much as the dolly. We did a roundtrip to Destin Florida this past spring break. We put over 1200 miles on the dolly on that trip and it worked flawlessly. Loading and unloading was not difficult or time consuming at all. Got easier the more we did it. The ACME tow dolly is the lightest I think. It also has built in surge brakes.

If we were fulltimers and did a lot of traveling, we would probably go with 4 down, but then again, maybe not.

[Larry1946]

I towed a 2013 CRV AWD for the last year and have no problems. The guidance is to follow the directions before towing which is to put the car in low and work up the gears until its in neutral.

[Mike_Leslie]

I bought a 2012 HonDA CRV automatic for towing. It is on the towable list and says it can be towed in the manual.

[derh2o]

you did not mention the size of car you want to tow, but we purchased a 2012 Ford Focus. It needs to have a battery cable disconnected when towing, but Roadmaster installed a solenoid that i press to tow. one feature i like is one can drive up to 70 MPH. of course i drive in the 55- 60 mph range, but when i see a big hill ahead, i will get to 70 to pick up speed.

[Robocop]

Honda CR-V standard shift. Awesome! But there are many options out there to choose from.

[Bobbo]

Standard transmission Subarus can be towed 4 down. Automatic transmission Subarus must be towed on a trailer, 4 wheels UP.

No fuses to pull. No list of procedures to lubricate transmission every so many hours/miles. Put it in neutral, release parking brake, turn ignition key 1 click to unlock steering lock, and go. No speed restrictions, no distance restrictions.

[Bumpyroad]

whatever you consider, check the owner's manual for directions/and OK to tow 4 down. get a tow bar that stays on the rear of the motorhome and has levers to release. I used an Aventa II myself and a brake buddy braking system with breakaway function. do NOT buy a toad that requires modification to tow 4 down such as drive shaft disconnect or trany oiler.
bumpy

[richardwise]

Triker33 wrote:
Are you wanting new or used?
Used a HHR makes a good 4 down tow.
One 2 AMP fuse to pull or put a switch on it. Put transmission in "N" and tow.

x2

[Triker33]

Are you wanting new or used?
Used a HHR makes a good 4 down tow.
One 2 AMP fuse to pull or put a switch on it. Put transmission in "N" and tow.

[PSW]

We traded a Class B for a Class C and wanted to tow. We studied everything available that could be towed four down and ended up buying a new Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. We just got back from towing it about 1500 miles on a trip and could not be happier. Jeeps are so simple to switch to neutral and tow, but be careful as only some 4wd Jeeps can in fact be towable, depending on the transfer case in the vehicle.

[j-d]

Better topic for the Dinghy Towing forum, but for openers:
Somebody here will send you a link to Motorhome Magazine's archive of towable vehicle pages. In general,
More Manual Shift vehicles are towable than their Automatic brethren. In some cases it's sharper than the Continental Divide. For example Toyota. Many towable manuals and NO towable automatics.
Many 4-wheel drives are towable but again not all.
Nearly all-wheel-drives (the full time ones) are not towable. A wonderful exception is SUBARU! But only the manual shift ones.
If it needs to be your Daily Driver, the game changes. What else does it have to do?
In my opinion, the smaller, the lighter, the better. YES, most Class C "CAN" tow 5000-lbs. BUT, find a 2500-lb one and you'll be happier.
And again personally, I do not want a toad that has to be modified with a driveshaft disconnect or a transmission lube pump. And I don't want to mess with a dolly. That said, we LIKE manual shifts so that widens the field for us considerably.