too rent a car or tow a car

[dottie999]

hi new to posting and love all the info here
A few years back we had a TT but soon will have 30'class c. the question is do we tow our Chevy Equinox or do we rent a car at destination?
Thanks everyone

[Farmboy666]

garyemunson wrote:
We traveled for years without a toad. Finally started then stopped again. I found having something behind us was too restricting. I.e. most Cracker Barrel restaurants have RV parking in rear but it is just a double length space that's too short for an RV plus toad. Didn't like the worry about having to unhook if I got into some position where backing up was necessary. Went back to renting a car at destinations. As far as seeing things while driving, most places have parking sufficient for a bare motorhome. Often having the toad attached made the rig too big to park in many places so we'd have to pass them by.

I tow and never had a problem, backing up is a matter of practice and Cracker Barrel always has places in the lot to park, people don't stick to just the RV spaces.

[bukhrn]

MDKMDK wrote:
We tow. Convenience for errands/sightseeing once set up at campsite.

X-2, I know some say it doesn't take long to set up or break down, but it take longer than I want to spend doing it every time you need to run to a store, or go site seeing, and doing it again and again and again, plus I would think that sight seeing in a 30 footer would be more inconvenient than doing it in a toad, not that it can't be done, but just not as easily in some places.
Plus I saw gas mileage mentioned, if I were concerned about that,I'd much rather be out running around in my toad at 32-35 mpg than trying to sight see in my 29' class C at 8 mpg.

[klutchdust]

dottie999 wrote:
thanks everyone, nice to see i'm not nuts thinking about this. on one stop trips we will rent and on hope around tow our car. both will work well and improve gas mileage where possible

30 foot towing a Jeep wrangler. I see no difference in mileage either towing my Jeep or not towing my Jeep. My mileage averages out to 8.5 MPG over a 30,000 mile period. I have towed my Jeep to Vegas and not towed my Jeep to Vegas and the trip is about 275 miles one way, no difference. Towing a 20ft. trailer loaded to it's legal limit the mileage drops from 8 to around 6.

[mgirardo]

When we first bought our motorhome, we rented because neither vehicle we had could be easily flat towed. We'd stop at the rental place first to pick up the car before going to the campground. I'd drive the motorhome and the wife would drive the rental. It worked out pretty well. We probably spent about $500 in car rental fees and the occasional taxi.

Then we finally got a vehicle we could tow and had every intention of setting it up to flat tow. We eventually decided we really didn't want to spend the extra money to outfit it and purchase a tow bar and aux. brake.

If we needed a car, the wife would drive behind the motorhome. Except for our seasonal trip which was about 12-14 hours depending on traffic, we usually stayed within 5 hours of home when camping, so it wasn't a big deal. Almost half of our camping trips a year were to Disney's Fort Wilderness, where we didn't need a car anyway.

Now that we no longer own the motorhome, I am glad we saved the money. All told, we ended up saving a good bit of money not flat towing. If we took more long distance camping trips, it would have made more sense to flat tow.

-Michael

[OFDPOS]

WOW people tow a vehicle in case of a break down . Man we must of ran the Gauntlet then without a scratch uhm flat!
Our last two MHs's didn't even have a spare and we drove them both coast to coast !

Ok that warmed a few up... lol

We are on limited time, wife only gets a certain amount of time off work , so we are pretty much in constant motion , only time we have to stop for over a day is when we hit our destination.
Times we have stopped to see and smell we could get in and out with the MH.

Now if we had all the time in the world, we would have a toad...

[DutchmenSport]

Check your Equanox towing information. They have specific requirements for being towed.

[PartyOf_Five]

Thanks for the question, we've wondered the same and have driven without a toad or rental for a couple years now. Although we continue to drive the RV everywhere, if we spent a few days in any medium city (Miami, Denver, Philly), I think Lyft would make sense as an option to renting and we could take day trips with our 30'. Large cities I'd prefer to be driven than pay daily parking, and smaller cities or remote areas, I have no trouble driving the rv.
I think it comes to your lifestyle- we are now considering a jeep as a toad, to be able to do some off roading.

[tenbear]

We have towed a car ever since we bought our MH many years ago. Our MH is about 30' long, too long for parking in many parking lots, especially at tourist attractions we wanted to see. It depends on your RVing style. We would go for 2-3 month long trips, spending several days on one place while we explored the surrounding area. I felt that arranging for a rental at a different place every few days would be a big burden. We no longer go on these long trips but still find the towed to be right for us. The gas mileage of a towed is much better than the RV. We also carry bicycles.

As has been said, it is also nice to have in case of a breakdown.

[dottie999]

thanks everyone, nice to see i'm not nuts thinking about this. on one stop trips we will rent and on hope around tow our car. both will work well and improve gas mileage where possible

[K_Charles]

We spend only 2 or 3 days at each stop, almost never a week. I would get sick of renting and returning a car every few days so we tow.

[F1bNorm]

We do both, tow and rent. Its nice to have the option.

[S1njin]

We always did the Enterprise thing. Will continue to do so. If I tow anything it’ll be my little 5x8 cargo trailer.

[old_guy]

it comes down to darned if you and darned if you don't. to rent puts you in a position to having to wait for the rental people to show up and if you tow you always have the car if you need it, breakdown etc. you can always disconnect if you get into a short parking lot but waiting several hours for a rental makes it rather inconvenient

[MDKMDK]

We tow. Convenience for errands/sightseeing once set up at campsite.

[Seon]

I too just got back into camping with a class c and my only issue would be once I've checked in a campground then need to go out for supplies. Guess "pre-planning" would help.