Towing vs. Non Towing

Renting may be more economical, but no way is it more practical.

If you find you're out of coffee, beer, or something for breakfast, what are you going to do? Put everything away in the MH, pull in the slides and levelers, unhook the water, sewer, TV, etc and make a run to the store where it's going to be a PITA to get the MH into?

Most tourist sites are easier to see using the toad than taking the MH. And always renting a car is also going to get old very quickly.

Besides if you tow something like a Jeep Wrangler, they're light and let you go see a lot of things you wouldn't with a rental car. This spring we were up in Rabbit Ear Pass and we wanted to go see Steamboat Springs. There were 2" of snow on the road and snowing hard. We pulled the MH over in a pull off, unhooked the Jeep, went down to Steamboat to look around and have a nice lunch. After 4 - 5 hours we returned to the MH, hooked up and went on our way. I don't think Enterprise would have delivered a car up there.

If you go to places like Yellowstone or the Tetons, it's certainly doable in just a MH, but it's not practical to pull over on the side of the road to take pictures of bears, bison, or anything else. Having a toad will make the trip much more enjoyable.

Bill

Have done it both ways. It is very much more economical to tow a car 4 down than it is to rent one every time. It only take a few of those $500 car rental bills to pay for allot of fuel and towing gear.

Firstly, it's forbidden to use "class A" and "economical" in the same post. Just kidding, welcome to the forum. :)

To get a meaningful answer, you'll need to provide a lot more info, distances traveled, destinations, frequency of trips, length of stay... it's not simple black or white. Completely different situation for people who travel a lot or full time vs. a couple of vacations a year.

For almost all of us, the economic choice would have been to never buy the MH. This is an expensive choice of travel accommodations.

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sch911 wrote:
Have done it both ways. It is very much more economical to tow a car 4 down than it is to rent one every time. It only take a few of those $500 car rental bills to pay for allot of fuel and towing gear.

X2
Never leave home without it.

We have done it both ways. We pull a toad or the Harley on every trip now. You don't have to have a top of the line toad. Ours is a 1999 Honda CRV 4x4. It's a great car and perfect as a toad. And, it's inexpensive. That little CRV has a lot of miles showing that were clocked behind the motorhome. Not having a toad and trying to get a rental is a hassle. The toad is immediately available.

at 1st we rented, fine for us when visiting in-laws etc but picking up the car can be problematic....getting to the rental and returning it is a bit of a pain.

finally bit the bullet on a '12 jeep wrangler (picked up a blue-ox aventa aluminum tow bar & base plates for 250 bucks off craigslist)...towing the jeep cost us less than a 1/4 mpg if that, it tows well and takes seconds to connect & drop...we don't even know the thing is back there.

now that we have the toad i tow it even when we don't thing we'll need it....i call it cheap insurance....if we break down i can alway run for parts or send the wife/kids ahead w/out me.

if you get a toad make certain you put a tire pressure monitoring system on it....if you have a tire issue on the toad you'll likely never even know it otherwise.

Another "done it both ways" chiming in. Had a good experience and car one the only rental, but unless it's an emergency, never again, just too expensive. Now we own both dolly for the '07 Focus and on the rare occasion we want to take the Mustang, we also have a 2 axle trailer. Long term average is about a half mile per gallon, convenience of always having a car handy, priceless.

We've been towing 4 down for decades, the last 13 years 6 months at a time. Last year on the way home the Jeep was stolen. What a PITA traveling without a toad!

If you need to buy a car to have as a toad it certainly would be cheaper to rent. But it's not convenient by any means, not to mention the availability of a rental place near your destination. What happens if the MH breaks down, you are completely stranded. I'd hate to have that on a lonely highway, especially at night.

Most people should have a car that can be put on a dolly. That would be the next best thing if you can't or don't want to or don't have a car that can be towed 4 down. For 5 or 6 car rentals costs your going to be close to purchasing a dolly anyway, so that would be my choice.

To rent a car every time ... Not convenient, no safety factor if stranded, nothing gained for your money, restrictions, not as comfortable as your own car, pray you don't damage it, etc.