Traveling without a TOAD

[MagillaGorilla]

Anyone on here do much RV traveling without a TOAD?

I don't have a vehicle that I want to tow so the best I can do is either put a motorcycle carrier on the back or buy a small bike trailer. I would prefer a carrier so I don't have to tow anything and worry about the trailer itself.

If anyone on here travels without a TOAD I would be interested in hearing what the tricks of the trade are fro that style of travel.

[tatest]

Circumstantial. Sometimes a towed vehicle can be really useful, sometimes a hinderance.

I travel (road trip) without a towed vehicle, but will tow something (first it was a Ranger pickup, now a Honda Fit) if taking the RV out to the lake to sit in one place for a few days to a couple of weeks. I would certainly take one if snow birding.

When I consider the towed vehicle a hinderance is when I am traveling every day, making tourist stops, going places where I want to more easily find a parking space, which often means backing into one. My motorhome is just under 30 feet, I can back into a space at the edge of a parking lot and take up no more room than a small box truck or large dually pickup. But if your motorhome is a whole lot larger, that parking advantage my be already lost, but a towed vehicle will still keep you out of places where you might have to back up.

I'm working at downsizing to about 19 feet, but I might still haul a towed vehicle for long stays. Or maybe the towed vehicle might be the house, camper vans do sometimes pull trailers.

[ed1]

We've put about 30,000 miles on the RV, all without a toad. We didn't have a suitable vehicle to tow when we got the motorhome, so we decided to go toadless for awhile and see how it worked. Worked out fine, mostly with Enterprise, sometimes with Avis, local trips my wife would drive one of our cars.
We've had a few aggravations (sometimes late)with Enterprise, but they always picked us up and were always polite and helpful. Now, we did plan our trips and reserve cars in advance. We'd sometimes pick a campground with Enterprise access, then use their car to get to the distant attraction we wanted to visit (did I mention always unlimited mileage?)
Obviously, you have to allow time to pick up and drop off a car, so it can't be as convenient as jumping into your own car. On the other hand, we don't have to sweat getting into or out of a tight gas station.
Since our motorhome usage has ranged from 10 weeks/year to 2 weeks/year, it costs a lot less to rent than to buy a new car. If you're fulltiming, then it makes a lot more sense to tow.

Ed

[FormerBoater]

MagillaGorilla wrote:
Anyone on here do much RV traveling without a TOAD?

I don't have a vehicle that I want to tow so the best I can do is either put a motorcycle carrier on the back or buy a small bike trailer. I would prefer a carrier so I don't have to tow anything and worry about the trailer itself.

If anyone on here travels without a TOAD I would be interested in hearing what the tricks of the trade are fro that style of travel.

Six years w/o for admittedly vacation travel.

Enterprise has always picked me up when needed.

Never found a grocery store that I could not find a place to park.

[Kayteg1]

My best RV vacations covered 12,000 miles in 5 weeks.
That was with 2 motorhomes as old Peace Arrow blew the engine in Ottawa and rental minivan.
Still no toad.
I drove motorhomes on Big Sur, I drove motorhomes via Yosemite, I drove motorhomes on mountain passes in Colorado where road had no curb and no railing, that would scratch RV, I drove motorhome via 12,000' + elevation in Colorado.
Toad would be just dead weight.
And again, different style, different strokes.

[msmith1199]

Kayteg1 wrote:
You hear a lot from people who drive a little and park a lot.
I always had my vacations other way around and toad never made sense to me.
Towing a car for 2000 miles to make 2 miles grocery shopping run?
That what bicycle or small motorcycle is for.
Is toad saving you time? You drive with it slower (in CA while towing you have 55mph limits) while spending more time at fuel pumps.

How many people take 2000 mile trips every time they hit the road in their motorhome? Most do not. Most go someplace for the weekend, or even if it's a couple of week trip often stay in one spot several days at a time. That is when the toad comes in handy.

One of these days I would like to circumnavigate the USA in my motorhome. It's about a 10,000 mile journey to do that staying close to the coast or border all the way around. When I do that trip I may not take the toad as I'll be on the road every day so I'll just see what I want to see with the motorhome. That is unless the that trip doesn't happen until me and the wife are both fully retired, then we'll take six months to make the trip and we will bring the toad.

[Big_Katuna]

Kayteg1 wrote:
You hear a lot from people who drive a little and park a lot.
I always had my vacations other way around and toad never made sense to me.
Towing a car for 2000 miles to make 2 miles grocery shopping run?
That what bicycle or small motorcycle is for.
Is toad saving you time? You drive with it slower (in CA while towing you have 55mph limits) while spending more time at fuel pumps.

I drive 55-60 anyway and toad makes no difference on mpg on the diesel. In the northeast there are many towns that do not allow rv parking. We do National Day Parks, museums, packed restaurants and a toad is a blessing.

My worst Enterprise story was in Ohio in Amish Country for my dads funeral. We were parked by the side of the road in Florida eating lunch and a girl rammed our toad and we had to leave it. We camped about 30 miles away in Millersburg where the Enterprise office was. We had to wait four hours each time to be picked up and then suffer a 50 minute drive.

[rgatijnet1]

Kayteg1 wrote:
You hear a lot from people who drive a little and park a lot.
I always had my vacations other way around and toad never made sense to me.
Towing a car for 2000 miles to make 2 miles grocery shopping run?
That what bicycle or small motorcycle is for.
Is toad saving you time? You drive with it slower (in CA while towing you have 55mph limits) while spending more time at fuel pumps.

For those that do not want to see all the country has to offer, then a 2 mile grocery run makes sense.
We have been to places where there is so much to see in the surrounding area that we have put 200-300 miles a day on the toad. There are many places that are just inaccessible to a large RV that can be enjoyed by car/pick-up. If you get in to some of the places out West, you will find that not all areas have auto rental readily available.

[Kayteg1]

You hear a lot from people who drive a little and park a lot.
I always had my vacations other way around and toad never made sense to me.
Towing a car for 2000 miles to make 2 miles grocery shopping run?
That what bicycle or small motorcycle is for.
Is toad saving you time? You drive with it slower (in CA while towing you have 55mph limits) while spending more time at fuel pumps.

[rcarpe06]

We traveled without a toad for about a year. It was fine in a lot of places. Some car rental locations were close by and they picked me up (National), while others were too far from the rv park and had to go out of my way to get the rental car. Just finished setting up the new toad last week and took it on our trip last weekend.

I'll never go without it now. When I am on vacation or even just the weekend, I don't want to waste any time waiting for a shuttle just to get to the rental car place.

[bsinmich]

I tried one time without a toad and tried Enterprise. They said they had a car if I could get there. I bummed a ride there and got dropped off. When I got in there was no car and I ended up taking a taxi home. That was my first and last time with Enterprise. I will take a toad with the GMC when it is ready for use and don't need one with the Roadtrek since it fits into a normal car space. If I had to go with a dolly I would give up RVing. I did that for 10 years and then went 4 down for the last 12. The dolly is only for very young people who enjoy getting down on the dirt in the rain to fasten the straps on the tires.

[J-Rooster]

Sully2 wrote:
Just call Enterprise when you get to your destination.

X-2, The DW and I traveled to the Mt Rushmore area several years ago without a toad and used Enterprise! We were staying at the KOA in Rapid City and Enterprise brought the rental vehicle right to our RV site. We have just done this one time to try it and it worked out fine on this trip.

[hotjag1]

We traveled for several years with just a 150cc scooter on a rack on the rear of the MH. It worked good for sightseeing if we weren't going lots of miles in a day, but we were at the mercy of whatever the weather happened to be. It was nice knowing we could back up anytime it became necessary, which can't be done without unhooking a toad.

But after a few years, we realized that having a toad allowed us much more flexibility of being able to go longer distances in any weather. Also, getting groceries and other things are much more convenient with a toad.

Try the scooter(motorcycle) thing for a bit. If you don't like it, get a toad.

[Big_Katuna]

Exactly why I never leave mine at home. Motorhome breaks down, we can throw some clothes in the car, make sure you have your wallet and GO!

[mtrumpet]

We traveled for several years without a towed vehicle. We used Enterprise often where we needed to have a vehicle to get around at our destination. The only problem with that is, there's not always an Enterprise conveniently located at all destinations (although they do have a pretty good network of locations).

For the past couple of years now, we've been towing DW's 03 Explorer, and wouldn't be without it. Even on trips where we didn't expect to need a vehicle, there are unexpected needs that sometime arise where we were glad we had it along. For me, there is piece of mind to having a toad along while onthe road, and that is having YOUR own vehicle on hand should the unfortunate breakdown ever occur with the MH and it needs to be towed in for repair. Would save a lot of headache of trying to scrounge around for a rental vehicle in an unfamiliar or not-so-populated area.

[bluwtr49]

We know some people that travel without a toad....always asking for a ride somewhere. Try not to be like that, it's not much appreciated.