4 wheels off the ground ideas

[wbwood]

My toad/daily driver was totaled a few weeks ago and I got a new car that is AWD and an automatic. Only way to tow it is all wheels off the ground. I bought knowing we wouldn't be able to tow it and that is fine. Getting a trailer to just tow the car is not ideal, especially with stioring it on campsites. I was wondering if there certain ones or type that people out there use that might be easier to store. I saw one online that folds up, but it was for a car much lighter than mine. Mine is around 3100lbs. We have a tow dolly that we are selling, but I was wondering about using it with some of those wheel dollies I've seen wreckers use on the back wheels of cars to get them off the ground?

[Bill-R]

Leave your trailer hooked up to motor home and use trailer to park your car on when in camp

[Bobbo]

I have been following this thread, but haven't commented yet. Other than asking what a "trlr" was.

It sounds to me like the OP is stuck with DW driving the car on short trips, and renting a car on longer trips. There just is no good alternative to a flat bed trailer for a Subaru with an automatic transmission.

[RJsfishin]

wbwood wrote:

RJsfishin wrote:
Drop the trailer off at the camp host, tell him to figure it out.

LMAO!

We pulled into CG one time, me w/ MH, and friend w/ TT.
Only one CS left, so CH put us both in one site. The site was really too small, but we made the best of it.
Then some real Jerk came around, said "no wheels in the dirt", had to be on the pavement. We said ok, but couldn't make it work, so we did nothing. Then the Jerk came again, this time got real mouthy about it.
I got right back in his face (I was younger then) and said, "hey AH, the camp host put us here, so maybe you and him would like to put your stupid asses together and figure it out !"
They did,......left us right where we were.:B

[Dog_Folks]

RJsfishin wrote:
Drop the trailer off at the camp host, tell him to figure it out.

From a host: Not a problem. That is what they have tow trucks and impound yards for. :B

[klutchdust]

Funny how a simple question can go off in so many directions. Not on this post but I have experienced some real nut jobs, one in particular that just doesn't read before commenting. To the original poster, what you said makes sense and hope you got the info

you were looking for.

[willald]

wbwood wrote:

dodge guy wrote:
Why would you buy something you can`t tow? knowing you have an RV and you need a toad, would have been a big time requirement when looking at cars.

Not much you can do without a full car trailer. and those little dollies are not meant for extended use.

Well let's see...I put over 20,000 miles on my daily driver. Twoing doesn not even equate to 10% of that.........

..Very well said, Brian, all of it. Your situation shows why it does not always necessarily make sense to get a car that is flat towable, and spend all the $$ to set it up for such. No doubt flat towing is the easiest and most preferred method, but sometimes it just ain't realistic or practical.

Like I've said before: Not Everyone wants (or can afford) to buy a Jeep, Honda CRV, or a manual shift vehicle to allow for flat towing. Sometimes, life circumstances, finances, needs, preferences, etc. can require that we find a way to make it work with something else that may not be easily flat towable.

Will

[wbwood]

RJsfishin wrote:
Drop the trailer off at the camp host, tell him to figure it out.

LMAO!

[wbwood]

dodge guy wrote:
Why would you buy something you can`t tow? knowing you have an RV and you need a toad, would have been a big time requirement when looking at cars.

Not much you can do without a full car trailer. and those little dollies are not meant for extended use.

Well let's see...I put over 20,000 miles on my daily driver. Twoing doesn not even equate to 10% of that. I have a job that I HAVE to be at, no matter what the road conditions are during the winter. I was unable to go one time before because the car I had could not make it even to the high way. I have had a jeep wrangler and F250 before that were both 4WD. The jeep was replaced due to mileage and work needing to be done on it 8 years ago. The F250 was bought just for the TT we had and no longer have. It wasn't my daily driver though. We traded in a minivan my had for it. When we decided to get rid of the TT, the truck was not needed, especially at 11mpg (not towing). So it was traded in for something a little more practical for my wife to drive with better gas mileage, a Ford Explorer. My daily driver was a Toyota Yaris before. Bought the tow dolly, because for us, it made no sense to spend $2500+ to set it up, based on two points. First point was that we don't tow that much during the year and did not see the need to spend that kind of money for a couple times a year. Saving $1000 and getting a tow dolly made more sense to us. Second point, besides putting the money into the car to get it set up, the cars mileage was getting high. I traded it in in December at almost 200,000 miles. I traded it in on a Ford Focus as it could be towed and I wanted something a little bigger than the Yaris. And thankfully I did. The Yaris would of not taken the impact that the Focus did. I would of not walked away with minor injuries as I did. So it took some soul searching. I was going to get another car that I would keep for 8 yrs or more, like I have. I wanted something that would be safe, especially after that accident (Subaru is top rated for it). I wanted something that would be somewhat economical (34mpg highway). I wanted something that I know would be better at traversing the roads than the last couple fo cars I had. An AWD car sounded like what I needed. so I went with the Subaru XV Crosstrek. Yes I could of gotten the manual 5 speed and flat towed it. But then again, I would have to spend another $2500+ just to do it on something that I might tow a couple times a year. I am glad I didn't set up the focus that way, as I would of been out the money of at least the base plate/accessories and it's install. If we full timed or if we were able to do several long trips a year, then I might of gone that way. But our jobs do not allow for it.

Like I said, I bought my car not based on towing. I did not want to have to limit myself in that way. We can rent a car for $200-250/week. To pay for the car set up for flat towing, it would take about 10 week long trips of renting a car to break even. And at 2 weeks a year (which we rarely would get), that would be about 5 years. If we only got one week a year, then that's 10 years. I don't keep daily drivers that long due to mileage. And then there's the chance that we don't get to go somewhere this year or of we end up stop RVing. Take into consideration that I don't have to deal with hooking/unhooking...rain, etc... Of course if I went with a trailer I would have to deal with it and a trailer would offset the cost of towing flat anyway. This is not what the thread was about. It was about me thinking about towing with a trailer or how people do it with 4 wheels off the ground. I was just curious as if there was a way people do it or have done it. Or what kind of issues those with trailers have with storage at sites. Heck I didn't know until a few years ago that they make tow dollies with a flat platform that you can put a golf cart on in front of the car. I saw one and was amazed with it. If they weren't as pricey as they are, we would of probably got one of those last year, rather than the tow dolly.

[RJsfishin]

Drop the trailer off at the camp host, tell him to figure it out.

[wbwood]

willald wrote:
Brian, I definitely understand your predicament. Tough to justify buying a car specifically for towing, when it will spend such a tiny percentage of its lifetime being towed.

As many have said, using dollies like tow trucks use is probably not going to be a good option. And, since you said you don't want to modify the car, that rules out options like a Remco lube pump or driveshaft disconnect.

There is one other flat towing alternative you may want to look into, that is a bit unusual and not usually done, although some do such and swear it works great: Leave the toad vehicle's engine running, idling when towing it, throw the tranny in neutral and tow it that way. Engine running keeps tranny lubricated, so you could, in theory, tow it all day all you wanted with no limits, as long as engine stays running OK.

I know this has been done successfully with FWD vehicles, but not sure if it could be done with AWD? Only question with AWD would be if the transfer case would be getting the lubrication it needs when towing this way?

The other 'cons' to this approach you need to think about are:

1. You have no way of monitoring the toad's engine 'vitals' when towing, and could do some major damage if engine develops overheating or other condition or stalls out and you don't know. However, I think you could take care of that by setting up some kind of wireless camera pointing at your toad's dashboard, and the monitor for such up on the dash in your Motorhome.

2. Miles will be logged on your Subaru when towing

3. You will burn a bit extra fuel, since Subaru will be idling whole time you tow it.


With this approach (assuming it will work OK with an AWD Subaru), you would not have to modify your Subaru hardly at all, and could flat tow it pretty much as it is. May well be worth the extra mileage and extra fuel burned, to be able to tow your Subaru without having to modify it or fool with a trailer or dolly.

Anyway, just wanted to throw that out as one other thing to maybe look into, as I'm not seeing much other alternative for you given your circumstances. Trying to help a fellow North Carolina guy, too. 🙂

Thanks willald for the idea....

[wbwood]

mpierce wrote:
If only an "hour or so from home". and "maybe one or two weeks during break or summer". why not just drive the car, following the MH? May not be the best, but certainly the cheapest.
Now, you want some way to tow or haul it. You have ruled out a flatbed

The weekend trips we do drive behind the motorhome...only on the longer week long trips, where we went 3-4hrs away or more (up to 11 hr so far), then we towed. But towing only resulted in a couple times a year. Whereas close weekend trips a lot more.

trailer. You have ruled out a box trailer. The tow guys have said the type of wheels and setup they use really won't work very well for you.

I didn't rule out a flatebed. I mentioned about the issues of parking them on site. I'm lookign to see what alternatives people may have come up with. There is this trailer out there, but I read somewhere that the weight limit was kind of low. If something similar that would hold more weight is around, then it would be great.

[willald]

Brian, I definitely understand your predicament. Tough to justify buying a car specifically for towing, when it will spend such a tiny percentage of its lifetime being towed.

As many have said, using dollies like tow trucks use is probably not going to be a good option. And, since you said you don't want to modify the car, that rules out options like a Remco lube pump or driveshaft disconnect.

There is one other flat towing alternative you may want to look into, that is a bit unusual and not usually done, although some do such and swear it works great: Leave the toad vehicle's engine running, idling when towing it, throw the tranny in neutral and tow it that way. Engine running keeps tranny lubricated, so you could, in theory, tow it all day all you wanted with no limits, as long as engine stays running OK.

I know this has been done successfully with FWD vehicles, but not sure if it could be done with AWD? Only question with AWD would be if the transfer case would be getting the lubrication it needs when towing this way?

The other 'cons' to this approach you need to think about are:

1. You have no way of monitoring the toad's engine 'vitals' when towing, and could do some major damage if engine develops overheating or other condition or stalls out and you don't know. However, I think you could take care of that by setting up some kind of wireless camera pointing at your toad's dashboard, and the monitor for such up on the dash in your Motorhome.

2. Miles will be logged on your Subaru when towing

3. You will burn a bit extra fuel, since Subaru will be idling whole time you tow it.


With this approach (assuming it will work OK with an AWD Subaru), you would not have to modify your Subaru hardly at all, and could flat tow it pretty much as it is. May well be worth the extra mileage and extra fuel burned, to be able to tow your Subaru without having to modify it or fool with a trailer or dolly.

Anyway, just wanted to throw that out as one other thing to maybe look into, as I'm not seeing much other alternative for you given your circumstances. Trying to help a fellow North Carolina guy, too. 🙂

[DougE]

Believe it or not, we are trying to help. It's really simple - if you can't tow it, you trailer it. If you don't want to trailer it, you rent a car at your destination. Good luck with your decision.

[dodge_guy]

Why would you buy something you can`t tow? knowing you have an RV and you need a toad, would have been a big time requirement when looking at cars.

Not much you can do without a full car trailer. and those little dollies are not meant for extended use.