EZE TOW DOLLY PROBLEM - HELP!

[truenorth50]

I recently purchased an EZE TOW DOLLY and was very impressed with the construction, design and quality of materials used. It tows well and is light enough that I can freight it around the campsite without much trouble.

The only problem I am having with it is that I CAN'T KEEP THE CAR ON IT!

After about 50 miles of driving with no really tight cornering, the wheel on one side or the other will slide rearward and scare the hell out of me and my wife! It doesn't matter how tight I have the straps, the car just slides back.

I have the straps so tight that they are like violin strings!

The car steering is not locked ( this type of dolly does not have a pivot so relies on the car steering to do the job)

The car is in park so I know that the tires are not revolving just sliding.

Does anyone have any idea what I am doing wrong?:h

HELP!!

Moved to Dinghy Towing forum from Towing.

[willald]

truenorth50 wrote:
I took and applied all the good advice posted here and went one step further. I had two 20" pieces of two inch angle iron welded ( with the point up) to the dolly, to form a physical obstruction to prevent the tires from rolling. Coupled with the straps and chains, I have managed to eliminate the tire movement altogether. The angle iron forms an 'indentation' that the tire sits in and 'voilà!' the problem is gone.

Hey, not a bad idea, I like it. When you get back home, any chance you might post some pictures on here of what you did?

Will

[truenorth50]

Sorry guys. I went away on holiday ( with the dolly) and forgot to post the happy ending.

I took and applied all the good advice posted here and went one step further. I had two 20" pieces of two inch angle iron welded ( with the point up) to the dolly, to form a physical obstruction to prevent the tires from rolling. Coupled with the straps and chains, I have managed to eliminate the tire movement altogether. The angle iron forms an 'indentation' that the tire sits in and 'voilà!' the problem is gone.

In fact I am presently on holiday, towing the car on the dolly through the winding mountain roads of New Hampshire. The scenery is absolutely breath taking, the people very friendly and the car is still with us. ( as an aside, New Hampshire is highly recommended).

Thanks to one and all for all the suggestions and help. And now I can sleep at night too.

[dsa3778]

Any updates to your issue?

[truenorth50]

Thanks Willald. I agree. Trusting that single strap that goes to the ratchet is getting close to a religious experience! ;)The problem is that my distrust of the strap may be so deep that it may put me off the entire dolly.

[willald]

..I like the suggestion, of taking it back to the dealer and having them strap it up for you. Maybe there's something you're not doing right in the 'strap up' process that we can't see and they'll be able to correct you.

I must confess, although the tires stayed in the straps OK after we started using the method noted above, I still never trusted those straps. Because of that lack of trust, and for my own peace of mind, I upgraded the chains (significantly!) that go from the dolly to the vehicle itself. Replaced them with some very stout chains, about twice as thick as the ones that came with the dolly. Also took as much 'slack' out of those chains as I could safely, to make sure car would not fall off the dolly platform if a strap came loose.

I made d*** sure that if those straps ever did let go, the car was NOT going to fall off the dolly platform. I'd suggest you look at the chains, and consider doing something like what I did there. Definitely gave me a lot more peace of mind on the road. 🙂

[Bobbo]

Take it to the dealer you bought it from and have them strap it on. Watch carefully. Drive around for a while. If it comes loose, go back to the dealer. If it doesn't come loose, do what the dealer did.

[truenorth50]

Well, I gave 'it' a try and sadly, there was no difference. The tires still wanted to move back toward the rear of the dolly.

It is almost like the manufacturer should have provided some kind of wedge or ramp BEHIND the wheels to give them a physical barrier to overcome.

With a week and a half before we leave for a tour of the New England states time is running out for my ACME TOW DOLLY!

Any other suggestions?

[truenorth50]

Interesting point WILLAID. I suppose drawing that extra inch or so forward would take the 'play' out of the transmission / differential which might be where the movement comes from. Thanks guys, I will give that a try and see what happens.

[tahiti16]

As Will stated when I put the car on our dolly, not an eztow, I pull up to the front, which pivots my ramps up so I can lock the deck in place. I then place the straps and start wrapping, do NOT tighten yet. Release the brake and for my car put in neutral, the car generally rolls back some. Now use the straps to pull it back into position. I have also found that stopping after a few miles of turns and bumps I can get another turn or two on the ratchet.

Good luck and we have towed many miles with our West Texas dolly with some oops and almost issues but no damage to anything yet. :B

[willald]

1fastdad wrote:
If you have an EZE TOW dolly you have a problem.:B

Actually, its the exact opposite - EZE tow dolly is 'bout the best one there is, all things considered. Original poster made a great choice, as far as the actual dolly is concerned. If we ever go back to dolly towing, it will be with an EZE dolly.

The issue here has little to do with the dolly itself, and is a common problem with all dollies - getting the tow straps on the tires correctly.

We used to have similar problems when we towed with a dolly. One thing I learned from these forums that helps, is the following:

When you pull the car onto the dolly, all the instructions tell you to pull it all the way up until front tires touch the 'stops'/ratchet at the front. Don't do that, instead, stop about 1" before it. Then, when you tighten down the straps, it will 'pull' the car forward into the stop, making the straps much more tight both front and back. When we started doing that, the wheels stayed in the straps much better.

This is a common 'trick' discussed on here quite a bit, that definitely helps. I'm surprised none of the dolly companies haven't caught onto such, and updated their instructions. IMO its a much better way to strap a vehicle onto a dolly.

[truenorth50]

Where were you '1fastdad' when I needed you?

[1fastdad]

If you have an EZE TOW dolly you have a problem.:B

[truenorth50]

Well, after spending the afternoon staring at it I have come up with a theory . . .... . ... . .

If you are looking at the tire of the towed car, the EZE-TOW instructions call for placing the basket straps at the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions. It appears that as the car tries to move away from the front basket strap ( 2 o'clock position) it allows that strap to move as the strain comes off and that introduces play into the strap system which allows the tire to move even more etc etc etc.

So I am thinking that if the basket straps were moved to the 9 o'clock and 12 o'clock position it would supply more support to the tire to resist rearward movement and the 12 o'clock strap would not be able to move and introduce more slack into the system.

Is this making any sense to anyone? :?

[Cuffs054]

TrueNorth, any updates? This could really help some of us.