Newbie to Dinghy towing....which dolly?

Mich F wrote:

wbwood wrote:

Mich F wrote:

wbwood wrote:

Mich F wrote:
After almost 4 years with my current MH, I finally got off the fence and ordered an Acme tow dolly with surge brakes, just this past Wed. Not looking forward to towing a car, although I've towed boats a number of times with previous motorhomes, it should be nice to have a smaller vehicle wherever we stop. :B

We think you will like it. Towing a car is easy. The hard part is remembering that it's back there.

With previous Class Cs of 22' and 24' I never had the need for a toad. This one at 32 1/2' is so much longer that there are many places it just can't go. I find a lot of times I have to back up, particularly in gas stations, that won't even be possible with a toad, so I'm not looking forward to that part. So many gas stations down here in the southeast, are not RV friendly, let alone RV/toad friendly. ;)

You are correct about gas stations and why we look for the big ones on the interstate. Particularly Flying J (bonus when they have RV lanes). Our Class C is also 32.5' long. And it's not only gas stations that you have to worry about, but its anywhere that you can get yourself into while towing anything (whether dolly or flat). You can easily find yourself unhooking/unloading in order to back up some and turn around.

We finally towed with the new ACME tow dolly this past weekend. Around 400 miles total (round trip). It performed well. I liked all the new changes with the exception of the adjustable tow straps. I much prefer the older ones. I noticed that when we got home that the outer actuator cap was missing. I know when I was hooking up the two dolly to come home, that I was sitting on top of that area while hooking up the safety chains/wiring. Not sure if I made it come loose or not. But anyway, I went onto ACME's website to order a new one as I remembered them selling them. They wanted $19.99 for the set (inner cap and outer cap) plus $11.99 flat rate shipping! No freaking way! Amazon had one for less than $2, but wanted over $8 for shipping. Found another place online, Pacific trailers, that had them for $1.64 each. I ordered 2 of them (to have a spare)and shipping was $4.11. $7.39 total price. Much better!

Unfortunately there aren't any Flying Js or Pilot gas stations until you get up around central FL. I got my dolly last Tues and got it set up last Thur and Fri. Only towed my wife's car for a few blocks. I crawled under the car to set the safety chains for the first tow - that won't happen again. I'm using their chains and added a couple of quick links and 2 shackles and will run the chains (inside some clear hose I had around the house) through the wheels and secure them to the front cross piece of the dolly.
Earlier today I got a reservation for Thur. through Sat. nights at a state park that's only about 60 miles from the house. It should be a good test run for the dolly.
That certainly sounds like a rip off for those caps. Did you lose any brake fluid? You could probably get the inner cap at any trailer supply shop, for considerably cheaper I would imagine. I don't think the outer cap is all that important