Towing with a dolly

[ferndaleflyer]

I have been towing my Smart car on a dolly for 5 years off and on for 10,000+ miles I would guess. Last trip about 1000mi and stopped in 4 camp grounds and unloaded it. At the 3rd stop when I unloaded it brakes acted like they were locked up, car had zero power, about every light in the dash including the check engine light was on, electric power steering wasn't working, but the engine started up and ran fine. RPM would not even increase in neutral. I backed it up and it started operating right but check engine light was on. Ate dinner, came back out and check engine light was out and everything worked as it should. We drove it about 300mi there moved about 200mi to next stop and everything was fine. Loaded up and drove 350 mi home unloaded and all is fine. Only explanation I got from garage is that there are speed sensors on both the front and rear wheels and since the front wheels were stationary it confused the computer. What say you all?

[Grit_dog]

Probably just a glitch. All cars to some extent have issues like that at some point. And sometimes not repeatable.

[ferndaleflyer]

Mercedes says to put it in neutral for either 4 down or on a dolly with the fronts on the dolly. I have a Featherlite trailer but only use it if I want to take the full size Mercedes or the F150. Like I said above I have carried it on a dolly for several years and many miles with zero problems.

[Reisender]

rjstractor wrote:
Do you tow it with the front wheels on the dolly or rear? The little bit of looking I did on the Smart forums indicated that it was better to tow with the rear wheels off the ground since the car is rear wheel drive.

The only way we have towed our smart is on a trailer.



It is a super fun little vehicle and we put a ton of miles on it. But be careful. On the freeway it is a 60 mile range. Around town closer to 90 or more. Speed sucks up battery.



Here is a leaf on a dolly



If you go this route remember there are a lot of different leaf models and range changes a lot with model years. Earlier leafs had something like 75 mile ranges and the latest Leaf Plus models have ranges of around 230 miles.

Heads up. We are from Canada so I put all numbers in miles not kilometers as I think you are from the US.

Ours was a 2016 with a 30 KWh battery that was good for around 172 KM or around 110 miles ish. The new ones look different. We had it for four years. Great car. All we did was add washer fluid for four years. We only sold it because we went to a one vehicle household.



If you want longer range you'll have to go to a Tesla model 3 which has about 350 miles of range. You will have to tow it on a trailer though. It is all wheel drive. This is ours. Fantastic car but the super spartan interiour takes some getting used to. Pretty much no buttons as pretty much everything is voice activated or alternatively thru the main screen. Crazy fast, zero to sixty in four seconds.

[rjstractor]

Do you tow it with the front wheels on the dolly or rear? The little bit of looking I did on the Smart forums indicated that it was better to tow with the rear wheels off the ground since the car is rear wheel drive.

[Reisender]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
There is an electric for sale here on Craigs List pretty cheap but says 60 miles on a charge. Its more than 60 mi round trip for me to go to town. I want another but they have become scarce

Yah electric smarts are great around town errand cars. Park anywhere. Quick and agile. But not meant for any kind of medium to long commute. If you want to be able to dolly an EV you’ll need to look at the Nissan Leaf. 2016 or later. Unfortunately any of the other medium or long range EV’s need to be towed on a trailer. A fellow in our town is towing his Tesla model 3 on a trailer. Nice combo but pricey. He bought new everything. About 47000 for the car and another 7000 for the trailer. He put the stealth hitch on the car so he can tow the trailer around if he has to. Nice combo.

[ferndaleflyer]

There is an electric for sale here on Craigs List pretty cheap but says 60 miles on a charge. Its more than 60 mi round trip for me to go to town. I want another but they have become scarce

[Reisender]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
jdc1 this car is made and serviced by Mercedes and what I said above is what they told me and that it had apparently reset the computer while it was off....Just sounds fishy to me as they never want to work on it.

Yah, we had good luck with our smarties. But once Mercedes stopped building and supporting them we sold. Our last smarties was an electric that we towed around on a trailer for 5 years. Fantastic little convertible that we had a blast in.

[ferndaleflyer]

jdc1 this car is made and serviced by Mercedes and what I said above is what they told me and that it had apparently reset the computer while it was off....Just sounds fishy to me as they never want to work on it.

[Reisender]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
I have been towing my Smart car on a dolly for 5 years off and on for 10,000+ miles I would guess. Last trip about 1000mi and stopped in 4 camp grounds and unloaded it. At the 3rd stop when I unloaded it brakes acted like they were locked up, car had zero power, about every light in the dash including the check engine light was on, electric power steering wasn't working, but the engine started up and ran fine. RPM would not even increase in neutral. I backed it up and it started operating right but check engine light was on. Ate dinner, came back out and check engine light was out and everything worked as it should. We drove it about 300mi there moved about 200mi to next stop and everything was fine. Loaded up and drove 350 mi home unloaded and all is fine. Only explanation I got from garage is that there are speed sensors on both the front and rear wheels and since the front wheels were stationary it confused the computer. What say you all?

We towed a smart car for years. Great little runabout. Consider joining the smart car of America forum. Lots of info there.

Good luck.

[Stim]

If computer is confused you might have to remove a battery cable then reconnect to reset.
My Smartphone is ALWAYS confused!

[jdc1]

Ask a Smart Car mechanic.