rental tow vehicle

[Moondancer]

I need information on renting a tow vehicle. I am towing a 31ft trailsport. I have a 2011 Ram 2500 which does the job fine. What I need is 3rd row seating as I will be bringing 4 teenage grands with wife and I across country. East coast to west coast for about 5 weeks hence the third row. Y'all know the drill, he's touching me, she is breathing my air, he is breathing too loud. So a seat space in between each one will do lots to keep me sane on the first few 500 mile days to get to our first real stop at Mt. Rushmore.
Thanks for any help you can give me.

[mkirsch]

"31ft Trailsport" is the trailer and I'm guessing it probably weighs at least 7500lbs.

Very few vehicles exist with at least 3 rows of seating and can comfortably tow anywhere near 7500lbs.

You have to consider the fact that you are carrying what are essentially SIX fully-grown adults and their stuff in the vehicle, and that is going to KILL your payload capacity. Even if you average 120lbs a person, it's still 720lbs just in people. So whatever you choose as your vehicle needs to be able to deal with 1000lbs+ of people and stuff, plus at least another 1100lbs of tongue weight, plus have the power to move it at highway speeds under normal driving conditions.

[tinner12002]

2003silverado wrote:
If your wife is able to drive I think it would be far cheaper to have her follow you with a few kids in another vehicle. Even if expense is of no concern to you, I don't know of any place that rents an suv that allows towing and would have a brake controller.

Another thought...since I'm guessing a 5 week rental that would allow towing and for that many miles would cost easily in the thousands, an option would be to buy a reliable suv for the trip, put a few thousand miles on it, and sell it for what you paid for it when you return.

X2 and I'm guessing it would be cheaper to rent a car or a minivan than to rent a tow vehicle!

[rdmike]

I would go with 2 vehicles rather than a rental. Get some cheap two way radios, swap passengers at times, it would be fun.

[carringb]

Other options include Budget trucks (some locations have passenger vans), Enterprise Rent-A-Truck (not Rent-A-car), and some Ford dealers.

[Bionic_Man]

I regularily rent for work from National. I know they do not allow towing in their vehicles. I also know that renting a 7 passenger SUV gets you into the "luxury" category and will be close to $1000/week.

As someone else suggested, I would say the best options are:
1. Tell the kids to suck it up and sit close.
2. Take two cars.
3. Buy a used tow vehicle that you think is appropriate, and then sell it when you are don.

[GordonThree]

carringb wrote:
http://www.bandago.com

They rent vans and allow towing.

Neat! Sprinter with seating for ten and satellite tv, yes please.

If your van starts floating, use the included anchor?

[carringb]

http://www.bandago.com

They rent vans and allow towing.

[2003silverado]

If your wife is able to drive I think it would be far cheaper to have her follow you with a few kids in another vehicle. Even if expense is of no concern to you, I don't know of any place that rents an suv that allows towing and would have a brake controller.

Another thought...since I'm guessing a 5 week rental that would allow towing and for that many miles would cost easily in the thousands, an option would be to buy a reliable suv for the trip, put a few thousand miles on it, and sell it for what you paid for it when you return.

[wecamp04]

I know enterprise rents trucks for towing,not sure about renting something with 3rd row seating for towing.

[GordonThree]

This topic comes up a lot, usually someone with a large family looking to buy an SUV that will tow an equally large trailer.

The Ford 350 van is usually the first recommendation out of the gate. Try searching for those words to find the other threads.

Renting really adds another level of complexity. Before trading my sports car in on my awful truck, I tried to rent something to pull my tiny camper to Alaska and back. Every shop I checked with from National to Mom 'n Pop were strict about no towing of any kind.

Expanding my search, I found an industrial equipment rental chain (National) that rented 3500 series trucks and allowed towing... but they were only serving like Texas and the Dakotas and a few other states (oil fields?) They were crazy expensive, both in daily rate and mileage. I guess when their customers are big-oil, and they want a truck now for some reason, price isn't a concern.

[KD4UPL]

Unfortunately I think your options are very limited. I've looked into renting a vehicle to tow before. It's basically impossible. Most of the rental companies had agreements you had to sign that said you wouldn't tow.