Towing a vehicle...

[Alaskan]

Have towed my Jeep several times from Washington to Alaska with no problems.

The ole Airstream doesn't even know its back there...

This year its a new silver Honda Element that will be following along.

[skater]

I have to get pictures of my camper towing something. The blue color of my Impala actually looks pretty good with the camper - they seem to fit together really well. However, I usually take the Cougar on trips, and it doesn't match as well.

[Alaskan]

Thats why I bought a silver Element..... gotta keep 'em looking like they belong together....

[Fred]

New member and new owner. Recently bought 1993 b190. Getting ready for the season and starting to check everything out that I couldn't this winter. Can you tell me what equipment (hitches etc.) that you used to pull the Jeep. I have a Elantra that I would like to pull on long trips but want the safest and best way. Thanks for the help!

[Alaskan]

I'd say you need to start by asking your dealer about towing that particular vehicle....I see, looking on the internet, its easier if it a manual transmission.

Put these words into a Google Search " RV towing an Elantra" .....there is lots to read there..

These new vehicles with all the plastic on the front are more difficult to install a tow bar on. Iam just now looking into that with the Element....

With the Jeep, and prior to that a Suzuki Samuri, these are somewhat easier to install tow bar brackets on as they have a frame out there in front to attach brackets to.

The Jeep had a tow bar and brackets I made myself and with the Suzuki I had a neat tow bar that Camping World used to sell from Fulton ($99) that was collapsible.... per the picture below.

Looks like Camping World now only offers the spendy fold-up type tow bars....

A great source for tow bars and installation is U-Haul, most probably are not aware of that....I've seen a lot written that they are great to deal with and do good installs to include the wiring harness for your vehicle lights...

Homemade tow bar I used with my Jeep Wrangler...



This tow bar is a product of Fulton and is priced around $100.00...and it folds for storage







Looking at U-Halls website I see they offer a tow bar just like this Fulton @ $150....

[skater]

Do you worry about braking on the toad vehicle?

That's one of the reasons I went with the dolly - electric brakes.

[Alaskan]

I was pretty close to max with the Jeep if ya crunch the numbers from the E350 Owners Manual...

With the Element (lotta aluminum & plastic) I'll be well within the numbers.

State regs also vary and I was within those regs for Wa & Alaska.

[skater]

I was pretty close to max with the Jeep if ya crunch the numbers from the E350 Owners Manual...

With the Element (lotta aluminum & plastic) I'll be well within the numbers.

State regs also vary and I was within those regs for Wa & Alaska.

So far the brakes on my dolly have been almost nothing but trouble, but I have a good feeling about them now that I've rewired them!

And the time I lost the camper's brakes, they were useful for stopping me (in conjunction with the parking brake and just letting it coast to a stop). I know that's not really what they're there for, but any port in a storm!

[Alaskan]

you're using the electric brake controller that came standard with the Airstream ?

What problems did you have with the brakes on the dolly..?

What caused your brakes to fail on the van...?

[skater]

you're using the electric brake controller that came standard with the Airstream ?

What problems did you have with the brakes on the dolly..?

What caused your brakes to fail on the van...?

No, I ditched that and moved to a Tekonsha Prodigy brake controller. It's a highly recommended model. If nothing else, it's nice to know exactly how much voltage is being applied to the trailer's brakes, which makes it very easy to compensate for city driving vs. highway, rain, etc.

The dolly's wiring was done poorly, and something rubbed through one of the wires and shorted it out. Coming home from my trip to the Outer Banks last August, I never knew from one stoplight to the next whether I was going to have tow dolly brakes or not. Worse, while I was braking, they would cut in and out. Definitely not a good situation at all, and though I pulled off to check it, I couldn't find the problem with a car loaded.

After I got home, I pulled the main part of the dolly's wiring harness out (after all the problems I've had with the dolly, it wasn't a stretch to guess that's where the short would be) and discovered that something had worn through two wires - one of the brake's wires and another wire. I replaced the wires and taped them up well to hopefully keep any damage to a minimum in the future.

The camper's brakes went out because of the following factors:
1. Hot day.
2. Fools on I-270 and I-495 in DC rush hour kept pulling in front of me in stop and go traffic, causing me to jam on my brakes. Though I wasn't going very fast each time, the heat from these events adds up. (The heat got jump-started when, just a few miles before that, some fool popped out from another lane right in front of me when I was doing 55 mph - I had to hit the brakes, hard, to keep from clobbering him. The rig handled it well, but I'm sure the brakes got VERY warm and didn't have much time to cool off before the stop-and-go traffic.)
3. The brake fluid in the camper was apparently the original fluid, and I could smell it boiling.

[Alaskan]

I see the new Spring 2007 Camping World mini catalog has on page 78 has all their popular tow bar models from $189 to $749

Their tow dolly from Roadmaster , rated at 4380 lbs, doesn't have brakes

[skater]

I see the new Spring 2007 Camping World mini catalog has on page 78 has all their popular tow bar models from $189 to $749

Their tow dolly from Roadmaster , rated at 4380 lbs, doesn't have brakes

Yeah, not all of the dollies have brakes. And many that do have surge brakes, not electric.

My feeling on tow bars:
--Those prices ignore the axle disconnects I'd need to tow the Impala,
--They usually require an ugly bracket on the front of the car (which they usually don't even make for the Cougar - it's too rare),
--It's possible that I'd be towing vehicles other than my own,
--I'd be putting miles on four rather expensive performance tires rather than just two,
--I'd have to cut into the wiring for the cars (for brake lights and all), which wouldn't worry me with the Cougar but scares me with the Impala - the BCMs in those are quite sensitive.

No, even with all the headaches I've had with my dolly, I'm sticking with a dolly setup. (Or a full trailer that has all four wheels off the ground. )

I do acknowledge that the dolly, even when it's working correctly, is definitely a lot more hassle to hook up and unhook than flat towing. And I think the cost of flat towing is somewhat cheaper when you're always towing the same car (which I knew I wouldn't be - in fact I'm still trying to decide which car to take this weekend, and I'm only going 9 miles away!).

This is an ongoing debate that won't be resolved - some people like it one way, others like it the other.

[Acorn]

I guess I cheat because I tow my silver Honda Interceptor on a trailer. You cant seem to get the hitch mountings over in the uk to put it on the back of the RV. Still as it's siver it goes well with the van!

K

[Oldbagpipe]

My silver car trailer and race car work pretty well. I'm restoring a little car to pull as well.

[skater]

My silver car trailer and race car work pretty well. I'm restoring a little car to pull as well.

See that's a good looking rig.

I took the Cougar the weekend above where I was wondering which one I'd take.

For reference, the tow dolly I had was totaled in the crash in 2010. The tray had been bent upward on both sides a bit, so it rotated back and forth easily, no resistance at all. And the hitch lock was destroyed. We just junked it. I don't really miss it. That thing was trouble from day one.

I had the "opportunity" to tow my Cougar for several hundred miles using a full trailer from U-Haul, behind our pickup, in ~2013. It was a much nicer experience than the tow dolly. It just tracked so much better. And I could back up! If I were towing a car regularly again, I'd definitely want a full trailer instead of a dolly. I'm still not sold on flat towing - I get why people like it, and I like the convenience factor, but I just don't think it's the right option for me.