Pros & Cons of Toad - Page 4

NXR · 01-02-2020, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarpeDiem

Our travels will include both friends and sightseeing. It is becoming more clear with each post that flat towing is the way to go. As opposed to dolly or no toad.

We bought a Class A and dolly this year because neither of us wanted to get rid of their car (a Pilot and a Sonata Hybrid). This time next year either one of those cars is going or we'll have a third flat-towable car.

As an example, we recently left a campground where the roads were 10' wide, which does not seem that uncommon. The sites were close together so there was no way to load the car on the dolly at our spot. The 10' wide roads and sign posts at the intersections would have made it a bit of a challenge pulling out anyway, especially since backing a dolly can be problematic.

We had to take the car off the dolly at the registration building there and had to put the car back on in the street leading to the campground, fortunately not busy on New Years' Day.

After I had the car driven up on the dolly and was pulling the straps out of the tool bag another Class A pulled up past us followed by a car. They were hooked up and gone in ten minutes. We were there almost another hour because I had problems getting one strap positioned so it would not chafe on the shock tower. Fortunately it was a holiday so the traffic was very light and it was sunny and warm. Rainy and cold would have been...bad.

I know where the straps need to be on this car so some of the delay was just me not remembering after a month. The second strap went on faster and the safety chains underneath are also easy.

Sometimes we've gotten to sites where the car and dolly were not perfectly in line. That means one safety chain is at full slack and the other is very tight. I need to really crank down on that strap to pull the tire forward so I can get the chain off.

Sure, some of my problems are technique but I'm getting too old for this stuff.

When you do the math, subtract the cost of a dolly, tools and accessories from the cost of the flat tow. "Accessories" include a spare set of straps in case one chafes, the cost of a spare tire, the cost of a bottle jack if your car doesn't have one, etc. It all adds up. I carry all of that stuff in the trunk of the car and then move it to an RV compartment upon arrival if we're staying a while.

HTH,

SaltLife · 01-02-2020, 08:36 AM

I know I plan on unhooking, hooking the toad away from the campsite unless it's large enough. I can move the dolly around with the toad... I'll try it for a year. I like the versatility of towing different rigs. We have 3. A 4th can't be flat or dolly towed...

BobC · 01-02-2020, 09:48 AM

There's also the option of buying a used, fully equipped toad. Haunt Craig's list, this and other forums.

Winnieowners' sister site, Irv2.com has a forum devoted to toads and towing. You should start reading everything you can to educate yourself. Once you join, IRV2 uses the same sign-in as Winnieowners:

Toads and Motorhome Related Towing - iRV2 Forums

There are a lot of variables to consider, especially in choosing the make/model/year of your toad. Aside from the toad itself, choosing a braking system is perhaps the most critical and costly decision.

Personally, I'm a fan of ReadyBrake's purely mechanical system, which is available as a stand-alone braking system and an integrated tow bar/braking system. It doesn't depend on electronics, there's nothing to take in and out of the vehicle and it's also less expensive than most other options:

https://www.readybrake.com/

If I hadn't already purchased a tow bar, I'd have gone with the Ready Brute integrated tow bar/braking system.

And, beware, just because a particular vehicle make/model/year is flat towable, it doesn't mean that the next year's model is also flat towable. You probably already know about Motorhome Magazine's dingy guide. Unfortunately, you have to research the guide year-by-year (I have yet to find a cumulative guide):

https://www.motorhome.com/download-dinghy-guides/

Good luck.

YGoHom · 01-02-2020, 06:41 PM

I’ve always flat towed. Tried a dolly once...never again. I have a Jeep Wrangler and recently bought a ‘99 Saturn wagon to tow. It was already set up for a toad. Original owner, 125k miles, in near perfect condition...$2,000.
I also use the Ready Brute Elite system and love it. Beefy and simple.

imnprsd · 01-02-2020, 10:52 PM

Smart and experienced RV owners buy a 10 year old toad with all the goodies included. Then they sell it for the same price 2-3 years later when they are done RVing.

There are lot's of fully equipped Toads that come with a tow bar. I have a 2009 Saturn Aura and it's the best! I bought it for $4,000 and spent $1,000 to make it totally cherry. If I were to sell it today I know I can get $4,500 or $5,000.

My guess is that I will sell it with my my 2004 Itasca "Horizon" 40AD for top dollar too!

Note: There will be times when you need to unhook quickly. It's inevitable. And the last thing you want to deal with is a dolly. Trust me. Dolly's have a place, but that has to do with all those tow cars which are not "tow-able". I.e., you need to install a transmission cooler.

Google "Car I can tow behind an RV" and look at your options. Plus a toad gets "beat to sh*!." So why would you want to tow a nice car and let it depreciate behind you year-after-year?

In my mind, only the inexperienced RV owners tow a new car. Either that or you don't care about throwing your money away? I.e., all new cars depreciate 50% in the first 3 years.

But other sad truth, is that if you are above 60 years of age, then what you want is the easiest tow bar you can decouple and stow. ...Unless you are on testosterone therapy and these things don't concern you?

What I am saying is that a good, top of the line tow bar, is also important!

"Make smart decisions and the road will treat you right!"

Reniram · 01-03-2020, 06:56 AM

The age old question regarding the tow still remains..Seems to me the deciding factor I have seen over the many years I have snowbird from Iowa to Florida is the obvious problem of getting older each year..In my younger years I was happy with any form of dragging my vehicle behind the RV...To hook up a tow dolly..no sweat...couple of straps.. plug in the lights and go...Alas, as the knees start to give out or the arthritis makes it really painful to bend over..then you do start to evaluate other alternatives and 4w down does begin to make more sense..There is no cure for aging..the average camper at our park would appear to be around 65-70 and coupled with the aforementioned afflictions ..not to mention dimentia or mental health..(Some of us Really shouldn't be driving!)...but thats another matter.. So i guess it boils down to if you are ok with the dolly then that's great...if you you are having problems with that then go another route ...happy camping..

SaltLife · 01-03-2020, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reniram

In my younger years I was happy with any form of dragging my vehicle behind the RV...To hook up a tow dolly..no sweat...couple of straps.. plug in the lights and go....

Exactly. No big deal. Agree, health issues change the whole thought process on how to tow......

What a person tows is srictly up to the owner. See a lot of Jeeps out there, Wranglers. I guess they match up well with the tow vehicle. Even see fullsize trucks. .

MicroMinnie · 02-07-2020, 01:39 PM

For a while we towed a smart car, they drive like sh*t but good for pulling behind an RV as the one we had was around 1700LBS, did not need any toad brakes on our RV with that. worked good for 2 people.

Dolly's are another piece of equipment to deal with so we went flat towing route with the Smart42

Remember, backing up when flat towing is near impossible, so choose your gas pump wisely

Here's the smart in 2011, most Winnebago RV's if not all can easily tow this.
You can probably pick them up cheap and blue-ox has a tow bar for it.

(Disclaimer, not sure if pic allowed by moderator, but not offended if removed)

rx4fishing · 02-07-2020, 01:50 PM

We flat tow a Chevy equinox diesel. It is very easy to hook and unhook. I personally think having a tow car is an absolute necessity. However we have friends that rent a car for their trip and that works too. That would not be a bad idea to do while evaluating your need for a tow car and how to tow it.

blueridge-fl · 02-08-2020, 05:13 AM

We went through the full toad journey. We started out not towing anything. This approach quickly fell by the wayside when we encountered parks in Florida like Rainbow Springs and Silver Springs where the campgrounds are far removed from the main park attractions. And touring out west, well, forget about it unless you want to be confined to camping in the national parks with their restrictions on length, etc.

Since we did not want the expense of replacing one of our daily drivers or adding a third vehicle, we went the route of using a tow dolly. That became an exercise in trying options to improve the load and unload process. After giving it the better part of a year, and getting sick of all the hassles, we finally bit the bullet and replaced my wife's car with a flat towable C-Max. Best decision we ever made. In hindsight, I really wish we had skipped the tow dolly experiment and I would recommend going straight to a flat towable toad.