Tow dolley Pro vs Con

Ralph7 · May 04, 2012, 01:58:05 PM

Do not trust steering wheel locks, seen them jump and dog track, wacks mail boxes/cars, etc.
Did it both ways, plus drove a towtruck in the 80's, those towed front wheels down needed sterring wheel tied.

bevans6 · May 05, 2012, 05:22:58 AM

I have in mind that there might be a difference between towing backwards and front down with a tow truck, probably lower speeds and pretty short distances, compared to 70 mph on a freeway for 600 miles in a day...

I think there's no question that you can do this, and do it with reasonable safety, but can you do it as a matter of course, hook up and roll the way you can when you use the equipment the way it was intended to be used?

Brian

Ralph7 · May 05, 2012, 09:14:25 AM

Did you look into a drive shaft disconnect ? yes big $$$ and the shifter cable is to light duty, but they work.

Len Silva · May 06, 2012, 08:50:56 AM

There are other solutions besides flat towing or dollies.

Oonrahnjay · May 06, 2012, 09:45:11 AM

Quote from: Len Silva on May 06, 2012, 08:50:56 AMThere are other solutions besides flat towing or dollies.

Oh, yeah! That's My Way!

Lin · May 06, 2012, 04:21:45 PM

I wonder if one were to use a tow dolly in a way that is not approved by the manufacturer whether a lawyer would find that relevant in the aftermath of an accident. For example, even if the dolly was not a clear cause, would it be used to show that the driver was reckless and irresponsible?

rv_safetyman · May 06, 2012, 08:27:31 PM

I have gone over the owners information for the Acme Tow Dolly several times and it does not mention, directly, that the car must face forward.

That said, the comments here convince me that you should not tow cars "backwards". I had thought about the tow-in/out issue, but did not think about the caster issue.

As I mentioned, I had thought about towing the '56 Chevy, but have given up on that. I don't want to put a driveshaft disconnect on that car. Oh Well

Should be fine for the PT Cruiser for the trip next week.

Will start to look for a ***LOW COST*** FWD car so that I don't beat up the daily driver. Any suggestions?

Jim

rgrauto · May 07, 2012, 05:43:13 AM

Busnut 83 I have towed several different cars and trucks with the rear wheels on the tow dolly with no problem. The most important thing is securing the front wheels. I used a Holmes wrecker steering wheel stabilizer,it attaches to the steering wheel and to the seat framework,etc and you pull the strap tight and like the tire straps you check often. The advantage to towing from the rear you can back the towed auto by someone driving it and you following . Do not try to back the dolly like you would a trailer,it won't work correctly. Be sure to use a safety chain on auto to dolly,and again check tire straps often. HTH, Glen

Ed Hackenbruch · May 07, 2012, 07:21:07 AM

Jim, why not an older Jeep Cherokee? You can tow them 4 down, no restrictions on towing speeds or miles, the 4.0 liter engine is good for 3-400 thousand miles, you can have 4x4, there are a lot of them around, and you can pick one up for fairly cheap.

Ralph7 · May 07, 2012, 08:42:41 AM

My 98 grand cherokee with 240,000 miles is in Salome Az, has roadmaster brackets on it. 3grand, AC inop. I have towed 3 years, now have a 98 dodge truck to haul my RZR.
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Bussman84 · May 07, 2012, 02:48:35 PM

We have also towed with rear wheels on the dolly many times using the wrecker style steering wheel strap to lock the wheels. Not saying its right or wrong, but i dont believe it to be illegal. I am sure over time and many miles the toe in and castor will play into effect but we dont put a ton of miles on while towing, so this is just my way. I will say I do prefer to use a front wheel drive on the dolly but sometimes things just dont always work out the way we prefer, so we make do. On the same note a good friend of mine owns a large wrecker company and what they use when they have to tow backwards are super large zip ties to hold the steering wheel in place. fwiw.

Billy

Uglydog56 · May 07, 2012, 07:46:21 PM

The cool kids put stick shifts in their 56 chevy's.

Richmond 6 speeds, to be precise!

white-eagle · May 08, 2012, 05:13:20 AM

why not get rid of the tow dolly and just tow it four wheels down with the engine running in neutral. We've towed our express van that way for at least 10k mi. only issue is fuel. we use about 4 gal a day idling down the road behind the bus.

you can buy a few gallons for the price of a tow dolly or a drive shaft disconnect kit with installation.

it works for us.

i never really considered the tow dolly thing as we had seen too many folks with issues of where to put it. Seems like the only rigs with tow dollies are those that are going somewhere they have plenty of room to store it.

my only other consideration would be to buy a trailer for a garage storage and put a small car in it along with the other junk. again, we decided too much trouble pulling a large trailer and storing it when you got to the campground.

Len Silva · May 08, 2012, 07:36:10 AM

Some years ago, I saw a guy with a large motorhome of some kind with a different solution. I don't know what he had rigged at the hitch but after unloading the car he winched the dolly up so that it stood vertically at the back of the coach.

Sorry, I didn't get to see it up close.

ol713 · May 08, 2012, 08:21:46 AM

Quote from: rv_safetyman on May 03, 2012, 04:47:04 PM
Wow, I was just getting ready to ask the same question. I have always pulled 4 down, but my Durango is out of service right now and I am forced to tow the PT Cruiser. Will be picking up a used Acme dolly tomorrow. Here is the data on the unit:

http://cartowdolly.com/eze-tow-dolly/

Pulling the PT should be no problem as it is front wheel drive. However, I would like to tow my '56 Chevy to a car event this year and that would dictate pulling the car backwards (car is lowered a bit and dropping the driveshaft would not be a lot of fun).

There have been threads in the past about issues with "toe-in" when pulling the car backwards (tow-in now becomes tow-out).

As I recall, the consensus was that folks who did it had no problem, but I would hope that folk with "real world" experience towing a car backwards would jump in.

Jim

Hi Jim;
I have a tow dolly that I tried to tow my 56' chevy on. I found that the fender on the tow dolly would hit the chevy.
This happened twice. Once with a 56' chev being towed with front wheels on the dolly and once with a 57' nomad
being towed backwards. I also towed a 76' el camino backwards with no problem. It was higher in the rear and
missed the fenders on the tow dolly. That was my experence. Be carefull.
Merle.