Tow dolley Pro vs Con

Busnut83 · May 03, 2012, 04:16:56 PM

Wanting to tow pick-up or auto with rear on the Dolley??? Is it safe and legal???

thomasinnv · May 03, 2012, 04:23:45 PM

only issue I can see with this is making sure the steering is secured straight ahead, otherwise it will dog track.

rv_safetyman · 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

Busnut83 · May 03, 2012, 08:03:12 PM

Many years i remember towing from the rear with a tow truck so i would not take the drive shaft aloose... not burn the trans....

Ed Hackenbruch · May 03, 2012, 08:17:31 PM

Who was it a few years ago that was towing a car backwards and had it come loose and run into a streetsweeper?

Busnut83 · May 03, 2012, 09:29:26 PM

not me ... If you leave the trans in park it wont roll ....

bevans6 · May 04, 2012, 03:19:49 AM

Watch the weight limits on the dollies if towing a larger vehicle - typical payload is around 2800 lbs on the dolly itself.

Brian

chev49 · May 04, 2012, 04:05:12 AM

I have a very healthy tow dolly and a couple of trailers for towing cars and equipment. The last time i went to get a packard, i decided to tow it with the tow dolly instead of taking the car trailer. So i drove the 200 miles, towing the car backwards and was most of the way back to home when one of the dolly wheels cracked. I am pretty sure that even though the car was towing straight and not crabbing at all, that the thing was creating excessive side loads on the dolly wheels as the car back there would sway more then if it were towed with the rear wheels down. and the steering wheel was tied down of course. so i have not towed heavy cars backwards with a dolly since then. just my experience.

KC Eagle · May 04, 2012, 04:38:56 AM

Good conversation. I'm interested to hear others experiences. The manufacturers recommend against towing backward though. For instance, the Demco Kar Kaddy manual states: "drive vehicle onto platform FRONT FORWARD. (Any vehicle mounted on tow dolly must be mounted with front of the vehicle facing forward.)". My Stehl Tow had a similar admonishment.

bevans6 · May 04, 2012, 05:54:45 AM

In my research I found that the only people who recommend towing a rear wheel drive car backwards on a tow dolly are about half the people who tried it - the ones that didn't have a disaster, or even a smallish problem. Half the stories you find say it worked great, half said tried it didn't like it, stopped doing it, never tried again. NO manufacturer or rental agency says it's OK, they all forbid it.

My problem with it is the car will naturally want to self steer - the castor on the steer wheels wants to force them to full lock one way or the other. Add in any toe-out on the alignment ( toe-in going fowards is toe-out going backwards, obviously) and that also causes a bit of self steering. Add to those two the difficulty in getting the steering truly locked and there is going to be some steering happening, no question - impossible to stop it all. Add to all that the relative strength/weakness of the steering column lock mechanism and you start to question if depending on that, or taking the risk of breaking that hard to fix piece is a good idea. What if you break the steering lock so that it can't be released? Be a total PITA to have a vehicle in a campground that you can't steer any more...

Brian

jjrbus · May 04, 2012, 07:41:54 AM

I was in AZ and someone was towing a small pickup truck with the rear wheels on a dolly. That truck was all over the road. They kept going like they were oblivious to it? If they looked in the mirror they had to see it.
JIm

Lin · May 04, 2012, 09:03:50 AM

I think there seem to be ample reasons to make the practice questionable. I would call the manufacturer of the dolly and try to speak to someone in tech/engineering to get the right answer and, more importantly, an explanation of the reasoning.

chev49 · May 04, 2012, 09:38:32 AM

"Anything with a steering colum lock is too new"

some 40ish fords an exception...

fraser8 · May 04, 2012, 10:51:12 AM

Quote from: jjrbus on May 04, 2012, 07:41:54 AM
I was in AZ and someone was towing a small pickup truck with the rear wheels on a dolly. That truck was all over the road. They kept going like they were oblivious to it? If they looked in the mirror they had to see it.
JIm

Jim, was that in January, I saw a small truck being towed when I was down there. It was really swaying, If they couldn't see it they must have felt it.
My experience with a tow dolly is it's a pain to store when you get to your location, also if you get in a tough turn around spot unhooking everything to back up is a lot of trouble compared to just unhooking the car.

jjrbus · May 04, 2012, 01:44:13 PM

Swaying? The one I saw was moving about 3' off center or 6' side to side. If I did a video and put it on You Tube people would say it was faked!