Needing advice on a Toad!

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OKLAHOMAN

OKLAHOMAN

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Thought that might get your attention.
I'm going to be buying a Class A Motor home in the next few weeks and was wanting advice from any other M/H users as to their car that they tow (its called a toad)is. My wife has a 06 Kia Sodona Van she loves and it also holds all we need for shows but it would need $1000-$1200 worth of transmission pump to be towed then the tow bar $400.00 and then the reciver on the van another $400.00. Being the <s>frugal</s> cheap person I am I was thinking of buying a two wheel dolly for $800.00-$1000.00 but was told its APITA to load and unload.Any advice would be appreicated.
 
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Just saw this in my RV magazine:"Not Sure What TOAD Stands For..." Toad- cutesy spelling for a "towed" vehicle. I've even seen some people put a picture of a green toad frog in the window of their towed vehicle
You would think so but in all the RV forums it's a "TOAD". and a Schwinn is not a bad idea, if I could get Diane to petal and I ride the handelbars.
Originally posted by ed4copies

Sure its not a "towed", Roy????
Click to expand...
 
With the dolly, you drive onto it and strap the vehicle down. At least with my fathers. The straps wrap over the tires. Make sure to put on (or have put on) the wire harness on the towed vehicle so the brake/turn parking lights work with the RV lights.
 
Two thoughts.. First, the dolly is not all too hard to work with to put the car on, however you can not back the MH with the car attached (the dolly for that matter either) Now with the car, you can just unhook the hitch and disconnect the car if you must back up or turn around. The dolly method requires you to un-strap the car, back it off the dolly, and the remove the dolly and put it somewhere by hand.

Now you could look for a second car, like a Saturn wagon which can be flat towed without the pump and an older one should be less than 2k. If this can fit your needs it will also prevent a lot of stone damage and possiable damages to your "good van" if something went wrong.

You could still drive somewhere with the RV and rent a mini-van when you are there if you do not need this often. My vote is for the cheap Saturn and a flat tow.

FYI.. My NADA books list the full retail price for a 95' Saturn Wagon at $2500 Feel free to e-mail me if you want me to run a value, I an give you the NADA value on anything 2008 and back to 1989. This is the "real NADA book" not the "Consumer Edition" ;)
 
Roy, you might be interested in joining RV.net. It is a pretty large forum, very similar in structure to this one and you can post questions like this one and get replies from hundreds of folks who are doing exactly what you are doing.

Anyone who suggests putting the car on a tow dolly hasn't done much RV'ing because they are a royal pain in the rear! We are currently in an RV park in California and there isn't a dolly to be seen. LOTS of Saturns though.:)

Visiting the class a forum on RV.net might give you some ideas.
 
Roy,

I am not an RVer (way too young still :D) by my mom and dad are and have been for quite a while. They started out with a Class C and then upgraded to a Class A. The class A they bought was a Monaco Windsor and they had it for a couple of years. They started out with a dolly with the C and then also with the A. The quickly got sick and tired of the Dolly. They were pulling a Toyota Camary with the dolly. They ended up selling the dolly and the Camary and bought a For F150 truck and had the transmission disconnect installed and never looked back. They love the setup they have now and would not consider doing it any other way. I think if you do start out with a dolly, you might as well consider on the money you WILL loose when you sell it and go the other route!

Now they have a 42' Monaco with double slides and still pull the pick-em-up. The Monaco has a Cummins Turbo diesel and at 70 mph pulling the truck, they get 12 MPG avg. Pretty good if you ask me.
 
Roy, If you go the way of the 2 wheel dolly, make sure you don't tow with the parking brake set............... YOU HAVE TO SET IT WHILE DOING THE TIE DOWN THEN RELEASE IT BEFORE YOU PULL OUT............ DAMHIKT:D
 
Roy, I would not even consider the dolly if I was you. After 4-5 trips, with say three stops each trip you will be sick and tired of the dolly. Then when you sell it, you lose money. It would be far better to either get another vehicle with the transmission disconnect, or have the tranny work done to your vehicle you plan on towing. You will be far happier and actually save money in the long haul (you won't lose on the resale of your dolly, plus you have an upgrade to your vehicle which will have a better resale/trade-in value down the road).

Just my 2 cents woth

Rob
 
Hey, Roy, just thought of something else. If you do like Curtis suggested and get the Ford F150 Pick-up truck, you could put a topper on the back, add an inverter, then rig up your lathe and some things in the back of the truck and you can turn while your wife is driving, or even after you stop. That way you can be on vacation and still work at the same time!![}:)]:D;)[^]

Rob
 
My plan is to buy a Dodge 3500-5500 series truck and a large travel trailer. That way when I get where I want. Drop the trailer off and I can drive around in the truck.

I have been an avid jeeper for many years and the peopblem with towing a car or truck is that the axles are under constant wear. you engine and tranny may only have 50000 miles on it in three years, but the axles could have 100000 miles on them. For a car that isn't used that much, it might be okay.
 
Roy,

We have a 2000 Saturn LS1 four door sedan that we pull behind our motorhome. Only modification other than attatching a tow bar is to turn the key to unlock the steering column and take out a couple of fuses under the hood to disable some of the electrical so as not to run the battery down. Many of the Saturn's are four wheels down towable. We also added a suplimental braking system to the car that can be operated from inside the coach.

Family Motor Coach Association "FMCA" puts out an annual issue that covers the pros and cons of many vehicles that are commonly used as toads and their website allows you to go back several years to look at the older articles that cover the now older toads.

Take a look here: http://fmca.com/
 
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