Question Towing w/o a trailer

[Visioneer]

I recently saw a MH towing a car without using a trailer. It occurred to me that the total combined weight is thus lower. A good thing. But- does this negatively impact the car being towed? Is it not a problem, or is there too much downside due to wear n tear? Thank!

 

[Underboss]

The only real wear and tear would be tires. I have never had any other issues. In fact flat towing a vehicle is the easiest process of all

 

[Visioneer]

Well, thank you so much. I was wondering about total combined weight, and it seemed that w/o a trailer, it wouldn’t be an issue. Sounds like the way to go…

 

[Rollin Ollen]

Well, thank you so much. I was wondering about total combined weight, and it seemed that w/o a trailer, it wouldn’t be an issue. Sounds like the way to go…

There is a weight factor that must be taken into consideration. If your hitch is rated at 5000 lbs then your towed including contents should not exceed that limit plus, I'm pretty sure everywhere in North America, requires a towed vehicle to be equipped with a baking system.

 

[TheLooks]

Funny, I just flat towed for 4000 miles and then bought a trailer to put the Jeep on.....other priorities made that happen.

 

[John&Andrea]

I will also mention, not all vehicles are flat towable. Jeep being the flat tow choice of many.

 

[rjshiflet49]

I towed a 2022 Jeep Gladiator behind our Georgetown for a short while before we sold the motorhome. At 4,650 pounds it was just below the 5,000 weight limit of our hitch. We did have brakes (Brake Buddy) which is a requirement in Texas and most other states. I never saw any down side to towing, though I often worried about rocks kicked up by the motorhome chipping my paint. I did have a windshield protector that fit nicely on the Jeep.

 

[wiscampsin]

I will also mention, not all vehicles are flat towable. Jeep being the flat tow choice of many.

And not all Jeeps are flat towable.

 

[Rollin Ollen]

And not all Jeeps are flat towable.

I know right!!?? I guess I am just a Jeep purist having owned three REAL Jeeps and one wannabee. It irritates the heck out of me to see the nameplate being used on a 2wd "car" . I am finally used to considering our JK an almost real off roader even though I still say it's mostly a car in Jeeps clothing.

 

[Holdmybeer]

And not all Jeeps are flat towable.

My sweet 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland w/Quadratrak II 4WD ( 62k miles), which my evil 16 year old granddaughter has now carjacked ( but she nevertheless has excellent taste), is flat towable. The GC w/o QT II is not.

 

[Vint]

The only real wear and tear would be tires. I have never had any other issues. In fact flat towing a vehicle is the easiest process of all

But, certainly not the cheapest. Baseplate for the toad, towbar assembly, braking system (Brake Buddy, Air Force One, etc), battery kill devices and assorted wiring, and of course labor to install everything if your not able to by yourself will cost you $5K to more like $10K, plus.

I tow my wife's Kia Sportage on a Master Tow Dolly with surge disc brakes Dolly bought new in 2023, $2300. Nothing else needed. Car follows path of the RV, can't back up with it just like a flat tow setup, dolly by itself weights 500# and is easy to hook and unhook to move around, and is probably as easy and fast to hookup, load car, etc tie down tire straps, than hooking up a flat tow car. And, better braking on the dolly with the surge disc brakes than expensive $$$$ braking adapters used when flat towing.

 

[Underboss]

But, certainly not the cheapest. Baseplate for the toad, towbar assembly, braking system (Brake Buddy, Air Force One, etc), battery kill devices and assorted wiring, and of course labor to install everything if your not able to by yourself will cost you $5K to more like $10K, plus.

I tow my wife's Kia Sportage on a Master Tow Dolly with surge disc brakes Dolly bought new in 2023, $2300. Nothing else needed. Car follows path of the RV, can't back up with it just like a flat tow setup, dolly by itself weights 500# and is easy to hook and unhook to move around, and is probably as easy and fast to hookup, load car, etc tie down tire straps, than hooking up a flat tow car. And, better braking on the dolly with the surge disc brakes than expensive $$$$ braking adapters used when flat towing.

LMBO I have no idea where folks get quotes for setting up 4 wheel flat towing. 10K plus?

I just got a quote to do my Colorado ZR1......Baseplate, Air Force one, lighting, battery disconnect. All installed $3,295. Add a towbar $1,200 so $4,495 max.
Buying a quality, new Master Tow Dolly and accessories about $2,300 (your 2023 price)
Now lets look at ease of set up for a flat tow..............
Connect tow bar to toad, plug in connector, connect air hose, on my vehicle, switch off battery. All standing upright, rain or shine
Now lets set up a vehicle on a tow dolly................ take out and set up tow dolly ramps, make sure vehicle is centered, slowly drive your vehicle up the ramp and make sure not to drive over the stops. Get under vehicle and remove ramps, one per side, attach the ramps to the tow dolly. Now get down on the ground and tie down the vehicle, passenger side, now go around to drivers side and do the same. Then go in front, get down and connect safety chains.
I am exhausted and if its raining its worse, I am drenched and exhausted.
So a roughly $2,200 difference but now, every time you hook or unhook on your tow dolly you have to get on the ground and go through that process.
I can hook up my flat tow and get in tow mode in 3 minutes, while you are still setting up your tow dolly ramps.
The same amount of time? I will bet 100k that its not even close

When I am home I do not have to find a place to store my tow dolly.

Surge brakes are better then an AF1?

 

[Holdmybeer]

But, certainly not the cheapest. Baseplate for the toad, towbar assembly, braking system (Brake Buddy, Air Force One, etc), battery kill devices and assorted wiring, and of course labor to install everything if your not able to by yourself will cost you $5K to more like $10K, plus.

I tow my wife's Kia Sportage on a Master Tow Dolly with surge disc brakes Dolly bought new in 2023, $2300. Nothing else needed. Car follows path of the RV, can't back up with it just like a flat tow setup, dolly by itself weights 500# and is easy to hook and unhook to move around, and is probably as easy and fast to hookup, load car, etc tie down tire straps, than hooking up a flat tow car. And, better braking on the dolly with the surge disc brakes than expensive $$$$ braking adapters used when flat towing.

I tow with a dolly, but it's not even close to being as easy or as fast to set-up as flat towing. That's magical thinking. I'm just not a fan of monkeying around with flat tow braking and battery issues. I have the Blue Ox flat tow equipment, but the pita factor hasn't incentivized me to the point of adding base plates and buying a brake buddy, yet.

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

We pulled a trailer for years, recently transitioned to flat tow. Here are my observations:

Flat Tow:
- much faster to setup and disconnect
- depending on locale finding or getting reputable help to install flat tow can be challenging. I ended up having to do it myself, base plate, wiring, braking system (both flat tow and coach sides). Major pain, if I knew this up front, probably would have stuck with trailer.
- still working to get fully comfortable with flat towing and stop worrying about damage to car. Have friends who hit a pothole they couldn’t avoid and did $6k in damage to their jeep suspension, tire and wheel.
- nothing extra to take up significant space at campground or home
- nothing extra to register with state and pay annual tags/fees
- less towing weight behind coach, but for our coach with 30,000# towing capacity this isn’t a factor and the only way I know we are pulling the car is to look at the rear camera monitor.
- VERY limited in vehicle choice. We have driven a few different jeeps and we do not like any jeep.

Trailer:
- takes much longer to load/unload. After practice got time needed to load car down to 30 minutes
- initial setup required purchase of trailer, tie down equipment. More than flat towing but much less time and aggravation. Towing trailers is something I grew up doing on a farm, no learning curve for me.
- towing a trailer, we can back up, unlike flat towing. Towing a trailer allowed us to take a vehicle that we like and want to drive. Towing a trailer we can change cars without any additional costs to our RV setup (no baseplate, braking or wiring setup for each car)
- towing a trailer, the car was protected since the car is off the road and our trailer had front end guard shielding car from any debris.
- towing a trailer requires more towing weight capacity, we planned for that when we bought the coach. Even when we had 10,000# behind us we could barely tell it was there.
- trailer requires tags and title, fees
- biggest pain to a trailer was storage at the campgrounds, required more planning to find places that could accommodate us

We like the simplicity of flat towing and easier planning, but miss the flexibility of having a car that we like.

We keep talking about going back to a trailer but for now we are sticking with flat towing since we spent the money to setup a car.

Highly personal decision IMO.

 

[John&Andrea]

We towed with a dolly a couple of years. If we didn’t have a pull through site, the dolly was a pain to keep up with. If you had a slight grade on the site you were not backing it up, even empty. We had a surge break. So I set the Ranger to tow. With some help from my Grandsons we set it up. To me, much easier to hook up. Dolly is the lowest cost.