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Deciding to tow a car behind your motorhome is a big—and confusing—decision.
If we do tow, should we get a tow dolly or tow four wheels down? If we tow four wheels down, what kind of tow package should we get? What’s the least expensive? What’s the safest? Should I tow a car behind my RV at all?
After two years of trying to figure it all out, we found the best setup for our ideal form of travel: towing our Honda CR-V (automatic transmission) behind our Winnebago “flat” or “four-on-the-floor.” (Here are 31 RVing terms you should know if you’re going to be an RVer!)
Here is a scenic view of our ideal setup:
Before you make a decision on whether you should or shouldn’t tow, I wanted to share a few of our towing experiences.
Driving Without a Tow Vehicle or “Toad”
Our first year RVing, we drove our 1994 Class C motorhome to 48 states without a tow vehicle. This meant Heath drove our rig through cities like Austin, Los Angeles, New York City, Cleveland, San Francisco, and many others.
What We Liked About NOT Having a Tow Car:
- We saved a couple of thousand dollars by not having to buy a tow package or tow dolly.
- Driving without a tow car was one less stress factor as a new RVer.
- We saved a few minutes of time when leaving campgrounds and arriving by not having to hook up a tow car.
- Better gas mileage.
- Able to visit more places. For example, if we towed a car, we wouldn’t have been able to take the Pacific Coast Highway all the way from LA to Portland because of the 30-foot limit.
The Downside of Not Towing a Car:
- If we wanted to visit major cities, we had to drive our RV into downtown areas (like the photo above in downtown Seattle).
- Trying to find a 29 foot parking spot was always stressful.
- Our RV was our only vehicle for errands. If we wanted to make a quick run to the grocery store, we had to pack everything up and move.
Conclusion: Driving a 29-foot RV through big cities is not fun.
Overall, the experience of driving our RV without a tow car was incredibly inconvenient. While it gave us one less thing to do when packing up our RV to leave a campsite, it also caused a lot of stress and limitations when we wanted to do simple things like run to the grocery store because we ran out of milk.
Plus, if there were vehicle limitations for roads, we had to avoid those areas altogether. For example, during our first trip to Glacier National Park we missed driving the famed Going to the Sun Road because there is a 24-foot limit. And in Big Bend, we couldn’t camp at most of the campgrounds because of another 24-foot limit.
Driving Our RV With a Tow Dolly
A tow dolly is a trailer that allows you to tow with your front two wheels or all four wheels on top of a trailer. We used a tow dolly for only one day before we abandoned it in west Texas (long story), but we tried again a year later with slightly better luck.
What We Liked About the Tow Dolly:
- We finally had a vehicle to explore local areas, without having to bring the RV along.
- The tow dolly was free, since we were borrowing it from a family member. Tow dollies are quite expensive if you buy one new (and likely more expensive than a tow kit).
What We Didn’t Like About the Tow Dolly:
- The straps on the tow dolly were a point of constant stress. They had to constantly be adjusted and would come loose during travel.
- It took a lot of time to hook up the car to the dolly.
- Driving the car onto the tow dolly trailer was a little unnerving. I never drove it off the front, but it’s something we’ve seen many people accidentally do while using a tow dolly and it always terrified me.
- I was constantly worried about the car falling off the tow dolly.
- It was difficult to find a place to store the dolly if we stayed at a campground for more than a week.
Conclusion: Great having an extra vehicle, but more stress than it was worth.
Overall, the largest benefit of having the tow dolly was having access to our car. However, the stress caused by the difficulty of hooking up and unhooking the car from the dolly was not worth it. If it hadn’t been completely free to use, I wouldn’t personally recommend one if your car can be towed flat. For many cars that cannot be towed with all of the wheels down, this might be the only option. How do you know if your car can be towed flat? Check your car’s manual and find the towing section. You will find detailed instructions for your options there.
Towing Flat Behind Our Brave
I recently installed a Blue Ox Base Plate and Blue Ox Tow Bar so that we could tow our 2002 Honda CR-V behind our Brave. Instead of dealing with the stress of driving our RV through big cities or worry about messing around with a tow dolly, we have the comfort of towing our CR-V with four wheels down.
The past month and a half we’ve covered several thousand miles with our new towing setup. I wish we would have done this from the very beginning. I was worried about the cost and difficulty of hooking up and unhooking the car from the RV. However, it takes just a few minutes to hook up our Honda CR-V behind our Brave.
To see how to connect a tow car to your RV, you can watch this video from GoneWithTheWynns.
What We Like About Flat Towing
- It just takes a minute to hook up the car for towing (plus a couple of minutes of letting the engine run)
- I have a much better turn radius while flat towing versus the dolly.
- I’m not worried about our car falling off the tow dolly and smashing into someone.
- It’s less stressful knowing we have a Brake Buddy auxiliary braking system that will pump the brakes when we drive downhill and stop the car should it, for whatever reason, detach from the tow bar.
Conclusion: Towing flat behind the RV is our clear winner
Towing our Honda CR-V with four wheels down has turned out to be the best set up. It takes just a few minutes before each drive to set everything up.
The manual in our CR-V gives us a simple set of directions and rules for towing which makes the process easy. (We aren’t allowed to drive over 65 mph and before towing, we have to run the gears through a special sequence to lube the transmission. If we drive for more than eight hours in one day—which we rarely do—then we need to work through the sequence again.)
How We Picked a Tow Package
There are two main companies that manufacture tow bars: Blue Ox and Roadmaster. After looking through multiple online forums that compared both companies, they both seemed like fairly even products. Some people preferred Blue Ox, some people preferred Roadmaster. There weren’t a lot of differentiating factors with either tow bar.
We went with Blue OX because we were on a time crunch and we found a local dealer who could get us all the parts in time.
Note: Neither company sells direct. You’ll have to find a local dealer on their website or on Amazon. We chose Amazon because it was cheaper and we’re all about Prime two-day shipping.
What We Had to Buy for Flat Towing
There were several different components we had to buy before setting up our Honda CR-V for flat towing.
Here’s the list of big items we had to purchase:
This towbar is rated to tow up to 6,500 lbs and inserts into the trailer hitch on our RV. At the time of writing this bar is on Amazon for $543.00, which is $150 less than local dealer prices.
Note: base plates must be ordered specific to your vehicle’s model and year. If you buy on Amazon, they have great filters for this.
We had to find a base plate that specifically fit the specs of our 2002 Honda CR-V. I couldn’t find a seller on Amazon, so I ordered through a local dealer for this part and paid around $320.
Most dealerships charge several hundred dollars for this kind of installation, but luckily I had a friend who was willing to help guide me through the process. We spent three days drilling holes in the frame of our CR-V, removing our front bumper, watching Youtube videos for guidance and attaching the base plate.
Blue OX also sent step by step directions for installing this base plate onto the front of our CR-V which proved incredibly helpful. If you have a few days and don’t mind a bit of manual labor, I recommend doing the install on your own.
Here is a helpful video demonstration from etrailer.com that shows you how to install a baseplate on a Honda CR-V.
I’m sure any light kit would work. Just to make it easy, I ordered the Blue OX light kit to make sure that everything would work properly and it was around $45. I followed this Youtube video for help on the light installation.
An auxiliary braking system is designed to brake your vehicle for you as you tow it. Many states have towing laws that regulate whether or not you need some type of auxiliary braking system. You can find a complete state-by-state list of those regulations here. If you plan on traveling to Canada, it is required by law, hence why we bought one.
Brake Buddy, the most popular auxiliary braking system will run you around $1,000. It is extremely pricey BUT definitely makes us feel more at peace and safer knowing that if something goes wrong, the Brake Buddy will take control of the car.
How will you tow?
Ultimately, the decision to tow is up to each RVer. How fast will you be traveling? Are you going to more cities? How long is your RV? There is no one size fits all solution. (If you haven’t picked which RV is right for you yet, check out this blog where we break down the pros and cons to each.)
If you have any questions about towing, drop them into the comments and I’ll be as helpful as possible!
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[…] [Check out our post on our many different towing experiences here.] […]
Hello Heath & Alyssa, my name is Ray. My wife and I are planning to become full timers within the next 5-7 years when I retire. Starting to do my research now. Thanks for the informative article, it was very helpful. As a side note, I just saw the episode of Going RV in which you guys appeared. Safe travels, Ray 😀
Haha, thanks Ray! Best of luck as you start planning your adventure!!
We are only traveling for the year and I was going to tow (the RV came with the tow bar) However the RV did not come with the brake system and tow brackets for the car….this is a tough decision 🙁
Not sure what a tow bracket is? But in America you aren’t required to have an auxiliary braking system. You would still need to install a base plate on your car to tow it regardless.
I just completed setting up a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon for getting my adult, handicapped daughter around with us when we go.
I went with the Blue Ox setup and did all the work myself. No too bad. Although, I returned two base plates before I was told by Blue Ox that a wing bowing inwards happens often as a result of the welding process. It just takes a little “coaxing” to get it into position.
I bought everything from rvupgrades. Great company with speedy shipping and a wonderful return process.
I also went with RVi 3 supplemental braking system. Their HQ is just up the road from me in Castle Rock, CO, so it was a no-brainer to get it directly with no dealer markup. The founder was the inventor of the Battery Buddy and (I believe) the Brake Buddy.
As for the most critical component of the project, here is something your wheelchair using fans might want to look at. It’s called a Millford Person Lift and allows an easy transfer of a person from a wheelchair to a seat in the vehicle. I can post photos of my own install, if you would like to see it, but a reader can go to YouTube and see the lift in action in a couple of different models of vehicle. Visit www://www.pridemobility.com
A steel post is mounted permanently by bolts to the floor inside the door right up close to the dashboard. It is braced in two directions by steel rods bolted to the forward part of the floor pan. It and its accompanying electrical connection plug are the only things that stay in the passenger compartment. The articulating motorized element for lift and lower comes as a removable arm with pivoting attachments. All of that can be stowed in the trunk.
I had the permanent part of the installation done by a licensed dealer in handicapped accessible vehicles. It took a day after they got all the parts.
So, the work is completed and we are intending to check it all out next week. See you out there.
I have a Honda del Sol, very small compact car, 5 speed manual transmission. Is this something that I could flat tow? Also I don’t have an RV yet and want a small one (it is just me that will be traveling as a single woman). I am not sure how powerful of an RV I would need to tow a small car.
You’ll have to check your manual! For many cars, every year is different. Manual cars are easier to tow in general though.
Hello Heath and Alyssa!
Thanks for your informative post.
I’m currently shopping for a Honda CR-V and found an ’05 that looks good, but had been configured for flat-towing behind an RV. My mechanic was wary of this, saying it might have damaged the transmission.
How is your ’02 CR-V holding up with the towing? Have you had any transmission issues?
Thanks!
Hey Jordan! LOVE towing our Honda CR-V. It’s had 0 issues, knock on wood! It’s probably the most commonly towed car, after Jeeps. I would definitely recommend!
This is informative indeed and it was very helpful. I just saw the episode of Going RV in which you guys appeared. for more information you can check this website
http://towingqueens.com
Thanks Noel!
[…] Towing—does the towing capacity of the motorhome able to tow your family car? Is this trailer too heavy to be towed by your truck? […]