Tow or Rent

[EA37TS]

3 breakdowns on one trip and without the TOAD we would have been screwed four ways to Sunday.

[VKC]

Thanks for the input. I just traveled around Florida and noticed their lots are full for new on used dealerships. Our dealerships in Louisiana don’t have near the cars on them.

[rodpod]

Originally Posted by VKC

I know it’s a personal decision but what are the advantages and disadvantages to pulling a toad or renting a car everywhere you go?

On most of our previous long trips we rented when we got to large metro areas and kept the car (wife hated following) for the entire trip. It was costly and a hassle to return the car to the same location. This made routing the trip problematic. I purchase a car tow dolly with surge brakes for our last long trip, I was nervous about towing our car with it. It turned out to be the best thing we did. So much more flexibility and i didn't need to rig our car to tow four down, and it's more costly than a tow dolly. The dolly performed well with no major issues. The upside is I'll amortize the cost of the dolly in rental car savings in a few trips.

[Travel]

Camper _Bob,
I actually have a ten page list that has saved my butt several times. I would have forgotten some important items had I not gone back and reread my list.

Rod pod,
We were debating the rental car versus towing also. We discussed it several times and finally decided to go the toad route. We looked at buying something to tow and decided we would use my wife’s daily driver. We’ll, we found out her car can’t be flat towed so we bought a tow dolly. Has worked out great except when I tried to back her car off the dolly without her help watching. Not to bad. I did $1000 in damages to the front bumper and fender. Glad we had insurance. From now on she backs it off and I do the watching!

[rodpod]

Originally Posted by Travel

Camper _Bob,
I actually have a ten page list that has saved my butt several times. I would have forgotten some important items had I not gone back and reread my list.

Rod pod,
We were debating the rental car versus towing also. We discussed it several times and finally decided to go the toad route. We looked at buying something to tow and decided we would use my wife’s daily driver. We’ll, we found out her car can’t be flat towed so we bought a tow dolly. Has worked out great except when I tried to back her car off the dolly without her help watching. Not to bad. I did $1000 in damages to the front bumper and fender. Glad we had insurance. From now on she backs it off and I do the watching!

Sorry to hear about your mishap. We always have 2 of us watching and helping for loading and unloading. As far as backing up and long steep downhill runs, use your (surge only) brake lock out to keep from damaging your brakes. While it can be a bit nerve wracking going down a steep grade just have the tow haul feature engaged. I'll probably get some push back from member on here about that practice. I have gone down some pretty steep winding grades in the mountains using the tow haul with the surge brakes disengaged, It's a better option than melted brakes. Just go slow and careful and don't worry about that line of cars stacking up behind you.

[dolly17]

Enterprise...take you to your campsite and pick you up, as long as it's not to far.

[Kim Gass]

Originally Posted by dolly17

Enterprise...take you to your campsite and pick you up, as long as it's not to far.

lots of Enterprise franchises have folded or have very few cars. We could not rent one at all. And the nearest agency was 140 miles away. You can consider it but check first that it would work for you.