Towing

[Robbbyr]

Not to "muddy the waters" any more, but what are the group's thoughts on stopping your towed setup when needed? A trailer and dolly add more weight to what has to make it down the road, and ultimately what you have to stop. Granted, many vehicles cannot be flat towed from the factory, but quite a few of them can be towed with modifications such as a transmission lube pump. Many campers have that setup and are completely happy. 4-down is obviously the "lightest" way to have a toad.

Back to stopping, anyone towing a car needs to make sure you have adequate brakes on the towed setup, be it 4-down, a dolly, or a trailer. It is usually the law and it is certainly a question of safety. I tow 4-down and have an Even Brake setup. I have found through years of travelling like this that my stopping distance is not much different (if at all) from when I am not towing. 4 more tires grabbing the road when I need them to is great! I have looked at dollys and seen no brakes, electric brakes, and surge brakes. But only (if present) on two wheels obviously. I have seen many car haulers with tandem axles with brakes on only one axle. Add the weight of the trailer (or dolly) to the car being hauled, stopped by one axle's worth of brakes, and I bet I could stop in a shorter distance every time.

It is likely that many campers have no other choice than to do something other than tow 4-down. But please do your homework and make sure you can stop your setup as well as you can make it go. All "go" and no "whoa" is a recipe for disaster.

[mike837go]

Originally Posted by Robbbyr

... snip...
It is likely that many campers have no other choice than to do something other than tow 4-down. But please do your homework and make sure you can stop your setup as well as you can make it go. All "go" and no "whoa" is a recipe for disaster.

The toad's brakes are activated by the tow vehicle very similar to a trailer.

Each part has all the whoa it needs to make straight, controlled stops in any situation.

And, since a 4-down has access to the OEM ABS, panic stops are straight and controlled too!

[cdrcos@gmail.com]

I use an older Brake Buddy I found on Ebay for less than $200 - works fine.

[Timon]

Although you can add a lube pump in doing so it's almost 100% certain that if you do have a transmission problem your warranty won't cover it. That's way too much risk for me.

As for the additional weight a of the two dolly it's should be accounted for in the tow dolly design but you do have to account for in. If you're using a EZ Tow it's less than 400 pounds.

Generally I think you'll find that the weight of the toad won't effect a large MH that much, unless you're pushing the limits, even if the dolly brakes failed but with the dolly brakes working it should handle the toad fine.