Car trailer or car dolly?

[pflaming]

Just hauled home a car on a trailer. I see a lot of dollies behind motor homes. When does one use a trailer and when a Dollie?

 

[hendo0601]

My opinion (and it aint worth much, I know) is to never use a tow dolly. I had a horrible experience with one when a 1957 DeSoto 4 door hardtop came off of a tow dolly in the middle of downtown...since then I have refused to use one. BUT to answer your question...I would use a tow dolly when towing a front wheel drive vehicle and a trailer to tow an AWD or rear wheel drive vehicle. Rear drive vehicles need to have the driveshaft removed for towing on a dolly or you risk transmission damage.  A full sized car trailer is a much safer and more secure method to transport a vehicle.

[Don Coatney]

When does one use a trailer and when a Dollie?

Personally I would use a trailer for any vehicle that has less than 4 wheels and tires. Plus a hay wagon is easier to back up than a dolly.

[Young Ed]

I've hauled both my truck and p15 on a dolly. Trailer is probably better but we only own a dolly so its what gets used.

[Plymouthy Adams]

PP..is this leading up the ultimate fact that you going to have a trailer queen on your hands...

[pflaming]

No Tim, I will never tow a car to a show that's just not acceptable for me. I will be taking the body of the suburban to 48dodger's for a paint job. SInce it will not have an engine or tranny in it, I'm thinking of putting new tires on the back and take it up on a dolly. Just wanted to know if that was OK and it seems it is. WIthout the engine the body will weight around 2,000#s.  I might even tow it with my truck.

[Plymouthy Adams]

dolly will work fine if you remember the main fact that the car is ON A DOLLY  recommend that you check your straps after just a short bit of hauling and at least after you have made a few sharper type turns left or right...safety chain is also a recommendation I make when towing on a dolly..

[pflaming]

Tim,  good advise a procedure I've followed for years. It's sorta like cinching up the saddle on a horse. It's best to cinch walk the horse for a short while then cinch once more. By then he's let the air out of his 'tire'. One advantage of the dolly is the weight factor. A good trailer can weigh half as much as the car.  But then the dollied car will not provide any braking so best look way down the road. 

[Desotodav]

We don't really seem to do the dolly towing method much here in Oz. I wondered how one would go dolly-towing a car/truck that had been sitting for sometime. Would a person have to consider the condition of the tires, axle and brakes before towing it by dolly method over any great distance?

[Plymouthy Adams]

condition is paramount to towing any car on a dolly or tow bar for that matter...you will want good tires, engure the rear axle is full of lube and lug nuts are not just hand tight as lots of shop rollers tend to get and forgotten about when later moved....rear lighting is a must, usually remote magnetic lamps are installed...lot of states like to see in huge letter of the rear glass......CAR IN TOW..

 

also..have jack for use on dolly/lugwrench

have dolly spare

have car in tow spare

Edited October 30, 2013 by Plymouthy Adams

[Scruffy49]

I tow a lot of stuff around with a dolly. Make sure if it has bearing buddy grease caps that you pump in enough grease that the ends are flush. You'll see what I mean...

 

Use the supplied straps. And then add a chain. Or two. Do not, under any circumstances, trust the nylon straps on their own to do the job. I'll go so far as to use the wheel straps, and a chain, and add a couple 10K pound ratchet straps from the chassis of the towed vehicle to the dolly anchor points.

 

Don't forget that dolly decks have a central pivot pin. You can NOT back them up, I have a Class A commercial drivers license and can't back a center pivot tow dolly.I can back a 53' trailer in a tight lot in the dark w/o resorting to braille... but a bumper pull tow dolly? Forget it.

 

U-haul dolly?

[casper50]

24 hours trailer rental from UHaul is $50.  Not much when considering what might go wrong with a dolly.

[BobT-47P15]

Knew a fellow once whose Ford Ranger pickup came off the dolly and ran thru someone's yard and hit their

house.  Don't know how dilligently he checked the straps, etc.

 

Back in the 1970s I used a tow bar behind a standard size four door sedan to drag old cars of the 50s home.

Even pulled one clear to Pennsylvania from Missouri with no problems.  Have never used a trailer or a dolly,

so can't give any experience.   But, my take is, I would prefer a trailer with good tiedowns.  Son in law took the

convert back to Kansas City on his trailer......no problem.   Don't know which way will bring it home when he's

done working on it............drive or use trailer.   He's been working lately on re-upholstering the interior

completely,  repairing the seats from the springs out......making new door panels and will be installing a new

top.  

 

Newly done rear seat...............

 

 

 

Here's an apparently original seat in a car that was for sale on ebay sometime back..........so mine will

look pretty close to when new.  From what I can tell, leather seats were also offered, but judging

from the pic below.many seemed to be a leather/cloth combination.  Mine was all cloth as the

original seats were still intact under some seatcovers.   

 

Edited October 30, 2013 by BobT-47P15

[JerseyHarold]

My vote is to use a trailer over a dolly or tow bar.  That way, the condition of the towed vehicle is not a factor.

 

A friend and I were tow-barring a P15 from the Jersey Shore to Western New York years ago and, for some reason, bumps in the road would cause the Plymouth to start swaying violently.  Very scary!

[Dan Hiebert]

I'd think it "depends".  The vast majority of vehicles I see getting towed behind motor homes are newer front wheel drive cars.  Easy on, easy off, ready for use with minimum fuss.  We've got a flatbed trailer for hauling the older cars.  Renting a dolly from U-Haul to take the Falcon to New Mexico, cost being the primary consideration for this trip.  A U-Haul trailer was a little over $700, dolly is just shy of $400.  Using a vehicle with a V6 to tow it, so the lighter the better, and we didn't want to use our trailer since we'd still have to tow it back.  Everything's solid on the Falcon, I don't mind crawling under it to detach the driveshaft, and we won't be in such a rush that it won't get checked several times a day.  If I had my druthers and wasn't worried about the fuel budget, we'd put it on a trailer, but I think that's just preference.  If tow dollies were bad for cars and/or unsafe, they wouldn't make them.

[Robert Horne]

I have a 16 ft trailer with an electric winch, a tow dolly I converted from a big boat trailer,

and a heavy duty foldable tow bar. Seems everyone here has a good knowledge of how to use

them safely. Now if I can just get a tow vehicle to pull them,

instead of borrowing a truck...

[hendo0601]

These old cars do not have locking steering wheels like modern vehicles do....so make double and triple sure that you secure the steering wheel to keep the front wheels from turning. That is what caused my DeSoto to come off the dolley...I had tied the steering wheel to the seat frame with what I thought was a really good knot....it wasnt! It came untied and the front wheels turned and slipped their moorings just in time for me to look into the rear view mirror and watch a gigantic 1957 DeSoto 4 door hardtop roll backwards in the middle of a busy downtown area. Luckily I wasnt going very fast and the car managed to roll itself off the street into a parking lot and a very helpful homeless man managed to stop the car and was standing next to it holding it in place after I went around the block with my stomach in my throat. I got it back on the dolly and tied the living sh*t out of that steering wheel. That was the day I swore off of tow dollies for the rest of my life.

[JerseyHarold]

These old cars do not have locking steering wheels like modern vehicles do....

Anything I have ever read says do not use the steering column lock to secure the front wheels for towing.

[knuckleharley]

Just hauled home a car on a trailer. I see a lot of dollies behind motor homes. When does one use a trailer and when a Dollie?

My preference would always be for a trailer if possible,but I wouldn't hesitate to pull a modern car behind me on a dolly if I had to.

 

The key word here is "modern". No way would I tow something and real distance on a dolly or flat tow it that has been sitting somewhere for 30 or 40 years without being driven. Heat build up can cause ugly surprises.

[knuckleharley]

...A good trailer can weigh half as much as the car.  But then the dollied car will not provide any braking so best look way down the road. 

???? My trailer weighs right at 4,000 lbs. Granted,it is a 5 ton rated equipment trailer,but it's still only 16 feet with a beavertail.

 

I think if you are going to find one sturdy enough to haul a 4,000 lb or so car or truck that only weighs around 2,000 lbs you are going to have to go for one of those really expensive aluminum trailer.

 

My front end loader weights 9,000 lbs,so I wanted a trailer heavy enough to tow it to a dealer if I need it work on. Costs a fortune to have a commercial hauler take something like this to a dealer,and if the dealer comes here he charges me 150 bucks per hour starting at the time he leaves his shop until the time he returns. Including time on the road if he has to run back to get a part.

[Robert Horne]

Anything I have ever read says do not use the steering column lock to secure the front wheels for towing.

Some tow dollies have a big pin in the center to allow for the top half of the dolly to turn,,, locked steering,

Some tow dollies rely on the tow straps to hold the tires inline, no big pin,,, unlocked steering.

[Old Ray]

Tandem trailer………….with TILTING deck and electric winch. No ramps for a car to fall off or get hung up on, not as much rolling in the dirt for our arthritic old bodies, roll on roll off.