RayChez wrote:

... I left the toad in Park. I dragged it for about 100 feet. Most of the sliding was on dirt, but as soon as it hit asphalt road I felt a strain on the engine. I stopped right away only to find my toad in Park...

HSIKES wrote:

I would like to lock my tow, but it won't with the key in the ignition switch. Any suggestions?

Matt & Carol wrote:

Been there done that many years ago.
Front tires were shredded and in the process of shredding they demolished the front fenders, ripped out the main wiring harness, damaged the hood and rocker panels.
Back then we had no rear view camera so we had no idea that we had been riding on the rims for miles and just figured that all the folks waving at us as they passed us were just real friendly.

holstein13 wrote:

I asked my cousin if he removed the keys. He gleefully announced yes. He went to put something in the car that morning and noticed that the doors were unlocked and the keys were in the ignition. So he removed the keys and locked the doors to make sure no one would steal the car.

wallynm wrote:

We lock the pins in the tow bar also. We do this because we have read reports that some times the pins are partially removed when you stop to have a meal. But then we always do a walk around every time before we restart.

roadhousecharley wrote:

All these comments apply only to flat towing, right? I use a dolly on my front wheel drive car and always leave it in "park" with the steering wheel locked. No problems in about 10,000 miles of towing.

aksnowman wrote:

I did the tow with the toad running but it was intentional. Christmas 2008 we drove out of AK. While stopping for the first night I went to run the toad and the battery was dead. After a quick jup I left it runnng to recharge the battery. Next day had the same problem with the Toad discovered while at a rest stop. So I decided to just leave it running while we were moving down the road. Best mileage ever, Tok to Vancouver BC on about a 1/4 tank

ShapeShifter wrote:


I've read reports as well about pins being loose, and the reports always seem to center around mischievous vandals while at rest stops. While I don't doubt that it happens, I'll bet most of these cases are situations where the pin was never properly secured in the first place, or worked its way out on its own.

Based on those reports, I also kept my pins locked. Then when arriving home I found one of the locks open and hanging by a thread -- waiting for that one last good bump to fall out completely. When we left the campground, I checked that everything was secure. On the three hour drive home the only time we stopped was at a couple of red lights and at the border crossing, and nobody approached the rig at those momentary stops.

So I just can't believe that there were some mischievous vandals who snuck up to the rig at a red light and picked the lock (there was no sign for forcing the lock.) Instead, it's much more believable that the lock was never really properly closed in the first place, and bouncing around caused it to open and work its way out of the hitch pin.

When people find a loose hitch pin after a rest stop, I'll bet that most of the time it was loose when they pulled in for the stop, but they didn't do the walk-around and notice the problem until leaving. Of course, there have been reports where the person was seen tampering with the rig, but I'll bet natural causes are much more common.

At this point, I just use the regular hitch pins. One day after disconnecting, I stupidly left one of the locks sitting on the toad's bumper when I drove off. I never did find that lock, and I haven't bothered replacing it. Fortunately, I still had the non-locking hitch pins with me so I wasn't stuck.


Correct. I assume you have your driving/steering wheels on the dolly, as is most common. In that case you put the transmission in park, and lock the steering and car. The free-wheeling dolly wheels will allow the car to roll even in park, and many dollys have a swivel plate or steerable wheels that allows the car to track properly on curves.

But when flat towing, all wheels must roll freely, so the transmission needs to be in neutral, or the transfer case is in neutral, or the drive shaft is disconnected. Also, the steer wheels must point straight ahead while driving down the road, and should be able to self-steer when going around corners. So the steering wheel needs to be unlocked as well.

I'm lucky in that I don't have a steering wheel lock on my toad, so I won't have the OP's situation happen to me. And I can put my transfer case in neutral, so I leave the transmission locked in neutral. And while I do have a factory alarm if the doors are opened, it doesn't have a motion sensor, so I can leave the toad locked up tight with no key needed for towing.

But I did try to pull away once while the transfer case wasn't in neutral -- but I noticed that right away and didn't drag the toad more than an inch or two.