sbishop
Eagle Rock, CA
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Joined: 08/09/2001
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We bought our MoHo from my wife's cousin, they had great plans but he hated driving it, so we got a great deal on a well maintained rig, it came with a tow dolly that had been used to tow a Hyundai. Headed out ou n our first trip, hooked up the TD and pulled the Mazda B4000 up to the thing and it wouldn't fit. No adjustments on wheel trays so off it went and I rigged the Mazda to tow four down.
Mazda died and I bought a Suzuki Sidekick 4X4 auto trans and have a Roadmaster 5000 tow bar and loe it. Wouldn't ever try a dolly agains than five minutes on or off, we off road sometimes and toured parts of Canyonlands, carries four and luggage.
"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to go". R. L. Stevenson
David Bishop
1990 Bounder 27D
1995 Suzuki Sidekick 4X4
Stowmaster 5000
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racer99
channahon
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Joined: 02/16/2010
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AS Sbishop says the mazda didn't fit???-Spend a few more bucks and by-pass some of the not so good dollies-Buy a Demco and your problems are over-If you are able to get up & down to and from your knees-If you end up with a tow dolly (DEMCO w/brakes HOPEFULLY) PM me and I'll send you a good way to do the straps and not have to worry about them coming loose--Rich
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FUN BOX
Camarillo, California
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Joined: 07/20/2006
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My previous car (rx300) wasn't towable 4down and I wasn't about to sell it, and buy another car that would be towed only a few times a year when we went camping. Bought a Master Tow dolly with surge brakes and I was in business. Bought a new car (Acura RDX) that is front wheel drive and not towable 4down, but is also towable on the dolly. Towing 4down restricts what kind/type of vehicle you can buy and I only had to worry about a car being front wheel drive when buying.
YMMV,
John
2003 Monaco Knight 38 1/2' Triple Slide - Cummins 8.3 / Allison 6spd LIC= FUN BOX
2010 Acura RDX Turbo on a Master Tow dolly LIC= CHKYDEE
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sowego
northwest panhandle of Nebraska
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Joined: 03/14/2006
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I believe it has to be personal choice based on what you wish to tow (type of vehicle since not all can be towed 4 down) and your travel lifestyle. If you will be going to one location annually, staying long term having to move around a dolly won't be as much of an issue. However if you will be fulltiming and traveling extensively I'd think dealing with a tow dolly could become a huge pain in the neck. There are many campgrounds that simply don't have a lot of room for someone to keep a tow dolly.
We've done both, out of necessity not by choice and found we will never purposely choose to use a tow dolly. Once we settled on a toad that suited our needs no matter where we went we had a more relaxing travel experience.
2002 Tiffin Phaeton
2005 Malibu Maxx toad
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Mountain Traveler
Rocky Mountain National Park
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Joined: 01/23/2005
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Wanted to tow 4 down, but after fainting over the sticker shock of $2500-$3500, decided to go with a dolly with elec brakes. Total cost of it brand new and delivered was $1600.
Fleetwood Discovery Diesel Pusher with Jeep Unlimited Toad.
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J-Rooster
Port Orchard, Wa. / Lake Havasu City, Az.
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Joined: 11/14/2004
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Mr. Coach your logic for the use of a tow dolly makes sense to me! I tow four down (don't want to mess with a tow dolly as you stated), but if I wanted to own a tow vehicle that couldn't be towed all four down (like a Camry Hybrid) then I would go with a dolly. Happy Trails
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Pauly
North Western Oregon
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Joined: 05/09/2005
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topflite51 wrote:A dolly for the most part is more trouble to use, but it can also be more versatile. The usage of a dolly will allow you to change which vehicle you use as a toad without additional costs, no such luck with towing 4 down. I tow 4 down and I also use a dolly, it all depends on what vehicle we want to use and our destination. I like the HD dolly. Tow anything that will fit on the dolly.
Oregon Paul
'04 Georgetown 325SE/32'/ V-10
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G7ARYM
Somewhere on the road
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Joined: 03/22/2007
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Another consideration to look at if you go the dolly route is how wet, muddy or dirty you want to get. I have 25,000 miles towing a car on a dolly and in all that time I have had to use my windshield wipers only once in mid trip. Never have I had to get on the ground to hook and unhook the chains when it was raining or snowing or where it was muddy. I use a large welcome mat to crawl around on so I don’t attract dust or dirt from the ground or parking lots and it works well for me. I am able to move the Demco Kar Kaddy SS from its folded position in the garage, tow it down the slanted driveway behind a car, position it near the back of the rig and complete the hookup in 15 minutes without assistance. If all you can find is a back-in site the Kaddy is easy to move and takes up little room but I have only had to do that three times in five years. Hooking up the car with the straps and safety chains takes a couple of minutes tops and I always have a place planned within a few miles where I pull over to retighten the straps. After that I check the strap tension at each stop but rarely need to take up any slack. For me the simplicity of pulling up in an unmodified car (Mine, my son's, a friend) and taking off won the day. It works well now but ask me in 10 years when I am in my 70’s how I feel about it then. There you have it, the choice is yours.
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vcallaway
On the road.
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Joined: 09/06/2010
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I've have a dolly and yes it is versatile. I used it for years to haul a car to the autocross track. It has been used dozens of times to rescue stranded teenagers. Great item to have around.
However, I much prefer towing 4 down. Much easier to deal with and pulls MUCH better behind the MH.
We joke that we doubled the value of our pickup doing the tow setup. The old Mazda B2600i 4x4 is fairly light weight for a pickup and will go anywhere. The brackets were $350 and the towbar was an NOS craigslist find for $200. Other than the vehicle specific brackets everything else can go to another vehicle if we decide to tow something else.
We also got over 1000 miles on our last tank of gas 
1989 Honey Maxum
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ryanallie1
Magalia, Calif
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Joined: 04/12/2005
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Hi All.
For me anyways, it was a very easy choice to make. I spent an alwful lot of years as an OTR Trucker. Towing every kind of Trailers and Tanker you could ever think of. We have also been RV'ers for 45 years now. And we have towed TT's and we have towed 5'ers. So for us, towing "4 down" was the only logical choice for towing a toad, with the least amount of problems and hassels. We have never had a problem as yet, being able to keep our Toad on our sites with us. Now the same thing is true with some Brands Dollies, as they can be folded up and most of it being pushed under your RV and out of the way. Not the Brands of Dollies that don't fold up, usually have to be moved to the Over-Fill Areas. The same thing holds about true with a small trailer too. How much is the weather going to bother you ?. We want it to be as simple as possible all of the time. It only takes us about 2 min utes to diconnect our Toad, and maybe 3-4 minutes to reconnect it and we are on our way. We don't want to have to bend down on the ground for anything or lay on the ground to hook-up anything. I am familure with both Dollies and small Trailers also. We just don't think it gets any simpler with towing 4 down. But hey, each to their own ways. Good Luck. Happy Travels. Dan & Jill
1998-33.5 Rexhall, Rexair SL. 460 EFI. F-53. HWH Levelers. 5.5G Gen. Convection/Microwave. 12 Cu Ft Side by Side. Water Purifier. Water Softner. 2 A/C's. Alarm Systems. 2 Honda EU2000i W/Kit. Toad CR-V W/SMI System. FMCA #F414397 Nam-Vet, 66-67-68,& 70-71
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