tow bars etc

hummingbird · June 21, 2016

Hi Folks

We are in the process of buying a 2005 Minnie Winnie and are excited to get on the road. total newbies.

I am trying to determine whether we need to tow a small car or not. We will be doing a west to east coast trip and back.

Questions for those who have had experience with an RV this size:

How feasible is it for us to do a trip like this using our RV only?

If we were to tow a vehicle are there recommendations to which system is the best to have installed on the toad?

And should that system be installed by a professional or can one DYI?

Happy Trails,

Hummingbird

LindaH · June 21, 2016

Our Class C is only 29' in length, but we quickly found out we needed a car! However, there are people who fulltime in a motorhome without a car, so it really boils down to personal preference.

Why not try it for awhile without a car and see how you get along? You can always get one later, if you decide you have to have one.

The most complicated part of any towing setup is probably installing the base plate on the car. So whether or not this is a DYI, depends on your level of expertise is doing this type of work. There are people who do their own installations, but not us...we paid someone else to do the work!

AFchap · June 21, 2016

Great deal of personal preference involved here. Some don't tow a car at all. They use the RV for sight-seeing, and/or they rent a car when they want to do side trips.

As already stated, you could DIY the installation of a tow bar base plate IF you are handy and have a place to work. I had my first one done, and I did the second myself. The industry leaders in tow setups are Blue Ox, Roadmaster, & Demco. They all have similar systems including towbar, base plate, lights, and brake systems. And of course you have to be sure that the car you wish to tow can be towed 4-down. The website www.remcotowing.com is a good place to research that along with what might be required for a specific car.

If you are planning just the one trip to the other coast and back I would look closely at using a dolly rather than going to the trouble of having a car set up with the base plate, towing lights, auxiliary brake, etc. Most front wheel drive cars can be towed on a dolly with no alterations.

Another factor to research is the towing capacity of the RV you plan to use. If towing a dolly, that also adds to the towed weight.

sandsys · June 21, 2016

We owned a 24' motorhome then a 35' motorhome. With the 24' we did not tow a car because we could back it into one parking space if the rear could hang over a curb plus we drove most days so stopping for groceries or to do laundry along the way was not an issue. With the 35' we towed a car because there were so many sites we wanted to see where we could not park the longer rig plus we stayed still more often so we needed the car to run errands. I looked at pictures of the rear overhang on a 31' 2005 Minnie Winnie and it looked VERY long. I would not want to have to park that at grocery stores nor laundromats. That's MY thoughts and experiences.

As to towing equipment we paid a dealer to install our base plate. That's not something we felt qualified to do. And since our 35' rig had an air system we also paid to have an SMI Air Force One braking system installed. We loved how easy those were to hitch and unhitch our car. Be sure your tow bar is an all-terrain one--you don't want to HAVE to be straight and level to hitch.

Linda Sand

Kirk W · June 21, 2016

Welcome to the Escapee forums! Please become an active participant in our discussions and share as well as asking questions.

Like several here, I have done it both ways. We started our motorhome experience with a 25' class A that was capable of being parked in larger parking sites, but was a problem where there are parking meters We began by taking bicycles with us and we thought it was just great, until the first time that we did tow a vehicle with us. The ability to leave the RV connected in an RV park or campground very quickly caused us to tow on nearly all trips. If you tow on the wheels, it is so easy to hookup and unhook that we soon thought nothing of stopping in a parking lot to drop the car and explore a town, then hookup an travel on down the road.

With a trip of the length you are planning I'd assume that it will also be long in number of days/weeks on the road and that you want to see as much as possible. While most of the major attractions do have space for at least some RVs, there will be many things that you can't park any but the smallest of them and so you tend to miss some things. While many do travel in smaller motorhomes and not tow, very rarely does anyone start to tow and then go back to travel without a tow vehicle.

With your Minnie, you do need to be careful of the amount of weight that can be safely towed. All motorized RVs have a maximum towing weight and also a maximum combined weight (total of car and RV together) that are for safety reasons and you need to know what they are and observe them.