Toad vehicle recommendations Please...

[Kirk]

there are also a number of vehicles people have successfully flat towed for many thousands of miles that are not on the list as they are not "officially" flat towable.

Very true but there will be no manufacturers warranty for any problems that do arise.

 

[Isaac-1]

There is no manufacturers warranty on my 2007 Toyota anyway

 

[Gizmo]

These guides are a good starting point, however be aware they only show vehicles where the manufacturer endorses flat towing, there are also a number of vehicles people have successfully flat towed for many thousands of miles that are not on the list as they are not "officially" flat towabl

Sounds risky.

 

[John From Detroit]

The Jeep crowd is nothing but furiously loyal to their brand, but a Wrangler isn't for everybody. And you cannot assume that the Jeep logo on the front means a vehicle is flat-towable. That was true years ago, but not any longer.

That is why I specifically said MY jeep is not towable

how about a good old classic VW bug (Alas they don't make 'em any more but I'd sure have liked to tow one)

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Newly retired... got our first motorhome... love it! Now we want see the USA... but we want to tow a car and everyone tells me the Jeep wrangler is the ticket!
But what if we don't want a 4WD high clearance vehicle?
I'm aware not all cars can be towed 4 down. Looking for ideas

Dolly towing is an alternative that greatly widens the selection. Most every front-wheel-drive sedan or crossover SUV can be dolly towed. Not as convenient as flat towing, but also not as expensive.

 

[jymbee]

Sounds risky.

Being towable 4 down is likely very low on the list of "features" any manufacturer puts much effort into given that's a relatively low target market. I expect they only provide specific information re. towing procedures to account for circumstances when a car must be towed-- with a tow truck for example.

Honda for example states very clearly that their Odyssey can absolutely not be towed. But the more I looked into this I started seeing some contrary opinions. The final deciding factor for us was speaking to more than one owner who had successfully towed theirs for thousands of miles.

It's important to go through the steps to prepare for towing and to be cognizant of what you need to do, but 20,000+miles later we've had no problem at all.

 

[Adventurous Traveler]

To spend big $$$ on the setup to flat tow a vehicle that is suspect in its ability to be flat towed could be a disaster. Imagine being hundreds of miles from home only to have the toad lock up while tooling down the highway.

It's a shame Remco transmission lube pumps are no longer available. I used to read on various forums about several RV'ers using them with good success. Plus, they had a great towable vehicle guide, vehicles that needed the pumps, and those that were good to go from the Mfg.

 

[Kirk]

Imagine being hundreds of miles from home only to have the toad lock up while tooling down the highway.

Long before we moved up to a motorhome, my friend got a call from his parents that they were stuck out in a very rural area with the car that they had towed for many trips in a condition that the could not move it. Seems that something in the drive system failed and locked the drive wheels to where they would not turn at all. That memory caused me to be very careful about what I did when we began to tow 4-down.

It's a shame Remco transmission lube pumps are no longer available.

I do agree with that view as they also made driveline disconnects and a device to make front wheel driven cars freewheel. At the time that they closed that division they explained that the return on investment had become too small to justify continuing the products. In an article in RV Business, I read that Remco tried to find someone to buy their product line with all patents and that they got no offers. The demand for the products just was not large enough to remain profitable.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

There are many things that work fine as long as conditions are favorable, and 4-down vehicle towing is a good example. The risk to the vehicle is excessive heat and little or no lubrication of the moving parts. If not towed too far, or too many hours, or in too hot conditions, or at too high a speed or ...[you get the idea, right?], there probably won't be any disastrous results. Maybe some extra wear & tear, but not enough to become an issue. But the engineers have no idea what you will do when towing your car and have to assume that at least a few owners will exceed what the vehicle can survive.

 

[Isaac-1]

To spend big $$$ on the setup to flat tow a vehicle that is suspect in its ability to be flat towed could be a disaster. Imagine being hundreds of miles from home only to have the toad lock up while tooling down the highway...

This can happen with any vehicle regardless if it is being flat towed, however the risk is fairly low when towing cars that can't "officially" be flat towed that hundreds if not thousands of people routinely tow for many thousands of miles without reports of driveline failures. Take the Mini Cooper or the Mazda Miata as examples, many people tow these cars in their manual transmission form, yet they are officially not flat towable.

 

[Adventurous Traveler]

Reminds me of a friend in the mid-80s who had a company supplied front wheel drive, Buick. He wanted to put a hitch on it to tow his 5K pound boat. GM's tow rating on the car was something like 2-3K #. A couple of weeks later Paul called and asked if I wanted to go boating on Lake Erie. I asked him if he got a new car, and he replied, Nah, I just put the class 3 hitch on the Buick because Mfgs. use lightweight ratings for liability reasons. Paul pulled up with his car/boat set up sagging in the back end like he had a load of bricks in the trunk.