Planning to tow a car dolly with a 4 cyl reg cab

Gonna be buying a project car that will need to be towed. It's about 400-500 miles away, and the most sensible and economical option is a dolly. The car is about 2300 to maybe 2400 pounds, and I figure the dolly is about 300 pounds. Well under the 3500 pound limit. In theory I should be able to make it home fine as long as I take it slow on the highway and give myself plenty of time to stop.

Anyone see anything wrong with my reasoning?

Unfortunately this will be my first time actually towing something.

 

It would be better if you had a bit of practice in towing before pulling something that far. It also would be a good idea to use a dolly with brakes. In fact, depending on where you are towing, brakes could be required by law.

I've moved tractors and pickup trucks on flatbeds with mine, as well as loads of landscaping materials as big as 9000 pounds. 4-cyl MT access cab.
But I've a lot of experience towing things.

I'd say that at... about 2700 pounds, you will be fine. No sweat.

 

I pulled a buddies 69 Camaro with a four banger

 

biggest thing is just give yourself extra room on both ends (speeding up and slowing down) and just cruise it, dont try to go fast and you will be fine.

 

what kind of car? that's not much weight! breaking would be the biggest issue IMO, but you'll be fine.

 

Assuming the seller responds, it would be an Rx7. I've been having trouble getting in touch with him, so dunno if I'm gonna make the trip or not.

 

I'm going to guess that the car dolly weighs slot more than 300 #'s.

Here is Uhaul's rentals.
https://www.uhaul.com/Trailers/Tow-Dolly-Rental/TD/
Says it weighs 750#'s.

I have heard of them being EXTREMLY picky on who they rent the dolly to. They don't want to be liable if you get in a accident.

 

What the heck is their tow dolly made out of? Solid lead?
Most on ebay claim around mid 400's.

Either way, though, still under the limit.

 

a 12' Flatbed with ramps would do you allot better.
The tires on the Rx should be examined very carefully, How long has it been sitting?
you will likely need some 2x8's for ramps to load and unload, or plan to remove the front bumper.
If it has one?
dolly are not ideal but they do work. do not plan on backing up anywhere!
park accordingly. smarter to drive over a curb than to back-up

 

A flatbed would bring him to over 4000 pounds.
I do NOT agree that this would be a better option than a dolly.
While it may be true that a flatbed will be more reversible than a dolly, the reality is that in long distance hauling, there isn't much need for backing up.

And dolly's CAN be backed up, you just can't TURN while backing up. It has to move STRAIGHT back. So if it is necessary, just do so very slowly and carefully.

 

Dolly is probably best option.

Have anything you can practice on first? That sure is a long haul for a first time tower

 

I would just rent a 150. A few hundred bucks is negligible to the over all pain in the ass it would be to tow with a 4cyl.

 

That's absolutely absurd.

 

If manual transmission, don't use fifth at all. Allow a LOT of room/time for braking. Generally, play it cool and ultra conservative and you'll be fine.

I would say that U-Haul may not want to rent a dolly to you for that truck. I got the hairy eyeball when I rented a flatbed car hauler for my 1900 lb Miata behind an FJ Cruiser. I was just going about 5 miles in town so they were cool.

 

Two things to point out...
1) Yeah, go ahead and use 5th, unless you want to make for heavy fuel consumption. No reason not to. With nothing but an aerodynamic little car back there, it will have an easy time.
2) OP didn't say anything about uhaul, or even rental. That was somebody else, and I think they were just using uhaul to try to guess at the weight of a dolly.

 

Relatively flat the whole way? I say go for it. If you got a bunch of hills then ol' girl is gonna be screaming trying to get up em.

 

No it won't.

 

Uhaul doesn't give a shit.

Have experienced.

 

I think our definitions of hills could be different. A 4 banger pulling 3k lbs up a bunch of decent grades isn't just gonna chug along at a lower RPM and pull up those hills easily. I'm not saying it's gonna hurt the truck...but she isn't gonna be quiet about it.

 

Having experience pulling much greater weights with the same engine up plenty of nice steep grades, it'll do just fine without "screaming". Might be you'll have to downshift, but it isn't like you'll be in second.