Towing with a dolly?

Has anyone towed a sedan with a dolly from uHaul over a long distance? Just curious on others experience with it. I've got a 2015 4 dr Sport. Not worried about towing capacity. I have pulled trailers before. Thanks in advance!

 

I've towed the smaller Tacoma with my Tacoma (4.0L 4x4) on a dolly from U-haul. It was about a 50 mile trip with hills, traffic, etc. I had no problems at all, and that was with stock gears and 33" tires.
The only recommendation I have is to give yourself extra space when braking. The extra weight is noticeable on the brakes.

 

Depends on what you mean by sedan. Honda accord, yes. Cadillac fleetwood, no. Ford, crown vic, iffy. The big issue is that you have no extra brakes like you do with a car trailer. Another issue is that you can not back up with one of those dollies. You must plan everything so that you are always going forward. If the vehicle you are towing is disabled, don't even think about getting a rolling start and rolling it up onto the dollie. You will overshoot the dollie and slam into the back of your Taco.

 

Toyota Corolla. Less than half the max tow weight rating. My wife and I are moving across country again and do not want to ship the car.

 

For your own safety and security, spend a little more money at U-Haul and get the tandem axle car hauler trailer that gets the whole vehicle up off the ground. The big advantage? No wear and tear on the car you're towing and you have trailer brakes to stop the whole show. I rented one to pick up my 2006 Scion xB and haul it about 300 miles. Yes, I could have gotten the dolly style, but I was so glad to have brakes going through the hills of Pennsylvania!

BTW, whatever way you choose to go, you're gas mileage is going to suck.

 

and dont cut sharp corners. Dont ask how I know about that one.

 

I tried to rent a dolly from u-haul and they told me the wouldn't do it for my truck with v6 and tow package.... How are you guys getting full sized trailers?

 

I am interested in this story now.

 

I had now issue getting a 6X12 trailer from u-hual last time I moved across country. You may have just had an incompetent u-hual employee. The v6 with the tow package would have no issue pulling most of u-haul's trailers.

 

That's what you would think lol. They stated my truck is not covered under u-haul insurance so they couldn't rent it.... Im not quite sure why.

 

I have towed before. I know I am going to get about 12 miles to the gallon on a good flat drive. I also understand the benefits to the auto transport. However, I do not want to spend double the money and add another 1300 lbs to the drive. If I feel the auto transport is better I will go that way. That is why I asked the original question to hear about peoples experiences with a tow dolly. I want to know if it handles okay, does it sway more than a normal trailer, is the stopping time much different than a trailer without brakes.

 

That is bizarre. I am sure it is much more complicated than this but I wonder if it has to do with the region it is being rented from. I rented from Atlanta, GA at the time.

 

Could be... I'm in WA state. Way too liberal for me! Lol I'm actually from GA trying to move back too!

 

Small world. We are taking the car we are towing back to GA and going up to NY from there. I will be glad to be back on the east side.

 

Thanks for the info and recommendation. Good to know.

 

U-Haul has some pretty weird rules about what they will rent. But remember, many of the people they rent to have little or no trailering experience. So they tend to be conservative to protect their investments.

When I rented the tandem axle car hauler to bring back my xB, I was driving a 2010 F-150 4x4 that was rated to tow around 7,200#. On top of that, I've been towing / trailering much bigger stuff for over 30 years. The first U-Haul store wouldn't rent me the trailer. The "expert U-Haul employee" told me my truck wasn't big enough because it was "basically an S-10." After dressing down the idiot in front of a bunch of other customers, I left and went to another store. Oddly enough, no such problem popped up - and they both were using the same computer system to determine if I was over loaded. Hmmm.

 

Pay the extra money and get the car trailer

 

Sorry I didn't address your original question correctly. Let me try again.

The big differences between the U-Haul Tow Dolly and their Auto Transport are trailer brakes and wheel base. The Tow Dolly does not have brakes and the combined weight of your Corolla and the dolly will probably be around 4,000 pounds. Generally speaking, any trailer over 3,500 pounds should have brakes, so not only would you be over using that guideline, think about trying to stop an extra 4,000 pounds with just your Tacoma brakes. Unless you're hauling on flat terrain at low speeds for short distances, that's not going to be fun. If you're towing through mountains, going down the back side is going to lead to the serious possibility of brake fade. And if you've never experienced it before, there will be a "Depends Undergarment moment."

The other difference between the two is wheel base. The Tow Dolly has one "axle" about 6' aft of your truck bumper. The Auto Transporter has two axles much further back. Generally speaking, a tandem axle trailer tows better than a single axle with all things being equal because the two axles tend to "tram" down the road keeping the trailer straight. Also generally speaking, a longer wheel base trailer tows better (is more stable) than a shorter one. I've had a few heart stopping moments towing things over the years. I can assure you that the worst ones have been with shorter / single axle trailers having no brakes. One of those moments involved being able to (briefly) see a 20' boat on a singe axle trailer clearly out my passenger side window. Trust me, you don't want to try to drive your way out of that kind of situation like I did. (Yes, I gathered it up.) Even U-Haul mentions "whipping" in their Tow Dolly instructions. Hint, hint.

So, I hope that better addresses your question.

 

100% agree, no worry about turning to sharp and the tow dolly fenders into the side of your vehicle.

 

From my Uhaul experiences, sometimes they don't like sending some of their trailers out on long distance rentals for whatever reason.

But, braking with the dolly is annoying enough where I will avoid it in the future as much as possible.