Towing question

[Minnie&Mickey]

Tonight my husband and I went out looking for a new truck for him. He wants to get either a Silverado or Sierra with a towing package on it. Our plan was to be able to tow it behind our MH (with a golf cart in the bed). When we bought the MH, it had a Blue Ox on the back of it. We were told at the dealership tonight that even though a truck has a tow package, that doesn't mean that it can be towed. They said that we would have to buy a 4 wheel drive truck to do that. Do any of you experts know if this is really true?

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Tonight my husband and I went out looking for a new truck for him. He wants to get either a Silverado or Sierra with a towing package on it. Our plan was to be able to tow it behind our MH (with a golf cart in the bed). When we bought the MH, it had a Blue Ox on the back of it. We were told at the dealership tonight that even though a truck has a tow package, that doesn't mean that it can be towed. They said that we would have to buy a 4 wheel drive truck to do that. Do any of you experts know if this is really true?

They are correct, the 4wd allows you to disengage the driveline while being flat towed. The transfer case is placed in neutral for flat towing and since the 2wd doesnt have a transfer case, there is no way to disengage the driveline except to remove the driveshaft. On a GM truck the "tow package" relates to the truck being the tow vehicle, not the towed vehicle.

Hope that helps.

 

[Minnie&Mickey]

Is there a different truck brand that we should look at that will allow us to flat tow a 2 wheel drive?

 

[DaveInTN]

Is there a different truck brand that we should look at that will allow us to flat tow a 2 wheel drive?

Not that I am aware of in a full size truck. I think the small Nissan Frontier can be flat towed as a 2WD.

If you go to Motorhome Magazine, they have Dinghy Guides for each model year available which tell you what vehicles are towable four wheels down. Scroll down on the right hand side of the page and you'll find it. My guess is that, if you want a full size pickup, you may need to look at 4WD.

 

[rapriebe]

Holly,
There are two great sites for information on towing vehicles (dinghy towing). One is RV. net which has a section on towing
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/listings/forum/31.cfm

Another is Remco towing which has an online vehicle chart which allows you to check a particular vehicle that you might be interested in towing and it shows what each vehicle needs inorder to be towable.
http://www.remcotowing.com/

Hope this helps.

 

[Minnie&Mickey]

Thanks for the help! I'll check out all of those sites!

 

[disney4dan]

I've not done the 4 on the ground towing; but have relatives and friends who have and they've commented on some vehicles being better than others for keeping the steering wheel un-locked.

Not sure if they were pulling my leg, but as I understand it, you need to keep the key in the ignition and allow the front wheels to be able to turn side to side, without the key being in the "on" position which can cause other problems? I've heard from two separate sources of problems with the ignition going back to the "lock" position so that the front wheels did not get to turn side to side, with the result being flat tires by the time they got to their destination. One of those families invested in the two wheeled trailer dolly to avoid that issue for their Durango.

 

[Minnie&Mickey]

Oh wow, it looks like we need to do a lot more homework before we buy a truck! I think at this point, we are considering buying a 2WD truck and putting it on a flat tow trailer (or whatever they are called). That way we could still put a golf cart in the back, but we wouldn't have to pay extra for a 4WD vehicle. He would only use the 4WD feature when it is being towed. He only drives about 5 miles back and forth to work.

 

[rapriebe]

Oh wow, it looks like we need to do a lot more homework before we buy a truck! I think at this point, we are considering buying a 2WD truck and putting it on a flat tow trailer (or whatever they are called). That way we could still put a golf cart in the back, but we wouldn't have to pay extra for a 4WD vehicle. He would only use the 4WD feature when it is being towed. He only drives about 5 miles back and forth to work.

Holly,
One thing to keep in mind when towing on a flat-bed trailer is the storage of the trailer when at a campground. At FW it would not be a problem because you have the large storage lot at the front however, most campgrounds do not have a storage lot. You would need to be able to keep your RV, truck and the large trailer at your site which could be a problem at times.

As you can tell, we went through the same dilema that you are currently going through. We wanted to put the cart in a truck and tow the truck. We finally realized that the only place that we would be camping for an extended period of time, and wanting our golf car with us, was FW. We also realized we didn't need to keep a golf cart just for FW so we've sold the cart and are looking for a "fun" tow vehicle something like a Jeep, Geo tracker. or a small convertible. Since we will be doing alot of cross-country traveling, this will be much lighter weight to tow than a truck with a golf cart in it. BUT - I miss my golf cart.

Hope this helps,
Becky

 

[clkelley]

I've not done the 4 on the ground towing; but have relatives and friends who have and they've commented on some vehicles being better than others for keeping the steering wheel un-locked.

Not sure if they were pulling my leg, but as I understand it, you need to keep the key in the ignition and allow the front wheels to be able to turn side to side, without the key being in the "on" position which can cause other problems? I've heard from two separate sources of problems with the ignition going back to the "lock" position so that the front wheels did not get to turn side to side, with the result being flat tires by the time they got to their destination. One of those families invested in the two wheeled trailer dolly to avoid that issue for their Durango.

I don't know a whole lot about this, but one time many years ago, we borrowed a friends truck to help me and my ex move from South Carolina back to Alabama. The truck was driven to South Carolina with the purpose of renting a U-Haul trailer to haul our stuff back to Alabama. Due to weird circumstances, we ended up renting a truck, and then towing the pickup back. This was an older pickup and the steering wheel didn't lock at all, so when they started towing it the front wheels went all over the place. We ended up tying the steering wheel still with a rope. So maybe the front wheels need to be able to move some, but I don't think they need to be totally loose.

 

[4mickey2]

we bought the blue ox. a larger one so we can tow our saturn vue (awd) or our gmc pick up 4wd. with the same thought in mind. we could, if we had to or wanted to put the gc in the truck bed we could. but, again, our vue is awd and the truck is 4wd. we can flat tow either.