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The majority of motorhomes tow a passenger vehicle referred to at a dinghy or a "toad". Important safety, economic and legal issues are related to this activity. The safety issues relate to highway speed stability and handling. The legality of towing a toad is most often ignored because most States do not enforce their own regulations.

Towing improperly can be very expensive in premature wear and damage.  A toad can cause a serious accident if not set up properly or towed correctly. 

The safety issues related to power are safely merging into an Interstate and keeping up with traffic on highways. RVs should, however, be more concerned about stopping and turning while towing a toad. Performing an emergency stop towing a 4500 lb toad behind a Class C can be a bone chilling experience. Most of us will drive many miles over years of RVing and never have to do a real panic stop, but then what happens if you are the RVer who has to? Have any of you practiced a full panic stop with your motorhome with toad connected? If you haven't you should so that you will know what really happens. Have you tried a highway speed quick lane change? Experienced drivers know that it is much easier to steer clear of an obstacle than to stop before you hit it. This article is devoted to make you aware of the best way to enjoy safe operation of a motorhome towing a toad.

Toad Vehicles

This is about pulling cars behind motorhome.

Two dominant players on towbars, mounting brackets, and towing equipment -- Blue Ox and Roadmaster

Drawbacks to tow dollies: Initial cost (but some towbar packages cost as much or more); maintenance, licensing, insurance, storage costs. Some CGs don't have space for them. Today most people will choose towbars because of convenience. Easy to hook up, light weight, little maintenance cost.

10 years ago it was simple deal. $100 ought to cover it. But some packages cost thousands. Self aligning, self storing, ease of use, etc.

Most cars will require a mounting bracket. They come in two different styles, reflecting the two companies. Blue Ox uses under bumper mounts. RoadMaster built platfor that stuck out in front of bumber, and can store the towbar on top. It was the first self-aligning towbar. Next step was Blue Ox designed towbar which left towbar on back of motorhome, rather than in front of the tow car. This accommodated taller MHs with small cars, as it eliminated the need for a ball hitch. So Roadmaster saw benefit and adopted that style, with the Falcon. Blue Ox has Aventa or Alladdin (steel/aluminium). These differences can be difficult to visualize. The important think is to have the dealer talk you all the way through the entire process of hooking up and detaching your toad. How many steps are involved? How many "pieces" are involved? How easy is it to do on your particular tow car?

Safety cables. Federally required. But always cross them, so the cables will "cradle" the towbar if it should come loose. Also, it equalizes length of cable on corners.

Tow Cars: Which cars can be towed? Honda is a good tow vehicle, even though they don't specifically endorse doing so. Saturn is highly towable. Jeep Grand Cherokee is a popular choice. It's important to choose the "right" towable. See www.towingworld.com

Weight and Power

Safely towing heavy toads requires that you have enough power to merge onto Interstates and to keep up with minimum speed regulations. If you are underpowered or overloaded there is a greater chance of premature wear on you tow vehicle and premature failure. Overloaded motors and transmissions overheat and wear out or fail sooner than a properly sized combination. If all the Interstates you drive on are flat, then you might be able to get away with overloading.

Weight & Stopping

Stopping an overloaded motorhome toad combination in emergencies can be very risky to life and limb. Even if you drive with greater following distances and very defensively you will probably face a situation that require a panic stop. Un-braked toads can cause an increase of 30 to 50% in the stopping distance. If your equipment is in good shape and you have a supplemental brake system on your toad, you will have a much better chance getting the rig stopped without damage or injury.

The most common accident caused by improper combination involves the following scenario. Obstacle or danger causes the driver to stomp on the brakes. A heavy un-braked toad pushes up on the rear end of the motorhome, reducing the weight on the duals. The motorhome then starts to jackknife and the toad pushes sideways causing an increased jackknife. The motorhome then hits something like a rut in the road and rolls over.

Safely stopping while towing a toad requires a supplemental braking system installed on the toad that will stop it's weight. The Toad will then cause a neutral or slight pull action on the back of the motorhome during a panic stop. This pull will tend to keep the combination straight while maximum braking is performed. I recommend towing the lightest toad you can enjoy. If that is a Chev Tahoe, then you shoul drive a large diesel pusher.

Weight and Turning

Another dangerous maneuver you may have to perform to avoid danger is a high-speed lane change. A motorhome with a heavy toad will almost immediately start jackknifing when this maneuver is performed. With a light toad, little or no wiggle waggle will take place. Think about the weight involved. If the motorhome weighs 12000 and the toad weighs 4000 lb (33%), then for sure the wiggle is going to happen. If the motorhome weighs 30,000 and the toad 2,500 lb (8.3%), then it will seem like nothing is back there. I think a 40% ratio is the absolute maximum for a toad.

Weight and Ratings/Warrant

Many Class A, Class C, and Class B coaches have very low tow ratings and GCW ratings. Older Chevrolet Chassis are rated to tow only 1000 lb of un-braked vehicle weight. Older Ford Chassis are rated for only 1500 lb of un-braked weight. Any vehicle towed behind one of these chassis absolutely requires a supplemental braking system installed. The GCWR or Gross Combined Weight Rating is the maximum the motorhome, toad and stuff can weigh to stay within the design limits of the chassis. For example, if your coach weighs 15,000 lb loaded and ready to travel, and its GCWR is 18000 lb, then your loaded toad can only weigh 3000 lb. GVWR is the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating and is the maximum the loaded motorhome can weigh. If you overload your rig, you won't necessarily break something immediately, but the service life on the engine, transmission, brakes, suspension, and other chassis components will be signficiantly shortened. I hear often of transmission failures on overloaded rigs. If you overload your rig, most often things heat up and cause premature wear on all components. Manufacturers of chassis look for signs of overloading when evaluating large warranty claims. They often refuse to pay if there is any sign of overloading.WEIGHT AND THE LAW : Vehicle towing limits vary by State. Many States limit un-braked towed vehicle weight to 3000 lb or 40% of the towing vehicles weight. Some States limit un-braked towed vehicle weight to 1000 lb.

Driving with a Dinghy

For the vast majority of the time behind the wheel, not much skill is required to get this big hummer safely down the road. We have to remember that it hangs out on all sides more than a car, so parking, turning on residential streets, getting in and out of fuel stops, etc are our biggest challenges. These are not normally life threatening situations and related accidents are only financial challenges. But at highway speed when a car cuts off our path, or a deer jumps from the side of the road, or some debris or chuck hole winds up in our lane, turning a reducing radius curve in the rain, child darts out between two parked cars, or hundreds of other infrequently experienced challenges is when we need all the driving skill and proper equipment we can get. The accidents caused by these situations frequently result in personal injury or death as well as large financial losses.

Think about the physics of a 4000 lb weight, placed at the end of a lever (tow bar) swinging side ways at 60 miles per hour when you try to do a quick avoidance lane change. Think about adding 25% (4000 lbs) to the weight of your motorhome (16000 lbs) and then trying to stop. Toads increase the stopping distance at highway speeds from 30% to 80% depending on all the variables involved. Think about having to slow the combined rig down half way through an unanticipated steep incline and how hot the brakes will get during long down grade driving. Think about having to avoid hitting a small child dashing out between parked cars. You each can add to this list the your experiences when you needed to stop or maneuver to miss hitting some obstacle.

I am arguing for all of us to be responsible motorhome drivers with the best skill and equipment available; and to select dingies (toads) that will be the safest rather than the most trendy or the most comfortable. When I see a motorhome towing a full size van filled with goodies, or a Suburban crammed full of fishing gear plus a boat on the top, I wonder about the driver and what his skill level is, and how he's going to feel when all that extra weight causes a personal injury. We all know that accidents happen even with the best driver, equipment, conditions, etc., but we should not drive an accident waiting to happen down the road on purpose. I am almost finished with the article comparing toad braking systems that can add significantly to the safety of dingy towing but the more I worked on it the more if felt driven to say a few works about common sense.