To Tow or Not to Tow: Part One

 It seems like those of us who enjoy the RV lifestyle all have a different opinion of how to get around once arrived and hooked up at a destination campground.

Of course, if you’re pulling a trailer or a fifth wheel, you have the option of unhooking and using the tow vehicle to go wherever you like. When we had our travel trailer we towed it with a very comfortable Ford pickup truck, and the truck served as our local transportation wherever we went.

And if you are in a Class B or B+, your RV is likely small enough to be both your home while camping and your local transportation.

That leaves the rest of us who are driving either Class A or Class C motorhomes. We have choices, but none of them are great. We can flat-tow a vehicle behind our rig, which requires a vehicle designed for flat towing; a tow bar system; a braking system in the towed vehicle, and a modification to the towed vehicle called a “base plate”. The extra weight added to the towing vehicle is minimal, usually less than 100 pounds.

Alternatively, we can employ a tow dolly, which allows us to tow almost any front-wheel drive vehicle with the front wheels on the dolly. It's a bit more work taking the towed vehicle on and off the dolly, but the cost is usually less than a third of the cost of setting up for flat towing. A tow dolly will weigh between 500 and 800 pounds, which adds to the overall weight which must be calculated to ensure that the GCVW of the towing vehicle is not exceeded.

A third alternative would be to tow a vehicle on its own trailer, with all four wheels off the ground. This would be a great solution if you need to tow a Tesla, or other vehicle which cannot be towed any other way. But the weight of a trailer designed to carry a passenger vehicle will be around 2,500 pounds. That, combined with the weight of the car being trailered, could be prohibitive on a smaller Class C or A.

On our recent trips, we have utilized a couple of different ways of getting around. We have reserved a rental car close to our destination and found that to be very convenient. When you get to the city or area where you will be spending a few days, you stop by the rental car office and pick up your rental car. You drive it wherever you need to go, and when you are ready to move on, you just drop it off where you picked it up. There are a couple of problems with renting cars. The first is the costs vary wildly from destination to destination For example, you can rent a small or compact car in Nashville for $69 per day. In Asheville, NC the same vehicle costs about $45 per day. In Dallas, TX the same car costs $55 per day. When demand goes up, so do the prices. And there are extras that you may want such as insurance which can add 25% or more to the daily rate. Convenience has a price!

On our last trip, we drove just under 1,900 miles in 13 days. We visited tiny towns and fairly large cities. We did not tow a car, so we needed local transportation. We decided to use LYFT and UBER. In the small towns, the cost was ridiculously low. We hired a car to take us shopping and the cost was $9.19 one way. Once in the shopping area, we could walk around from shop to shop with ease. In Memphis, we were at a state park quite a way out of town. We ordered a LYFT and it came right to our campsite. We spent the day in Memphis, and when we were done a LYFT took us back to our campsite. Total cost: $42. Not bad when you consider parking fees in Memphis can be upwards of $20 and even more closer to Beale Street! When we got to Nashville, we stayed at a KOA 11 miles from downtown Nashville. The KOA had a shuttle which cost $20 per person round trip to and from Nashville. It operated on the hour, and it was always late. We called for a LYFT and the car was at our door within ten minutes. LYFT took us into Nashville for $14. We took the Hop-On-Hop-Off Trolley around Nashville to see the sights, and when we were ready to go back to the KOA we called for the LYFT again. The car arrived in 6 minutes. The return trip was $24.50, so our cost was still less than taking the shuttle.

We used LYFT and UBER in several places during our trip, and we believe it is a viable alternative to towing or renting a car.

We are planning a month-long trip to the North this summer, and we are thinking that the car-share services (LYFT, UBER, etc.) may be our best way to go.

We’d love to hear how you deal with destination transportation.