[Sirrotica]

I've towed a bunch of cars, trailers, tow dollys, wreckers, have a class A CDL so I've made my living towing trailers, and running wreckers.

First of all U Haul wouldn't rent you a car trailer, they're overly cautious about what type of rigs your going to tow with.

A short wheelbase tow vehicle using a bumper hitch it less than optimum because any bumper type hitch always has a tendency to push the tow vehicle side to side, a crosswind at high speed multiplies the sway. Heavy tongue weight helps, but overloading the rear of a short wheelbase tow vehicle makes it want to swap ends under braking, unstable for a novice for sure. The bumper hitch is a lever system that will take weight off of the front axle to the tow vehicle, not a optimum design for stability, or heavy trailers.

U haul trailers have surge brakes that are more foolproof for a novice, but it's pretty inconsequential because they aren't going to rent you a trailer for what you want to do. At 2200# empty your only going to be able to haul a 3000# car legally, too close for U Haul especially with a short wheelbase tow vehicle.

Not sure where the 150 mile trip with a tow dolly comes from, because I've hauled cars on tow dollys for thousands of miles. I however doubt that U Haul would rent you a tow dolly either. Last time I rented a tow dolly from U Haul the tow dolly is quite heavy (because they have a turn table design, so it has 2 decks) as well as no brakes on the tow dolly. Having to use the tow vehicles brakes solely to stop both vehicles, less than ideal.

My recommendation would be to borrow/rent a larger vehicle and you can tow it on either a trailer or tow dolly if you want to do it yourself. If you have any friends with truck and trailer offer to pay them to haul it for you.

Hauling a heavy trailer with a shorter lighter wheelbase vehicle is done everyday. Look at a semi, typically the trailer is 55 ft long, the truck varies but most are less than half the length of the trailer. A fully loaded trailer 60,000 lbs with a 20,000 lb tow vehicle. The difference is a 5th wheel hitch (or a gooseneck hitch), bumper hitches are no where near as stable as a 5th wheel of a gooseneck is and limit the weight of the trailer just by design.

[HaloMedic]

cardo and Ben and others have it right, U-Haul wont rent u the trailer if you state what your towing and the tow vehicle and if u fudge on the insurance well U Haul has the 10 ft box truck 79.00 first 100 mi. free its less then a shipper

[Sirrotica]

Anyone that want's to purchase a lightweight sturdy tow dolly with disc surge brakes (only tow dolly with surge disc brakes) look here.

http://cartowdolly.com/

I have 2 of these and they tow fantastic, one is for sale (NOS) never had a car on it, in case anyone wants to save some money over a brand new one.

[nashcar]

Originally Posted by getmygoat

Hi all,

I don't have any experience with towing, but am considering renting a uhaul car trailer and towing my 69 judge about 150 miles with my chevy traverse. it has the tow package, 3.6 liter v6 fwd, rated for 5200 lbs. the numbers seem to work but I was hoping for opinions from those more experienced than I as to whether this is a safe se up. Thanks!

Don't do it.

[grrrrregg!!!]

Originally Posted by getmygoat

Hi all,

I don't have any experience with towing, but am considering renting a uhaul car trailer and towing my 69 judge about 150 miles with my chevy traverse. it has the tow package, 3.6 liter v6 fwd, rated for 5200 lbs. the numbers seem to work but I was hoping for opinions from those more experienced than I as to whether this is a safe se up. Thanks!

I thought the tow rating of 5000+ was for your vehicle with AWD + tow package installed. You have FWD

I would double check that towing info

[SR-71]

You also need to determine if your truck can even handle the 10% tongue weight of the trailer and load. Nothing worse than seeing the trailer come around on you and no way to control it.

[getmygoat]

So I guess a few people think its not a good idea. Ha Ha. Ok guys, thanks for the input. I'll figure something else out. The plan was to tow the judge to a guy who would pull the motor for rebuild. Maybe I'll have to pull the motor myself in my 2 car sub division house garage (done it before) and then rent a pick up to take the motor up there.

Thanks again,
Fred

[sdbob]

I witnessed a friend with a tow dolly trying to turn into a driveway with his 69 Judge.Nice original, dent the rear lower fender on driver side with tow dolly fender trying to turn tight so be careful with a tow dolly in tight places.That's all I've witnessed.Ask yourself what is my Judge worth? Then take care accordingly.

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by sdbob

I witnessed a friend with a tow dolly trying to turn into a driveway with his 69 Judge.Nice original, dent the rear lower fender on driver side with tow dolly fender trying to turn tight so be careful with a tow dolly in tight places.That's all I've witnessed.Ask yourself what is my Judge worth? Then take care accordingly.

Tow dollys do come in varying widths and if you have one that is too narrow in a tight turn there could be contact with the heel of the front fenders. Wrong equipment for the width of the car being towed, or operator error. If the car isn't centered on the tow dolly of course one side will be closer to the fender of the tow dolly and can result in damage to a fender on the car being towed. These are all possibilities that can result in damage to the towed car.

You can't make the car 90 degrees to the tow dolly and you surely can't back one up. Never attempt to back a car with a loaded tow dolly up, it won't end well because of the extra contact of another axle. It also has a tendency to slack the straps and allows the car to move too far forward, and fender damage will result. Most people learn the hard way that you can't back up one of these rigs, or the have the wrong width unit for the car they're towing. Rental outlets are less than adequate in making these facts about tow dollys known to renters.

More than likely the tow dolly was too narrow for the car being towed. I have seen both scenarios where fender damage to the car resulted, as with anything, common sense is the key to success. In this case a novice to towing, could damage his own car due to inexperience, or improper equipment.

I have used tow dollys to move many cars without any damage, I own 3 of them. I have one that is a narrow version for smaller cars. The narrow dolly will haul narrow cars without any problems. If you try to haul a wider car on it, it will make contact in a tight turn with the fender heel on the car being towed. Unfortunately I learned of the improper matching of car and dolly the hard way, with a dented fender. Matching the narrow dolly with the narrow car, no problems. Wide dolly with a wide car, again no problems.

Last August I hauled my 1973 T/A on a nearly 350 mile round trip to a prospective buyer that had committed to buying the car only to have him back out of the deal. After wasting 3 days removing the HO cylinder heads, headers, and getting the car ready to move (he had his own aluminum RA V heads he wanted to use on the car) I didn't even get an offer to pay for the fuel I used to haul the car to his business, nice guy..................

I won't be taking anyone's word for anything, unless money changes hands before I move the car. Even if he is a respected vendor/engine builder on PY.
Money talks and BS walks. BTW, no damage to the fenders on the T/A using the wide dolly, rant over.

[redhawk44]

As the others have said it is not a wise option. Also if you go to U-Haul's website and try to rent a trailer they ask specific questions about what you are towing and what the tow vehicle is. They will not even rent you a trailer for this setup. Also, as one other member mentioned the weight you said your vehicle is rated for is your GCVW I believe. That includes your tow vehicle, trailer and the towed vehicle all combined.