I am in the process of buying a tow vehicle and I am having difficulty deciding on new or used.
As anal as I am about my vehicles, the thought of towing a brand new $35,000+ Wrangler behind the FT is hard for me to justify.
How much damage (rock dings, sand abrasion, etc. can I expect?
Does it make more sense to buy used (< $10,000) and not worry about about potential damage? If I buy used, the toad would be just used for that and not as a second vehicle. If I buy new, the toad would be our second vehicle.
OH
Old Hippie, I have had many toads over the years ranging for VW bugs, to Acura's and I now have a old 97 Saturn. My take on toads is to buy something economical ( cheap ) but reliable and then don't worry about rock chips, paint damage etc. You can always buy another one. If I had a 35 K toad I would probably not sleep well at nite.
All we use ours for is sightseeing and errands, and once in a while looking for parts.
Gary B
I am towing a new Grand. Cherokee and towed a new wrangler before that. Pit will get chips and dings but not to many. I did have one time on a very soft road that the rocks broke my headlights. I replaced then and one trip later another was cracked. Now those two happened in the last year but I pulled my TJ 300k miles and still got a great trade in price.
O H,
We tow either a Trailblazer or Envoy and use a car cover like this Tow Car Shield (http://www.coastlinervandoffroad.com/Tow_Car_Shield.php) It has kept the vehicles from sand blasting and being chipped from when the state does chip & seal. It is padded but not enough to help if you run over an alligator and sling it up on the front of the car. Now it is a PINA to deal with if it is raining and you have to put it on or take it off but other than that it has worked just fine.
Prior to us pulling 4 down we used an open trailer, over the years we trailered 3 different vehicles and all were covered in chips, dings, and sandblasted windshields.
Mike still would rather pull on a trailer but due to health reasons this isn't possible. He has warmed up to the idea of pulling "the car" 4 down but it has taken a while (like 10 years).
Pamela
Although this cover is a real PITA I was glad I had it on our Liberty when I lost the hydraulic hose for the hydostatic fan. Big mess on the cover but car was clean.
Roland
OH,
Buy what you want, for what you are going to use it for, and how much you can/want to spend. We found a 1998 Jeep Wrangler with 136K miles on it. My mechanic checked it out and gave an enthusiastic good-to-go thumbs up. It cost $6,000. We wanted somethig that we could use pretty much anywhere and go anywhere. It is comfortable enough and is plenty rugged. About 19 mpg. Towed it about 12K miles so far, driven it about 6K. If there is any road damage it would be hard to tell if it was from towing or where we go. It is not perfect but gets the job done for us and was pretty cheap. Fun to drive. We both had a variety of Jeeps back in the 70's. Oh, and it rarely gets used for anything else other than towing. If it was a primary car then a whole new set of considerations would come into play.
Roger
Well shut My Mouth !
Tow a 2002 Mazda Pickup. My Third. Never paid over 3500.00 for any one of them. 1988, 1997. 2002.
if one blows up out on a trip, and one never has,(but one was a wreck after being rear-ended in Indianapolis, I got home bare back). Carry only liability on them ( great saving on insurance ).
O H:
We've towed 2 CRV's, a Saturn and now a Wrangler (all new or newish) over the last 15 years and have never had unusual damage to any. Just lucky I guess. Wrangler is our only 'car'.
I use a 98 accord I bought new. 170k on the odo. 8k towing. Getting my money's worth I guess.
Will tow our solara convertible next.
My super duty needs an expensive tow setup so no go so far.
Bob
This spring we bought a 2006 Saturn Vue All wheel drive. Honda drive train, all plastic body panels, easy to change to tow: Idle engine for three minutes, turn switch just to off position, remove ignition fuse under hood (mine I converted to do this with a switch). Only have to start and run for three minutes in neutral every 700 miles. Not bad ride, but a heck of a lot better than our old Geo Tracker.
2006 & 2007 were the years with the Honda drive train and plastic body panels. Blue Ox still sells baseplates for these models. Ours was under $10,000 and we now see a lot of them on the road.
Tows beautifully, but with only 230 coach horsepower we know it is back there. That said, we are getting just under 10MPG towing the Vue.
Having towed only a Honda Fit with no protection for almost 20k I would suggest that the lower the car is to the ground the more damage that is incurred. Our front spoiler is sandblasted especially at the edges. Further up the front bumper the amount of abrasion drops off substantially.
Perhaps those towing Jeeps or vehicles with more ground clearance have all that road rash hitting the undercarriage as opposed to the paint?
Hi Pam and Mike,
I'm curious if this car cover scratches, hurts the paint.
@ Jim,
The cover has a soft backing on it similar to a heavy felt. We haven't had any scratches in either car (one is white the other is a gold color) that we can see. The times that we drove in rain around the edges of the cover that are not in contact with the car does collect road grime that we wash off with a water hose. Even these areas haven't shown signs of scratches.
Pamela & Mike
I bought a 1999 4-cyl Wrangler especially to be out "towed". Two dents in the hood (I really must see if I can't push those out), scratches all over, soft top, serious roll cage, big tires. I wanted a car I could weld on and this was it! So far, taxes and license and the Harbor Frieght $79 tow bar, I have about $4500 into it. 17mpg. Do not have collision insurance on it. You can get an entire new body (tub) for about $2500 anyway. Seriously great vehicle as a towed with multiple uses.
Craig
We've owned two Saturns and now a PT Cruiser. We found that covers trap sand and small rocks and then slide them back and forth scratching the finish. We've replaced one windshield in 13 years on the toad and just put up with the chips on the cars. They get us around and follow obediently when towed.
I just looked at these Saturns about 6 miles from my house. They both have baseplates on them already. Just some examples of used toads.
http://www.allstarmotorsinc.net/inventory.aspx?mk=Saturn&md=&lid=-1&newused=&exbs=&bs=&fromprice=-1&toprice=-1&keyword= (http://www.allstarmotorsinc.net/inventory.aspx?mk=Saturn&md=&lid=-1&newused=&exbs=&bs=&fromprice=-1&toprice=-1&keyword=)
Mark
The first Vue is pretty much like ours except for the salt damage on the aluminum wheels. Color, attachments, "woodgrain" features inside.
The All wheel drive has 17" wheels. The owners manual recommends replacing the timing belt at 100,000 miles, and as long as the engine is torn down to also replace the water pump. Up here total cost for doing this is just under $800.00.
When I was doing my research for a single vehicle instead of having two the 4-cyl was not rated very high (more like a piece of crap). The 3.5 V6 got very good raves. Three of our friends have 2004-2007 Vues and have had extremely good service from them.
Only thing we don't have is the roof luggage rack and would like to find an OEM model and the rear deflector as dust does attach itself to the back end. The luggage rack because we are needing a place to carry the kayaks.
Instead of opening the hood I put a toggle switch in the back end of the little pocket right above the driver's left knee (visible in one of the pics), with the 35 Amp inline fuse and wiring going to the ignition fuse connection in the fuse box under the hood. Now to tow I idle for three minutes in neutral, move ignition key to acc. position, trip toggle switch to off, close door and take off.
I removed the taillight assemblies and added a light socket to each assembly that holds a 1157 bulb. Now I don't drain or interfere with the Vue's wiring. Instructions and pictures can be found on the Blue Ox website if you look up a baseplate installation for the Vue.
I've been towing my 2012 Rubicon for about 15,000 miles over the last year and a half. I've never noticed any damage, only a bit of black soot. It wipes off easily. Not only is it a good toad, but a toy as well. I love it. As a matter of fact, I had made up my mind that I was going to get a Jeep and a motorhome before I ever heard of Foretravel. Once my wife got on board with the whole towing a jeep around with a motorhome in search of adventure, she's the one that discovered Foretravel and convinced me that it was the way to go. The first time I laid eyes on one I knew she was right.
(https://www.foreforums.com/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi341.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo367%2Fsurfndav%2FIMG_0533_zps4adc8333.jpg&hash=921c11d2410a0cc7c88e3d72d1148418" rel="cached" data-hash="921c11d2410a0cc7c88e3d72d1148418" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o367/surfndav/IMG_0533_zps4adc8333.jpg) (http://s341.photobucket.com/user/surfndav/media/IMG_0533_zps4adc8333.jpg.html)
Below, when it was new and stock.
(https://www.foreforums.com/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi341.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo367%2Fsurfndav%2F2011-12-30_11-30-21_608.jpg&hash=4cf180fbe47ce05a3bc9a16b401e29b2" rel="cached" data-hash="4cf180fbe47ce05a3bc9a16b401e29b2" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o367/surfndav/2011-12-30_11-30-21_608.jpg) (http://s341.photobucket.com/user/surfndav/media/2011-12-30_11-30-21_608.jpg.html)
Nothing like a good woman with a sense of adventure by your side. I'm lucky too, was feeling kind of down when my wife said out of the blue "you know, Chuck, maybe you should take up flying again." Don't think she was hoping I'd auger in.... ;D
^.^d Many of us are fortunate to have a good partner. After my bride rode behind me on the Goldwing after I'd been to my first high performance motorcycle track school (Freddie Spencer School at Las Vegas Motor Speedway) she said, "You go to track school any time you want!" She was even impressed with the protection of leathers and EMS on site after I made an "improper exit" from a track in Texas. "Wow! What a safe place to ride! It's better than the street." ^.^d
Enjoy those good partners and let them help you select the coach and the towed vehicle. New or used, they can all be fun if everybody is "on board" and happy. :D
We recently "upgraded" from towing a 1994 Grand Cherokee to a 2002 Subaru Outback. Each has advantages and the Subaru is working better for us. Our entire rig, coach and towed, cost about the same as a fine new towed vehicle when we bought the combination three years ago. That works for us.