Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 11, 2025 ...

Tow Dolly Question: FWD with 4 wheel ABS?

May 04, 2017, 07:54:39 pm

We are looking for a new (read: 10+ year old new to us) vehicle, and we'd use it as a toad on some trips.  We already have a reasonable tow dolly that we'd like to continue to use: so that eliminates most AWD vehicles.  But several vehicles in the general price range we are looking at are listed as "FWD with 4-wheel ABS".  I was under the impression that all FWD vehicles were fine on a tow dolly, but the 4 wheel ABS made me balk...

I did some research online, but found nothing definitive - other than "my manual says I can tow 2 wheels up but ABS light keeps going off."

Without looking at a specific vehicle manual (which obviously I will do before pulling the trigger), can anyone shed some light on whether ABS is at all related to tow capability?

Quote Selected

Re: Tow Dolly Question: FWD with 4 wheel ABS?

Reply #1 – May 04, 2017, 08:13:02 pm

In reality the abs does not affect the towing on the dolley. On cars where the key is on to unlock the steering the abs and or traction control is also on and getting a speed signal of zero at the front wheels and a signal of vehicle speed from the rear signals. Once you drive it the system should cancel out when it gets signal from all 4 wheels but will have codes in the memory. Light might stay on until code cleared. Depending on the system and it's complexity it could be dumb enough that it starts cycling the rear brakes or smart enough to realize it's fwd and that's not possible. Two ways around it one is to unlock the steering and disconnect the battery the other is to get a memory saver (small battery plugs into cig lighter to maintain memory when battery is disconnected) however depending on vehicle and the saver it could still turn on your abs/traction control modules. If you buy a vehicle where the steering isn't locked with the key out (don't know of any off the top of my head) then you wouldn't need the key on either.

I am about to start doing this with my 05 caravan, will have to see which option I like best but I also have a snap on scan tool to clear codes.

Quote Selected

Re: Tow Dolly Question: FWD with 4 wheel ABS?

Reply #2 – May 04, 2017, 09:00:51 pm

That is a excellent explanation.  And that all rings true to me.  Thank you very much!

Quote Selected

Re: Tow Dolly Question: FWD with 4 wheel ABS?

Reply #3 – May 04, 2017, 09:59:09 pm

Does the dolly have brakes? If not you might be better off with a used 4x4 Grand Cherokee or Cherokee. They are very reasonably priced. The Wranglers are just more expensive and if you aren't going to do serious off road not necessary. I have been buying 13 year old ones for $3,000 to $3,500 use them for 5 or 6 years and sell for what I bought them for.

Quote Selected

Re: Tow Dolly Question: FWD with 4 wheel ABS?

Reply #4 – May 04, 2017, 11:08:52 pm

It does have brakes, hydraulic - wire free.  And I have no 4-down hardware.  But my wife is definitely partial to the Jeeps.

Quote Selected