Car Dolly Question

[Gene Arnold]

I'll soon be making a move back to Nebraska. I'll need to get my car back there and I think towing it with my Dodge is what I want to do. The question is, Do rental dollies have brakes? If not, is this a problem (legal or otherwise)? The car is a 2001 Lincoln Continental.



Thanks,



Gene

 

[B.G. Smith]

You can rent a tandem axle hauler with surge brakes, haven't seen a dolly with brakes. bg

 

[TLane]

That sounds like a big heavy car for a dolly. Normally the front tires from the car are on the dolly which leaves your rear wheels on the ground, this can overheat the transmission if the car is rear wheel drive. I'd look for a trailer that you can drive the car up onto, complete with brakes. Find out how much the car weighs and make sure the trailer can handle the load.

You only need brakes if you have to stop. I can almost guarantee that some idiot is going to pull right out in front of you stop. If you hit him, it'll probably be considered your fault. (Surely you've had this happen towing your travel trailer).

 

[LandShark]

The rental dollies have rather low weight limits. Check their web sites. Most will have a place to plug in what car you want to tow and will let you know if it's to heavy.

You will want brakes towing something that heavy. The tandem axle trailer with brakes is the way to go.

 

[jeepit]

Be safe and rent a trailer.

 

[mwilson]

U-Haul verifies that the dolly or a trailer is fine for that vehicle behind your truck.



I used your reference to the Lincoln as it being a Continental, not a Town Car. U-Haul indicates that the Continental is a FWD car.



To use the U-haul tool go to the website, select the car trailer or dolly. next screen asks what location of theirs that you will rent from. Fill that in and the next screen allows you to plug in tow and towed vehicles by spec. Then it will tell you if the equipment is suitable.



We all know that the truck is up to it... ..... :-laf



I would prefer the trailer for several reasons, BTW. Braking ability being #1.



Mike.

 

[Gene Arnold]

Thanks for your replies. I've been busy and haven't checked in for a while. I think I have the car problem solved since a couple of family members are flying out here to help with packing & loading the ABF semi. One of them will drive the car to Nebraska.



By the way, the Continental is an overgrown Taurus and has FWD.



Gene

 

[Powder Extreme]

I rented a car trailer in Oklahoma to pull my car back to MT after buying a new pickup, it cost me $450!!! That was a tandem axle flatbed, which like most rentals, was mostly junk.

A couple years later when buying a car in Tennessee that I needed to pull back to MT, I got a little smarter. I bought a 16' flatbed car hauler from a dealer in TN for $1150. Loaded my car up, pulled it home, and then sold the flatbed trailer for $1200. Beats the heck out of a rental!