My husband is being stationed in TX and we are trying find a way to haul his truck behind our RV from Oregon to Texas. It's a 1993 extra cab full size F150. We'e looked at open trailors, and they are just too expensive to rent. Will a car dollie work, if so what size? Or an automotive transporter?

 

We need to know if the truck is 4x4, or 2wd and if it has a manual or automatic transmission.


If you are a manual transmission you can dolly it. If you are 4x4 you should be able to dolly it with the transfer case in neutral.

If it is 2wd and automatic you could dolly it with the back wheels on the dolly, and a steering wheel lock to hold the steering wheel straight.

 

which trailers have you looked at renting?

haulers are easy, but they can be pricey. ive gotten stuff hauled 6-700 miles before for around $600. its tough to get a ballpark price though, there are a lot of things that are taken into account with a hauling service.

a dolly will work and would be your cheapest bet, a trailer would be safer. you can rent a u-haul trailer for around 100 a day if IIRC.

also, it would suck, but convoying is always an option. one of you drive the rv, other drive the pickup.

 

I don't know about '93 Fords, but a lot of manual transmissions and transfer cases don't like being towed far in neutral. Often the input needs to be turning to reliably splash the gear lube around. Once I talked with a guy that had flat towed his Jeep from Texas to Colorado, only to need to rent a Jeep after he was there because his transfer case had seized up.

Safest is to make sure that nothing past the axles is turning. A trailer obviously does this, or a tow dolly with the rear wheels on the dolly as DAT mentioned. But the dolly will work that way for 2WD or 4WD. You just need to make sure the hubs are unlocked if it's 4WD.

I haven't looked into dollies too much, but I know they come in at least 2 widths. I forget the measurements, but I'm pretty sure the narrow ones won't take a full size truck, while the wider ones are just big enough assuming you don't have tires much wider than stock.

If you don't want to dolly it backward is to take out the rear driveshaft. You only need to disconnect it from the axle. Just wire it up so it doesn't drop down and destroy itself bouncing off the road. then you can dolly it with the front on the dolly if you'd rather.

And a final option I'll throw out is flat towing. A tow bar is a lot cheaper to buy than a dolly or trailer, but probably isn't available to rent. You ought to drop the rear driveshaft and unlock the hubs. This does have a significant downside in that you probably won't have any brakes on your "trailer", which wouldn't be legal with a trailer as heavy as an F-150, but isn't particularly unsafe with a large RV (a lot of people do it).

Personally I've done a lot of flat towing of either a Jeep CJ5 and now my '71 Bronco. Both are lighter than an F-150, but I've towed them with full size pickups, not RVs. But I fabbed an air cylinder to push the Broncos brake pedal, controlled by my truck's trailer brake controller to keep me legal. I think there are commercially available versions of that as well. RV sources would be the best source, but it'd probably be pretty expensive, especially if it's only for a single trip.

 

Tow dolly and disconnect the rear driveshaft as mentioned, simplest way to go about it.

 

When you say extra cab full size, do you mean the Super cab (two door) or Crew cab (four door), and which length box, 6½ or 8 foot?

If it is the Super Cab with the short box, it will just barely fit on the average 16 foot trailer. Longer wheel bases will need longer trailers, obviously.

I did the roughly the same thing while I was in the Navy and single, I was transferring overseas and had two vehicles to get home. The first time I flat towed a 1981 Datsun 4x4 with my 91 Ranger; it worked but it was a PITA, due to being hard to back up with a tow bar.

The next time I had two vehicles to move, when I was going to shore duty, I bought a 16 foot trailer to haul behind my F250. It worked much better, trailer brakes and more cargo capacity.

I will recommend buying a trailer, if you don't plan on keeping it forever, you can get away with one that doesn't have all the bells and whistles. You can probably buy one and do your move then sell it without losing any money. Get one with brakes, though.

Robert

 

If this is a one-time thing, renting a tow dolly (or buying a used one and reselling it) will be the best choice.

If you expect to do this a lot, buying equipment might be worth while. A trailer is probably the easiest to hook up and load, it tows the nicest and you can back it up. But it takes the most room to store and is probably the most expensive option.

A tow dolly takes a lot less room, but it requires dropping the rear drive shaft or towing the truck backward, getting lights working is a little more involved than trailer. And I've never tried it, but it seems like it would be impossible to back up.

A tow bar to flat tow it takes the least room to store. It also requires dropping the drive shaft and the light and brake connections are even more involved than a dolly (unless you go the simple route with no brakes, then it's the same as a dolly). Backing up is definitely possible, but it often requires a second person in the towed vehicle turning the steering wheel to avoid the front tires going to full lock and dragging sideways.

By the way, braking is another reason not to use a tow dolly to tow the truck backward (needing to tie the steering wheel off was the first). The dolly will usually have surge brakes that will be applied by the full weight of the truck pushing forward against the RV. But the only weight on the dollies tires is the light rear end of the truck. So you are more likely to skid the dollies tires. Putting the heavy front end of the truck on the dolly gives the dolly tires more traction. It's not an overwhelming reason not to tow backward, but it is a factor.

 

+1 I've done moves this way. You can get almost all you paid for it back selling on the other end.