Tow dolly question

I've never used one before, but I'm planning on renting one in a couple weeks to haul the 330i back to Biloxi. With the questionable remaining lifespan of the guibo & carrier bearing, I'm concerned they wouldn't survive the 840-mile tow.

Can I load the car on the dolly backwards? Obviously I'd need to securely tie the steering wheel straight, but are there any other concerns?

I think you'd be fine. Be aware that backing up a tow dolly is orders of magnitude harder than backing a normal trailer, plan accordingly.

In reply to KyAllroad:

Thanks! Fortunately the car runs & drives ok, but it has 2(well 3, counting the spare) tires and the aforementioned driveshaft issues preventing me from just driving it down.

You can load and tow backwards on a dolly. I've done it before. Not a big deal. Yes, secure the steering wheel. I use two straps going out the front windows myself, but wrecker drivers just tie up the steering wheel with the seat belt.

If you're going u-haul, and you've got enough tow vehicle capacity, the trailer is something like $10-20 more than the dolly. That takes a lot of the dolly headache out of the picture. But, the u-haul trailer weighs a ton all by itself.

Backing up a tow dolly is like shooting pool with a piece of rope. BTDT.

Once you factor one way dolly rental which will likely be $100 as well as hotels, gas, and time away you might find it cheaper to just have it shipped.

Via Uship it will cost about 45 cents per mile or for 840 mile = $378.

For that price they bring it right to your front door.

The first time a rented a tow dolly from a local independent, the maintenance guy told me no less than four times "DO NOT BACK UP WITH THE CAR ON THE DOLLY".

Does this car not have a lock on the column?

RossD wrote: Backing up a tow dolly is like shooting pool with a piece of rope. BTDT.

its easier if you keep the windows up so you dont hear all the binding and tires screaming

u-Haul tow dollys are articulated in the middle, so the hitch joint + articulation point = the 'pushing a rope' effect while trying to back up.

Other rental places may offer lighter weight non-articulated dollys, similar to what RV owners often use. Backing up with these is a little easier.

spitfirebill wrote: Does this car not have a lock on the column?

Never trust anyone just the column lock, especially at highway speeds and long distances. I have had plenty of the jump just creeping cars out of parking lots. It only takes a minute to tie the wheel in place. A small ratchet strap from the wheel to the seat mounts will work on most cars.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

I make the IL/MS(and reverse) trip once or twice per month anyway. U-Haul shows a one-way rental is over $400, but local is $45(I've rented their small trailer "local" before and they didn't care about the destination or miles).

In reply to foxtrapper:

The car+dolly is going to be right at the van's tow limit, so a car trailer is definitely out, unfortunately.

Once it's on the dolly slipping underneath and disconnecting the driveshaft from the differential is a 20 min job. For 50 miles I'd consider backwards, but for 800+ no way.

In reply to petegossett:

Are you intending 840 miles of empty dolly headed north.

This is will not be pleasant.
The otherwise lightweight-ish dolly will bounce all over. Not so much unsafe as it is unpleasant. The dolly will be much happier with a couple thousand pounds resting on it.

JohnRW1621 wrote: In reply to petegossett: Are you intending 840 miles of empty down dolly headed north. This is will not be pleasant. The otherwise lightweight-ish dolly will bounce all over. Not so much unsafe as it is unpleasant. The dolly will be much happier with a couple thousand pounds resting on it.

You beat me to it an empty dolly is horrible

Wall-e wrote:

spitfirebill wrote: Does this car not have a lock on the column?

Never trust anyone just the column lock, especially at highway speeds and long distances. I have had plenty of the jump just creeping cars out of parking lots. It only takes a minute to tie the wheel in place. A small ratchet strap from the wheel to the seat mounts will work on most cars.

Thanks. I am slightly less stupid today than I was yesterday.

westsidetalon wrote:

JohnRW1621 wrote: In reply to petegossett: Are you intending 840 miles of empty down dolly headed north. This is will not be pleasant. The otherwise lightweight-ish dolly will bounce all over. Not so much unsafe as it is unpleasant. The dolly will be much happier with a couple thousand pounds resting on it.

You beat me to it an empty dolly is horrible

i always found them to be entertaining to watch in my mirror, seeing how high it would bounce, of course most my trips with an empty dolly were less the 100 miles...

In reply to edizzle89:

Yeah I generally follow the 1st rule of Italian driving. And the stereo gets pretty loud, so it shouldn't bother me much.

The trick about towing cars backwards on a car dolley is that your caster angle in the front end is now facing the wrong way, which makes the wheels want to steer off-center instead of naturally returning to center. A 'real' tow truck raises the back of the vehicle high enough that its angle surpasses the vehicle's stock front caster angle (usually <5 degrees) and makes it go in the right direction again even though it's rolling backwards. So maybe the vehicle has 4 degrees of positive caster but the tow truck rotates the vehicle 7-10 degrees so you end up with de facto positive caster in the direction you're actually rolling. That is not necessarily true with a tow dolley.

I have done what you speak of, but it sucks. Even a steering lock/tied-up steering wheel is a pretty marginal solution because it still leaves every source of slack between the top of the steering column and the actual wheels to screw you over. Steering column u-joints, slip joints, rag joints, play in gearbox or rack and pinion, pitman arm, idler arm, center link, inner tie rods, outer tie rods, wheel bearings. Not all of those parts exist on every vehicle, but if each one of whatever you have has only a little play, it will add up to enough steering slack that your towed vehicle will be very unstable at speed.

Say what you will, but it's not unusual for me to hit 80 mph towing my dolley with the car facing the 'right' way. The only times i've towed a car backwards on it, I was barely able to exceed 45. Which probably means a lot of people here think i should have been going 30.

I agree, fronts on the dolly. Unbolt the driveshaft at the diff if you have to, but I'd probably just put er in neutral.

But seriously, you will spend less time unbolting the driveshaft than you will mucking about trying to tow a car backwards.

In reply to spitfirebill:

I watched a Mensa member that I very briefly worked with hook up a brand new Jag from the rear, assume the lock would hold and pull out of a parking space seining it into an equally new S-class Mercedes.

I missed the 840 miles in the first post. I would definitely load it forward and pull the driveshaft in that case. Many police depts frown on cats being towed backwards on highways and even if the driveshaft were good from what I've read BMW transmissions are generally unhappy being towed more than a few miles. I'd happily spend a few minutes for a less troublesome tow.

I talked to my BMW peeps, they don't think the carrier bearing will have any problem surviving the trip, especially in neutral, so I'll swap the good tires to the rear & load it forward.

Thanks for the guidance!

I've heard pulling an empty dolly is a lot nicer if you bring an air pump and more or less let all the air out of the tires when pulling it empty. With the tires aired up they are indeed loud as it will jump off the road every time it hits a bump.

Ive launched mine high enough to see it above the tailgate of the towing truck more than once.

Only one of those times did i ruin a wheel!

I've towed empty dollies thousands of miles. They tow just fine until you cross railroad tracks or get on a bumpy country road, then you get a little liftoff. I usually look around and by a used dolly if I need it for more than a day. Sell it when I return and even if I lose a few bucks I'm well ahead on U-Haul rates.

So, here's my concern about towing MT BMWs on a dolly, which I have done several times.

I never attempt to tow them front wheels down. That's already been covered already.

(The UHaul auto transport isn't a bad trailer, but it totally stinks for really short lightweight cars (like old BMWs). Way too much tongue weight because you can't reposition the car farther back on the trailer to correct for it. They only load one way.)

Driveshaft disconnection at the differential or transmission output is the best option but on some BMWs it is really difficult to do that. It's not a slip-yoke transmission, there's a center support bearing, so even if I get the bolts out, often there's not enough play to get the shaft joint physically separated from the mating joint. Something else usually needs to be unbolted -- pretty much means freeing up the diff enough to get front-back movement, getting the shaft disconnected, then bolting the diff back up. Ugg.

Towing with the car in neutral and the driveshaft connected spins a fair portion of the transmission's internals the whole time. Some BMW transmissions can't sufficiently lubricate themselves unless the input side is spinning too. So, towing more than a few miles can push temperatures up to the damage zone in there, even with the car in neutral.

Other BMW transmissions seem to be able to handle it. I have yet to find much information on the internet as to which ones can stand it, and which ones can't. My experience with a Getrag 260 has been that it's okay for at least 80 mile tows regularly, but I haven't gone beyond that.

One other strategy: As far as I know, I'm the only one foolish enough to do this, but it has worked. I put the car in neutral on the dolly, start the ignition, pop the hood, and tighten the throttle cable linkage nut until the RPMs go up to about 1,800. That's equivalent to a cruising speed and should keep things lubed. But many tow dollies don't track well unless the front wheels are locked, so check this out and if you have one of those, use straps to immobilize the steering wheel.

The other problem here is the motor might overheat or lose oil pressure and you won't see it until the smoke gets pretty thick. On my track car I have already tapped into the oil pressure and water temp idiot lights, and wired in a pair of big-assed truck side marker lamps that suction-cup to my windscreen. It's just too easy to miss them flickering down on the dash panel while you're keeping your eyes up on the track. So if I remember to check my rear view regularly, I can probably spot trouble before it gets all China Syndrome.