Vehicle Towing

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Nov 9, 2020
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I have a few questions about towing. I would like to know the smallest SUV or pickup truck that can tow a 2004 Honda Accord with a 2.4 engine? The Accord is Fwd and weighs about 3,100 pounds. I was thinking about using a tow dolly or maybe a trailer for transporting the car, I know a V8 SUV or pickup truck will get the job done but can it be towed with vehicles that have smaller engines like maybe a V6 or possibly a four Cylinder? Thanks.
 
Engine is the least of worries with towing--stopping and steering are bigger worries.

Are you looking to rent or buy?

Distance shouldn't matter, it's either safe or not, but is this a one time tow across town? or across the country?
 
Engine is the least of worries with towing--stopping and steering are bigger worries.

Are you looking to rent or buy?

Distance shouldn't matter, it's either safe or not, but is this a one time tow across town? or across the country?
Renting the tow equipment, Towing distance is twenty miles.
 
Twenty miles? Any reason to just not have it flatbedded? Might be a couple hundred dollars but I can't imagine renting a truck would be cheaper.
 
No friend with a truck you can get to help? Lowes/HD rent trucks for like $25 for a couple hours.
 
More information, I can tow the Accord or call a tow truck. Purchasing a car and need options for transporting the vehicle home, I live twenty miles from the vehicle location.
 
That's sounds like a better option.
It's not zero risk but it becomes the tow truck driver's risk, and one would hope they won't botch anything up, having done it many times already. I have AAA but only the first five miles are free on my plan; it might be $2 or $3 per mile now?
 
I would rent a U-Haul trailer and a U-Haul truck. Rent them for the day (or by the hour) and tell them what you’re towing, they will ensure that their truck can handle it. A U-Haul trailer is about 2,000 lbs IIRC, so, with that and the Accord, you need something that can handle at least 5,500 lbs.
 
Is this once, or many times, or far? What kind of road? Mountains? You can bolt on a bumper hitch onto the Accord and flat tow for a couple miles, and likely much farther if the Accord is idling in N. IIRC, in Ontario you can flat tow almost anything with anything, but that's irrelevant to you.

Probably easiest is go to a trailer place that installs hitches and get the legal run down on what your location requires for what you want to do. The actual person with the expertise, not the sales guys. Typically anything that you can get a class 3 hitch for with a 2" reciever will tow a car on a dolly, so almost every midsize SUV, minivan has that available, I put one on my Outback, and even my 2003 4 cyl tracker.

The legal vehicle requirements in Ontario for a private citizen aren't even really mentioned in the highway traffic act, so if you install a 3500lb rated hitch system on your Smart Car, you can tow a 2990lb gross weight unbraked single axle trailer, legally, as long as you don't exceed the rear axle rating of the car, but you could get a weight distribution hitch and load up both axles. Not a great idea, but totally legal to do.

Uhaul lists in Ontario, that only a 2000lb 2" ball is required for their tow dolly rental, and the tow vehicle needs to weigh more than the towed vehicle, so maybe tow dollys require much less hitch rating?

I have a 3500lb rated tow system on my 2.5 Outback and recently towed ~3000lbs for several short trips on back roads hauling round bales, and it was 100% fine. If it was legal to use a tow dolly with your Accord on it, I would have no worries towing it at 55-60 mph anywhere but the mountains, and then its only the drivetrain I'm worried about.
 
More information, I can tow the Accord or call a tow truck. Purchasing a car and need options for transporting the vehicle home, I live twenty miles from the vehicle location.
Do you need a second driver or you can't drive it home because no license plates?
 
Probably just call a tow truck for pickup. The costs to tow the car myself could costs more, Now I have to figure out if that's the cheapest option.
 
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Call a tow truck. If the car runs and you have the keys, it'll be the easiest tow that guy does all week. Solves a lot of problems and running around.
 
Is this Accord drivable?
If it is, while I hate to be Capt. Obvious, why not just drive it?
If not, call around and find someone who will move it cheaply at their convenience.
 
How much are tows where you live? I recently asked a few towing places how much to tow a 2010 Nissan Rogue 9 miles. The cheapest was $600.
Only had a couple and I've forgotten. But the most expensive was $369 when we lost a car; it was a recovery cost to roll it over and move it away.

$600? Was the car at the bottom of a lake?
 
For all of the inconvenience of renting a trailer, and possibly a tow vehicle, and getting it all set, and purchasing the vehicle, and then getting it on the dolly and strapping it down, then driving over, unstrapping, unloading, driving truck and trailer back to rental (would you be leaving your car at the rental place?), going through the “give-it-back” inspection, and then driving home, you’ve burned a lot of time. I’d definitely at least get pricing from a tow company to be smart.
 
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