We went out for our first trip and didn't take even a bicycle to get around on. The Provincial Parks in Ontario don't have any stores that are close enough to walk to for most of the camp sites. My husband can't walk far anyway and can't ride a bicycle any more (bad ticker) so we are now considering towing a vehicle with us. We are wondering what the experience has been regarding towing, methods for towing, what vehicles are better than others, etc. - Any information or opinions anyone can offer would be appreciated.
Thanks
Linda & Dave Alexander
Shedden, Ontario

We tow a 4WD SUV. It has two mountain bikes on the back and a 14 foot aluminum boat on the roof.

We have a cheap fit-all tow bar with a home made base plate. Any good blacksmith can do it. I made a light bar that fits on the back out of a board and two taillights and a long pigtail of wire to the coach.

Toads should have brakes. I like the US
Gear, but everyone has an opinion, and that is another discussion.

We use the toad for exploring, shopping, and access to areas unreachable by the coach for an overnight in the tent. It also carries our firewood and wood fire pit.

www.towingworld.com will help you with what can be towed. Our preference is what we have because it is so versatile, but lots of people love their Saturns etc. Both of my sons have or have had them. Good cars, indeed. Motor Home magazine has an annual towing issue. I believe they sell reprints or back issues if you are considering an older toad. Some toads can only be towed in the manual trans version. Remco makes a driveshaft disconnect for some automatics. I used to crawl under and disconnect a Toyota driveshaft to tow. Four bolts and a bungee cord.

We had a 4wd Chevy Tracker until last year - sold it for nothing because it had 350 km on it - and got a newer car...too big for towing - but we are considering looking for another old tracker to tow - they are short, light and hopefully inexpensive and easy to tow?

WOW Bill - went to the Towing world web page and it is loaded with information - printed out a bunch for my hubby - he will be amazed at how quickly I got the information he wanted! This Barth site is the best! I am amazed at the number of Barth owners, the friendliness of everyone, and the willingness to assist in any way possible! It is the greatest!
Thanks again!

I tow what I already owned, '91 Honda Accord with automatic. All Hondas and Acuras with automatics are towable. I've towed mine for about 15k miles--no problems. I also carry a miniature sport bike on a rack that I built. It fits between the towbar and hitch.

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Eddie Chevalier
'85 Barth Regal 28' P-30 454
'91 Honda Accord/'87 Yamaha YSR 50 Toads

Here's a link to Motorhome Magazine's Dinghy Towing Guide http://www.motorhomemagazine.com/dinghytowingguide/index.cfm

I tow a '96 4x4 Suzuki Sport Sidekick automatic, a dolled up version of the Tracker. Touted onto it by a friend who's towed a Tracker for years. He's an off-road nut and runs all over the desert with his.

The Suzuki works fine for us. Tows easily. Just be sure you have manual hubs set to 2wd, have the the key in the acc. position so the steering isn't locked, tranny in park, and transfer case in neutral. Miss any of those, and you'll have "an interesting experience."

Several alternatives for tow bars and toad brakes. Cost varies from cheap to steep. Bill H's alternative is least expensive, but not as pretty as some others.

I went with a motorhome mounted tow bar cuz' I didn't want the weight on the toad. Connect & disconnect might be a little easier with a toad mounted unit, you only have the ball to disconnect, though you have as much electrical and safety gear to deal with in either case.

I went with a Tow-v-Aire toad brake cuz' it was the cheapest mechanical/air cylinder unit with a dash light to tell if the brake was working. A little more hassle to install than some others, and a little bother to connect and disconnect to drive or tow the toad, but that's camping anyway. It's a mail order unit sold direct by the mfr.

Some toad brakes tout ease-of-use, some tout modern electronics, some tout proportional braking, etc.

I'm too old to trust electronics. My brake is activated by the brake light switch in the m.h., the warning light by the brake light switch in the toad. It's on, or its off, no proportionality, but for me that's not important. It works fine for us.

We tow a 1996 Saturn SC2. Linda almost all Saturns are 1. towable 4 wheels down automatic transmission with no odometer consequences, and 2. They are fairly light cars and good cars.

The negative is that they are small



I have the 2003 Dingy list in pdf form is somebody wants it email me.

and Linda, two years ago we did the Lake Superior circle tour and really enjoyed the Canadian Provincial Parks, especially Sleeping Giant. And the registration system is awesome.



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Short cuts always take longer

1985 28 foot Regal
Dave and Deb Bowers

Dave - the Canadian Provincial Parks are good - If you get to Ontario, Algonquin Park is terrific! We will likely have to tow something as we plan to head out in January for Arizona, California etc. and since time is not a factor, we will wander around for a few months and see all the west warm country that we have only seen on tv! We are looking into what to use for towing and a car to tow...I have a Olds 98 so it is quite a large car for towing - and my husband has a truck - so we likely will have to get another vehicle for towing. I was thinking a little motor cycle, but my husband has breathing problems as well as heart, so he couldn't drive one but I would love it - so we are back to looking into towable cars and methods. USA has so many more resources for finding the towing aparatus - we are still looking for a place to service the Barth and then we will find a place that sells the towing equipment - then a vehicle. It seems to be like finding a needle in a haystack up here - nothing is easy to find. We did find a dealer for motor homes but they said they don't do the mechanical work on their coaches - they send them out to some trucking place. Now all we have to do is find the trucking place they send to in the city. Most dealers here don't have the door height to accommodate a Barth type coach or the hoists to lift it up if it gets in the doors. Like I said, Canada is decades behind USA in most things!
Thanks
Linda

You know Linda if you are just looking for an inexpensive toad. Consider a Ford Ranger. You can buy them used like this 1995 for $5995.00US with AC etc. and you pick up some very much needed storage. The Manual trannies are easily towed four down. They are a teensy bit over the 3500 lbs so have a certified welder update your hitch to 5000#'s. Should cost around $125.00US.



[This message has been edited by davebowers (edited October 26, 2003).]

If you go for a mini pickup, consider a shell, too. We had a mini pickup with a shell for years. Really handy for almost everything.

Oh if we had only known we would buy a Barth! We just sold a GM Tracker and also a Nissan pick-up with a topper on the box - would have been perfect - but alas, we sold them as we are just two people, and we had a bunch of vehicles we drove once in a while, so we opted to sell them and keep just two vehicles - neither of which are suitable for towing.....now to go out looking for something not too heavy and not too expensive!
Thanks for the input -we will consider a truck in our search- appreciate it.
Linda

We went out looking for a dolly today - and found out that due to Cdn restrictions they aren't importing any more from USA so we have to find one that is used - we can get a trailer to tow four wheels down, but we thought we would see what would haul our Olds 98 as this would make it so we didn't have to buy another vehicle - so we would need a dolly to tow the olds - anyone have any input on towing a big car? We are at a loss - nothing is easy to find here!

AND - to tow with a trailer, we need this and a braking buddy and something else and the total would be $7000 - plus a vehicle that could be towed four wheels down - so we are still leaning towards a dolly - This is a real block for us - can't figure out how to get a dolly as we see none used available, and only found one salesperson who was helpful, but told us he can no longer get the dolly as Canada won't allow them to be sold due to some laws they have input for big trucks!

Linda, do you remember that when I obtained the info on the Royale, that I said kind of meekly that one of the reasons they didn't make many of them was because they were borderline too heavy. Well, how much does that Olds weight, about 5000 lbs plus and then you will ad a dolly of at least 800 lbs. You have a gas motorhome with less than 400 ft. lbs. of torque. And remember, you not only have to pull, but you have to stop it too. So I would reconsider the Olds/dolly idea,

Sorry Linda, I think I am talking to you like I would my daughter.

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Short cuts always take longer

1985 28 foot Regal
Dave and Deb Bowers