Uhaul car carrier

[Wings06j]

I'll definitely hit the scales to verify I'm safe once loaded. But is there anywhere to find the highlander weight per axle without actually getting it weighed? That way I can try to estimate tongue weight to know if renting the trailer is even viable.

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[JimG_AZ]

Check out this video that Dave posted on a different thread in the Towing forum. This is definitely heavier than what you are looking to pull, but they are using a LOT better car hauler trailer than the U-Haul.

Ranger towing at max limit

 

[Wings06j]

Thanks. Good to see it's actually capable of towing that much. I've towed plenty of uhaul trailers long distance, just never a car hauler and never that close to max weight.

This should be the only time I ever need to do this so not really looking to buy a trailer and then have to sell it again. I've rented uhaul trucks before too but the issue right now is two cars, one driver so adding a third vehicle doesn't help. Our original plan of selling one car and then buying after the move fell apart when we had to replace the car earlier than expected.

I'm thinking I'll just have to load everything up and make a few trips to the scales to determine total weight and tongue weight. If I have to buy a few sand bags to balance it out properly that's an option too.

 

[subquark]

I'm planning on towing a Toyota highlander on a car carrier behind my ranger. I'll be pretty close to the towing limits both in terms of what the car carrier can do and what the ranger is rated for. Uhaul won't let me reserve online, I think due to the weight of the highlander compared to the weight of the truck. Trying to see if anyone has towed similar or has a better idea for one driver to move two cars long distance. Thanks.

I may have said I was towing a Scion ...

But I may have used it for my FJ40 and it may have towed great!

The U-Haul car transport doesn't let you place the car farther back (not that I could tell) and that FJ is really short, so I had WAY too much tongue weight. So much so that while backing down my daughter's driveway, the Ranger's front wheel slid on gravel.

Apart from that, it was a very short trip and did great. It was still under the 7,500 pound tow limit but hitch weight was certainly too much. Edit: without a scale, I figure it was about 6,600 pounds

You can see a lot of squat and I should have placed the hitch two inches higher.

 

[Friday yet?]

What is the weight limit on a uhaul tow dolly? Second, is it OK to tow the highlander with the rear axle on the ground? If you can do so seems to me you just solved the whole problem. But I've no clue as to the capacity of those things.

 

[Wings06j]

What is the weight limit on a uhaul tow dolly? Second, is it OK to tow the highlander with the rear axle on the ground? If you can do so seems to me you just solved the whole problem. But I've no clue as to the capacity of those things.

I have the AWD highlander which unfortunately does not have any sort of flat tow mode. I checked the owners manual on it and it has to be towed with all wheels off the ground.

 

[Trigganometry]

I would think for what you’re trying to do a dual axle car tow dolly would probably be your best bet. Some will far exceed our trailer tow limits for capacity but not overload the hitch weight limit.

 

[Bart]

I always tell uhaul that I am towing a 2000 ford focus lol. Lot of tongue weight here. The FE motor weighs close to 700lbs on its own. I towed all downhill on i17 into phoenix, it was definitely pushing the truck downhill but didn't feel unsafe at any point.

 

[taralon]

I know that this is an older thread, but it might be worth it for future reference.

One thing to keep in mind with Uhaul is that they expect your total trailer+car weight (when using a car hauler) to be no more than 80% of the curb weight of the towing vehicle. With a Dolly they expect the tow vehicle to be 750 lbs heavier than the car being towed, which cannot be any heavier than 3500 lbs curb weight. Thus a Ranger Screw 4x4 per Uhaul can only tow ~3550 lbs on a car hauler (trailer+car weight, so the max car curb weight is actually 1350 lbs), and no heavier than 3500 with a dolly, even though ford says it can do 7500 with the tow package.

Why do they do this? Liability mostly. Most people getting a Uhaul trailer have likely never towed anything before and don't understand the need to ease into braking so that you avoid a jackknife situation, or what to do if you start to get trailer sway. If the trailer is significantly lighter than the towing vehicle it makes those situations a lot less likely, especially if the trailer has a higher than ideal tongue weight.

If you tow often you know that Uhauls limits are rather arbitrary. Often they will rent you the equipment anyways, but you sign that paperwork saying you understand and will abide by the restrictions they have in place with failure to do so being at your own risk.

 

[ControlNode]

Yeah, their trailers for front engine cars/trucks looks like it would be very tongue heavy, Rear wheel barely behind trailer axle while front wheel to the stop that is just barely closer to the axle than the tongue. At least with my own trailer with 4 tie-down scraps I can move the car/truck forward/back to get the ideal tongue weight.

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