Towing car from Boston to LA

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jmvvibeowner
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 3:22 am

Towing car from Boston to LA

Post by jmvvibeowner »

Hello. I'm planning on moving from Boston to Los Angeles soon and a mechanic I talked to told me that if I tow my car on a tow dolly behind our moving truck it will cause some suspension issues on the car. He didn't go into detail but he suggested shipping my car or putting it on a vehicle trailer and towing it. Well I don't have the money to ship it and not sure I want to have that much behind me towing.

Does anyone know if towing my car on the dolly will cause problems for my car? It is a kia forte. Any good feedback you can give me will be appreciated. I'm moving in a couple of weeks and don't want to get to LA and find out I've got car problems and a big bill to fix them. I'll be driving 8 hrs a day and stopping to sleep every night. Has anyone done a move like this where they towed their car (two wheels, not four on the road) ?
SlammedNiss
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Re: Towing car from Boston to LA

Post by SlammedNiss »

Im no expert by any means, so take this with a grain of salt. But how is towing a car on a dolly any different than driving down the road on it's own? Yea, you're slightly shifting the weight of the car towards the back, but only slightly. So I couldn't imagine that harming anything suspension wise.
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jmvvibeowner
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 3:22 am

Re: Towing car from Boston to LA

Post by jmvvibeowner »

Well, I know I was thinking the same thing. Not sure if he thinks I'll be driving over all kinds of potholes or bad roads. I'm going to ask for a better explanation of what he said.
andrewclaus
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Re: Towing car from Boston to LA

Post by andrewclaus »

RVers do this a lot. I looked at some RV forums and the only drawback I saw mentioned is very slight nonuniform wear on tires. Nothing about suspension risk.
zbyers
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Re: Towing car from Boston to LA

Post by zbyers »

You'll be fine to using a car dolly, if the car is FWD, to tow it cross country. We have towed many vehicles either on a dolly or on all four wheels (drive shaft removed if RWD or in neutral if standard). If it's AWD, you definitely want it on a car hauler.
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jmvvibeowner
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 3:22 am

Re: Towing car from Boston to LA

Post by jmvvibeowner »

ok, Thank you all for your input. I didn't think that sounded right.
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