Has anyone car dolly towed i-MiEV?

[gmarcucio]

I'm going to need to tow my I-MiEV 200 miles. Has anyone dolly towed their I-MiEV before. Anything I should be aware of? how does it handle on the dolly driving down the road. Like the manual says, I plan on driving the rear wheels up onto the dolly with front wheels on the road. securing the steering wheel in the straight ahead position and put the vehicle in neutral with the key in the ACC position. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[JoeS]

I, too, am interested in this, as I would also tow the car backwards with the rear wheels on the dolly. Two questions:
1) What is the reason for having the car in Neutral (and thus the key in the ACC position)?
2) How exactly do you plan on immobilizing the steering wheel?

 

[Don]

I don't understand either. With the rear wheels strapped to the dolly, leaving the shifter in Park would make the most sense and then no need for key to be in the ignition at all - The steering wheel would then be locked straight

I've dolly towed other RWD cars 'backwards' and had no issues at all - should work fine

Don

 

[gmarcucio]

I, too, am interested in this, as I would also tow the car backwards with the rear wheels on the dolly. Two questions:
1) What is the reason for having the car in Neutral (and thus the key in the ACC position)?
2) How exactly do you plan on immobilizing the steering wheel?

I'm thinking the car has to be in neutral so the steering wheel is not locked and can be positioned straight. When the key is off the steering wheel locks but you might not be able to lock it in the true straight ahead position. Unlocked you can steer it straight ahead and then secure it with a tie strap or possibly with the seat belt, etc. When auto techs do a wheel alignment they never use the steering wheel lock to hold the wheel centered for the alignment. They have the wheel unlocked and use a spring loaded device pressing on the seat and up against the steering wheel to hold it. Same idea.

 

[siai47]

They might be worried about damage to the parking pawl in the reduction gear if you leave it in "park". Even on a trailer, the car wants to move around a little as the straps stretch or move putting a lot of strain on the pawl. I would leave it in neutral and set the parking brake when I had the car secured to the dolly. Also be sure to secure the steering wheel with a strong strap so it cannot move. The car being towed backwards will have negative caster due to the angle it sits on because the rear wheels are elevated. This causes the steer tires to want to do anything except stay straight.

 

[Don]

To each his own. If the parking brake is set, I don't see how you could damage the parking pawl - It will usually put up with being shifted into Park when the vehicle is in motion and towing wouldn't represent nearly that kind of shock

For me, the big reason to use Park would be th ability to lock the steering straight with the key - Gotta be more secure than straps or seatbelts

Don

 

[siai47]

Does anybody's I-MiEV lock "straight with the key"? I have two of them and both lock the column with the steering wheel about 90 degrees from center. Just a question.

 

[BarryP]

I'm going to need to tow my I-MiEV 200 miles.

Also AAA will give you a premier member tow up to 200 miles.

 

[pbui19]

hello - I am thinking of dolly tow 350 miles distance. So is it general consensus that it is ok ? what is the longest any one has dolly towed the iMiev ? any comment and experience is very appreciated.

thanks, Paul

 

[iwatson]

hello - I am thinking of dolly tow 350 miles distance. So is it general consensus that it is ok ? what is the longest any one has dolly towed the iMiev ? any comment and experience is very appreciated.

Sorry Paul, I have not dolly towed my i-miev, so I can't help you there! I have given it some thought though. In the murky future I would like to own a motor home and I think the i-miev would be a good car to tow since it's so light. It's electric range is adequate for local excursions once the motor home is set up at a campground.

Of course since the i-miev is rear wheel drive it would have to be dolly towed backwards with the drive wheels off the ground. This would put the smaller front wheels on the ground, plus you'd have to find a way keep the steer tires from turning. Perhaps a u-haul store would know a way to do that. If you're planning on rent a tow dolly, it might be easier to rent a car trailer that gets all 4 wheels on the trailer.

 

[jray3]

No reports yet of dolly towing that ai can recall. I think it'd tow fine on all fours with the key switch on and shifted to Neutral (or B mode for long descents). It does fine on forced regen. Don't know what unintended consequences could happen when spinning that motor with the systems shut down. The curb weight is low enough to put it on a light single-axle trailer of 3500 lb capacity, and that makes maneuvering easier.

 

[tigger19687]

Why chance it ?
It is $10 more to rent the Trailer for a car (all 4 wheels off the ground).
I know because I was looking into this when I buy a used one. I have a pick up truck so it isn't an issue for me. But this is a tiny car anyway.


How did the OP do on his trip ?

 

[pbui19]

Why chance it ?
It is $10 more to rent the Trailer for a car (all 4 wheels off the ground).
I know because I was looking into this when I buy a used one. I have a pick up truck so it isn't an issue for me.

Yeah, i've thought of that, but Uhaul said that my 2003 Honda Odyssey can't handle the 4-wheel trailer. The 4-wheel trailer itself weighs quite a bit; and being $138 vs $78.

I am pretty sure it'll be ok, i plan to take it easy and slow as it's a one time deal. I just want to see if any one has done it and share any experience. May be I'll be the first guinea pig.
-Paul

 

[tigger19687]

I was looking into it too. But since it is rear wheel drive I didn't like the fact of having to secure the steering wheel to keep front wheels straight while towing faster then say 30mph.

What about just the tow bar ?
I see people do it all the time down in TX --- course I see people do a ton of Stupid things down there too

Up here in Boston, Uhaul is $20 for a pickup (0.59 a mile but you may be able to get a better rate with a coupon code or something) then $55 for the auto transport thingy.

Maybe you have a friend that can help that has a bigger vehicle or truck?
If I was close I would help, but I don't know where you live

 

[JoeS]

...Don't know what unintended consequences could happen when spinning that motor with the systems shut down....

Can anyone comment on this? It would be much cleaner aerodynamically to have the car pointing forward.

Once again, the i-MiEV manual warns against towing.

Attaching a towbar to our i-MiEV I think would require a significant mod.

As saia47 pointed out, using the steering wheel ignition key lock means the steering wheel gets turned 90 degrees, either way, which means the car's front wheels are not straight ahead. A different technique to hold the wheel straight would need to be utilized.

Paul, I'd loan you my trailer which I use for the Sparrows, but it's only rated for 1875lbs. Sorry. You might try someone other than U-Haul and maybe a smaller utility trailer would be sufficient.

 

[JoeS]

Has anyone done this yet? What exactly is the problem if the car gets towed forward on the dolly and in Neutral but with all systems off? For that matter, what if it's towed forward in Neutral while in Ready?

Might need to do this tomorrow, and would rather not rent a car hauler.

 

[Aerowhatt]

Only one issue that I can think of towing with the rear wheels on the ground. The cooling system isn't running so the motor and gear box could overheat.

If you think about it, some of us "tow" in neutral with all four wheels. One stretch coming back from the mountains is 8 to 10 miles of coasting in N at 45 to 58 mph.

Aerowhatt

 

[JoeS]

Only one issue that I can think of towing with the rear wheels on the ground. The cooling system isn't running so the motor and gear box could overheat. If you think about it, some of us "tow" in neutral with all four wheels. One stretch coming back from the mountains is 8 to 10 miles of coasting in N at 45 to 58 mph.

Aerowhatt, thanks. Good point about motor cooling. OK, so if I simply put her into Ready that will ensure the cooling pump is activated. About 30% of my driving is in Neutral when I'm hypermiling, and I like to tell people I have four regeneration levels: Zero (N)-D-Eco-B.

 

[JoeS]

Well, when I tried to reserve a dolly or car-hauler on U-Haul's site, they said I needed to come in ahead of time to have my vehicle authorized, so I took my venerable Isuzu Trooper down there. After checking the hitch receiver (massive thing I had welded to the frame when I first got it in '88) and the properly-functioning lights we went to the office where the office person first said that the Isuzu doesn't qualify to tow a car hauler with the i-MiEV on it (total weight?) but that the dolly would qualify but then... oh-oh, "it's a rear-wheel drive car with an automatic transmission" which they prohibit because the driveshaft has to be removed and they don't allow that (despite me trying to explain it's an electric car with no fore-aft driveshaft and no automatic transmission) and when I said I'd simply pull it backwards that was also prohibited, so no deal. I need to save my health lately, so I left without strangling anyone and am going to have a campground-charging 150-mile adventure tomorrow picking up an i-MiEV for a friend.

 

[PV1]

Should've tried saying you are towing your Insight :mrgreen: . About the same weight, but FWD.

The trailer I got from U-Haul to bring Koorz home weighed more than the car did.

As long as the car is READY and in neutral (turn the ASC off), I don't see any mechanical or electrical reasons the car can't be dolly-towed. What little heat is being generated by the free-spinning motor is being removed by the coolant. The only issue I see is the car's computer freaking out because the front wheels aren't turning. I'd almost guarantee you'll have warning lights illuminated when you got to your destination, but nothing a few feet of normal driving wouldn't fix.

At least U-Haul recognizes the i-MiEV as a RWD car. The guy at the service desk at the dealer thought the i-MiEV was FWD with all four tires the same size. Calling around for tires, another person actually argued that I had to buy 4 tires because only putting winter tires on the rear would do nothing for traction (again, thinking that I was wrong about the i-MiEV being RWD and not FWD).

That was the nice thing about the Cavalier I used to drive. It was flat-tow compatible and had the transmission's oil pump mounted to the output shaft so it would still function in neutral with the engine off. I hate how the i-MiEV's gearbox (all EVs, really) is listed as an "Automatic".

If somebody does dolly-tow the i-MiEV, I'd love to see the RR calculation after 15+ miles of only using .4 kW .