OntarioTurbo

A neighbour up the street from me has a two wheeled towing dolly for sale cheap. Has anyone ever used these? Is it possible to use these without damaging our cars?

vt951

I'd like to know the answer to this, too. I've considered towing this way and just swapping rear wheels/tires at the track. I think my Honda Pilot may actually be able to tow this way, too. (about 3,500 lb. limit).

Scootin159

I used one once to tow my Miata behind my Jeep. I towed the car backwards as my understanding is that the Miata's diff doesn't lubricate well when the engine isn't running. I've also heard that you can just start the engine on the towed vehicle and let it idle in neutral as you go down the road to keep the rear diff lubricated. Towing it backwards was no problem though, I just used some rope to 'lock' the steering wheel in place.

One concern would be ground clearance - the Miata's rockers JUST cleared the ends of the 'ramps' once it was fully loaded. I'm sure that if I hit any large bumps the ramps would have contacted the car's rockers.

Also - you CANNOT back up with them - even without a vehicle on them, as the dolly's axle pivots independently of the hitch, thus giving you an uncontrolled steered axle. That's not to mention the second independent action of the car's pivot.

I've also heard that towing a car this way can put undue stress into the suspension components (as only the wheels are secured to the dolly). I'm not sure how true this is though, considering this is how most people recommend that you secure a car to a flatbed trailer. It may have some merit though in that only two wheels are secured as opposed to four.

Oh, and if towing in reverse, make sure the hatch and sunroof are both well secured.

vt951

Towing it backwards sounds scary. Regarding the Miata diff issue, is that something specific to the Miata, or would that apply to the 944/951 as well?

Scootin159

I take my statement back - it's not the diff that has the issue (as both the output and input sides of the diff will be spinning the same as when you drive the car) - it's the transmission's output shaft. Because the transmission will be in neutral, the output shaft will spin with the wheels, but the input shaft will be stationary.

The transmission is designed with the assumption that the output shaft will only be spinning when the input shaft is spinning, and therefore the Miata's transmission oil pump is driven off the input shaft, not the output shaft. Although the input shaft may be undriven with the output driven when you coast at speed with the clutch pedal in, the time spans that this is done are very short.

To answer your question, I'm not sure if this is specific to the Miata, or if ALL RWD cars have the same issue. Specifically, I also don't know if the 944's transmission would have the same issue.

Jeremy Himsel

Towed a 951 from Vegas to Phoenix with one rented from u-haul (about 360 miles) and it was no problem. We had to use a couple 2x4's to get the wheels up a bit to clear the nose (which is why u-haul won't rent them to you if you tell them your towing a 944/51). We used a navigator to tow it and you barely knew another car was back there.

MichelleJD

Towed mine 328 miles from IL to MI last wek. No issues. If you don't buy it, let me know. I'm moving to Toronto in July and I'll buy it.