A 31 foot Class-C mandates towing a car. The RV is too big for many scenic pull-offs and general maneuverability in national parks and elsewhere.
Having a car to drive locally opens many excursion possibilities and provides the convenience of leaving the RV all set up, ready for your return from a long day of sight-seeing and hiking.
If we were to vacation without a tow vehicle on a consistent basis, I would consider something no longer than 21 feet. We own a 24 footer and it is questionable for us. This is why we tow our little red car as seen in my signature. We bought our 24 foot RV for other considerations.
Our particular tow vehicle setup makes towing a breeze. It takes only 45 seconds to unhook the car & drive away, and 2 to 3 minutes to hook it back up. We do not use secondary braking as the tow vehicle is very light weight at 2100 pounds. A tow dolly or trailer would be too inconvenient for my taste.
Our 2000 Toyota MR2 Spyder gets over 30mpg which off-sets the loss in gas mileage from towing it. Our main trip last fall, we put 5000 miles on the RV and 1000 miles on the car. Doing the MPG math, it was a wash in fuel consumption, towing or not.
Having our little 2-seat convertible makes sight-seeing much more exciting than a normal car. Driving through canyons and mountains is a real experience with the top down. A Jeep Wrangler is a convertible that is even more versatile for more rugged terrain, but it is much heavier requiring secondary braking, and it gets poor gas mileage, nearly half our MR2.
Keep in mind my opinion is based on the type of vacationing we do.
Bought new in June 2007, Phoenix Cruiser-2350
Fits inside our garage.
Dingy towing a red Toyota MR2 Spyder
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I know that RAV4s are not flat-towable. I don't know about the VW. That said, the VW (or most any front wheel drive) can be towed on a dolly. If the Rav is awd, I wouldn't tow it at all.
Both of the cars you have would require modifications to be flat towable. You could put the VW on a tow dolly. You can't tow the Rav4 on a dolly, it would need to be modified for flat towing (transmission lube pump or driveshaft disconnects), if modifications are available.
We have a Ranger pickup as a tow vehicle. We usually leave it home, because we can get around so much better with the C when the combo is under 30' and I can back it any time I want to.
I doubt it is any less tiring driving a 31-foot class C, than pulling a 30 TT with a good tow vehicle and proper equipment setup. Both are subject to the same forces: heavy crosswinds, being pushed around by large trucks, dodging crazy drivers in 80 mph traffic on suburban freeways with 55 mph speed limits. Dealing with all this gets your adrenalin up, builds fatigue chemicals in your bloodstream that take hours to clear.
With respect to the "EasyCare RV extended warranty" read the terms of the service agreement carefully. It is a decent price for good coverage, it is too high a price if the coverage is poor. If they won't let you study the full terms of the contract, at least overnight, then you don't want to buy it.
There is no such thing as an extended warranty. There are "service agreement" plans and "insurance" plans, and every one is different.
Most service agreements sold in conjunction with a vehicle sale are offered initially at 100% markup, i.e. at least half the money immediately goes into the pocket of the guy sitting across the desk from you, no more than half gets sent to the underwriter. If you like the contract, try to negotiate down the seller's commission.
Then hope the contract gets sent in, and the contract administrator actually provides some service.
If I thought I couldn't afford to maintain my own RV, I probably would have bought the Good Sam CSP to cover a few expensive possible repairs.
I did both - towed a 23 ft trailer to the Grand Canyon and back to Nebraska. It was tiring, especially the strong cross winds that seemed to blow all the way back to NE.
This past summer I drove our Jayco Seneca to NY towing a CRV. Not even close in terms of ease and stress as driving the Seneca was a breeze compared to pulling a travel trailer. (in the interest of full disclosure I did upgrade the suspension on the Seneca).
Figuratively speaking, driving the Seneca is a two fingers on the steering wheel experience compared to white fisting it with the trailer. Also making the trip more relaxing was due to the Duramax diesel chugging along at a low rpm as compared to the Suburbans gas motor that had to run at a much higher RPM. I set the cruise control and away we went; 4 kids, the wife, and dog.
You've received some good advice with regards to towing your particular vehicles.
We've done both - we owned a 5er for two years. I was good for a maximum of seven hours of driving, and I was done. Mind you this typically wasn't Interstate driving; mostly 2 lane state routes.
We decided to trade in the 5er on a class C. I can go 12 hours and still feel good in the class C.
We decided to skip the tow vehicle the first year. On long weekends we went without a second vehicle. On vacations we would rent a car when we got to our destination. Renting was a hassle and expensive. For example at Grand Tetons, our rental agreement prohibited driving on gravel roads. There were many places I wanted to go that were prohibited by the rental contract.
Last year, we bought a Jeep to tow, and haven't regretted it for a minute. As others' mentioned, it isn't cheap getting setup.
Make sure that your hitch is a 5k hitch, not 3500. Check your combined capacity. Too.
With a 31' class C, also consider that a dolly will transfer some weight on to the hitch. You must deduct that from the total cargo capacity of your rig. By flat-towing a vehicle, there is zero tongue weight. With a rig the size of yours (and mine) cargo capacity is at a premium.
Last month I towed my Jeep with my motorhome from Western Washington to my new home city of Manchester, NH. The jeep slowed me down on the longer hills at times. But now that I'm here I have a set of wheels to get me around. Got hit for a bit more coin at the tolls. But you literally forget it's back there most of the time. I keep my backup camera turned on to help me see the back of it when changing lanes. I can't see it in my side mirrors except when turning.
You've received some good advice with regards to towing your particular vehicles.
We've done both - we owned a 5er for two years. I was good for a maximum of seven hours of driving, and I was done. Mind you this typically wasn't Interstate driving; mostly 2 lane state routes.
We decided to trade in the 5er on a class C. I can go 12 hours and still feel good in the class C.
We decided to skip the tow vehicle the first year. On long weekends we went without a second vehicle. On vacations we would rent a car when we got to our destination. Renting was a hassle and expensive. For example at Grand Tetons, our rental agreement prohibited driving on gravel roads. There were many places I wanted to go that were prohibited by the rental contract.
Last year, we bought a Jeep to tow, and haven't regretted it for a minute. As others' mentioned, it isn't cheap getting setup.
Make sure that your hitch is a 5k hitch, not 3500. Check your combined capacity. Too.
With a 31' class C, also consider that a dolly will transfer some weight on to the hitch. You must deduct that from the total cargo capacity of your rig. By flat-towing a vehicle, there is zero tongue weight. With a rig the size of yours (and mine) cargo capacity is at a premium.
Last month I towed my Jeep with my motorhome from Western Washington to my new home city of Manchester, NH. The jeep slowed me down on the longer hills at times. But now that I'm here I have a set of wheels to get me around. Got hit for a bit more coin at the tolls. But you literally forget it's back there most of the time. I keep my backup camera turned on to help me see the back of it when changing lanes. I can't see it in my side mirrors except when turning.
We have had almost everything since '69 and I go for towing 4 down. A dolly takes much more time to get loaded and the weather is not always sunny. I just got home Tuesday and unhitched in the rain. It takes about 5 minutes and I can do it alone. With the dolly hitching would take closer to 15 minutes and then after the 2 of us would be back in the MH wwe wouldn't talk for an hour. My wife needed an automatic trans so we had to go the Remco pump route and have been using the PT since April of 2002 with no problems. The only thing to watch is the tow capability of the MH. Enjoy yourself
We own a 2001 Winnie 31C and have towed a 4WD Explorer with aux braking ( M & G )for over 35000 miles the last 4 years. We camp in a central spot where we want to sight see & use our tow to tour. Never had a bit of trouble. Get 7.5- 8 MPG if I keep it below 60 MPH.
I would never consider going anywhere without hauling my toad along.
In the pouring rain, I can unhook it and be ready to drive in about 30 seconds.
Re-connecting can take an additional 30 seconds.
You're not going to be able to park a 31ft "mini" motorhome just anywhere, and it will jangle your nerves very quickly having to abandon an outing for just this reason.
'99 Glendale Royal Expedition 24' Class C
2003 Subaru WRX wagon as toad.
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