A Toad/Dinghy for the Road

In our quest for an RV, we have also been considering a tow vehicle. We had thought the best thing would be to get something smaller and lighter than the cars we have now (Accord and CR-V). Also, we are going to sell the Accord before we sell our house so we thought we would pay off and then sell the CR-V as well and then get a smaller car for towing. We had seen the Honda Fit and thought that might work out. After talking to our financial expert, I thought that we might not want the extra expense of purchasing a new car, and I thought about just keeping the CR-V.

After telling Ellyn about this idea and finding the weight of the CR-V to be about 4,000 lbs., Ellyn was searching the forums online to see what people thought was the best car for towing behind a motorhome. Guess what? The CR-V came up most often. Not only that, it looks like it does not even need to be modified, except to put on the towing hardware.

The owners manual has a couple of pages describing the exact procedure for towing a CR-V. (Click the picture to the left to read) Notably, it says to shift through all gears, then to drive, then to neutral and let the engine run for 3 minutes before shutting off and towing. DO NOT shift from reverse to neutral before towing. Odd. You have to repeat every 8 hours if continually towing and it can only be towed on "all fours" or you can damage the AWD system. Perfect!

BTW, "toad" and "dinghy" are both names for the vehicle towed behind a motorhome. I haven't decided which I like yet.