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| | | | | How To Decide The Car Tow Dolly You Need To Buy by Richard Brown | | | This essay is going to examine a couple of things you should consider before you buy a tow dolly. First, you want to consider the warranty. Most manufacturers offer a very limited 1 year warranty on the "assembly" of the tow dolly. That is very vague. Hardly anything can go wrong with the "assembly" of a tow dolly. What really matters is the warranty for moving parts like brakes, bearings, actuators etc. These are the essential moving components and actually the only thing that can fail or go wrong on a tow dolly. When making the purchase look for a company that offers a five year warranty on these parts. Such a warranty is a good signal for you the high confidence they have in their product.
No one warranties lights, tires, wheel straps, ratchets. In fact lights and wheel straps are considered to be consumables on a tow dolly. Car Tow Dolly comes in 4 styles. An idler, ( No Brakes ), an Electric Brake System, A Hydraulic Surge Drum Brake System, or a Hydraulic Surge Disc Brake System.
The idler system is frequently assigned for around town use, shuttling small cars from here to there around town. If you intend to travel it is essential to understand that a number of states require brakes of some kind on a Car Tow Dolly. Everyyear more states are added to the list. Also, the resale value of a tow dolly with brakes is much higher.
Electric Brake System is better than not having anything. But not the best system. Electric brakes need a Brake Control Box inside your RV. This brake control box has built in sensort technology, and external adjusting handles. If you are not very knowledgeable in understanding and setting these external control knobs then in reality you do not have brakes on your Tow Dolly and just don't know it. In addition to that, if you ever have a brake problem you will have to troubleshoot starting with the brake control box, the wiring from the brake system back to the trailer plug, then the entire wiring system of the tow dolly. A real burden and expensive.
A Hydraulic Surge Brake System is the most efficient and trouble free system. It will cost a good bit more, but it is worth it. Almost all manufacturers use a Hydraulic Surge "DRUM" Brake System. This is in reality a rather old technology. Drum brakes run much hotter, have a tendency towards chucking or abrupt hard braking. Because of the nature of a Tow Dolly, the adjustability of DRUM Brake Systems is poor. The adjusting port is blocked by a spindle plate making it difficult to get to the adjuster port to adjust the brakes. A number of dealers will say to you that tow dollies have brake adjusters. This is really a play of words. These are manual adjusters and without any automatic mechanism. There are no trailers of any type with self adjusting brakes. After each single long trip tow dolly brakes require adjustment or you just will not have brakes and may never know it. So, the near perfect braking system is a Hydraulic Surge "DISC" Brake System. DISC brakes run much cooler, never need adjusting, they do not chuck or hit hard when activated and they are four times more efficient and powerful than a DRUM system. The brake pads are in clear view and very easy to replace with pads obtainable at all auto parts stores.
The ideal tow dolly will also come equipped with bearings that require no maintenance. Bearings that never need greasing. These are very common on very costly high end equipment trailers but are seldom seen on small trailers. These are just a couple of points to consider before you make your purchase decision. Take your time and shop carefully. Go to the manufacturer's web site and see for yourself how much information they make available to you about their product. | | | | Article Source : Article-treasure.com | | Publication date : 12-20-2009 | | | | Article by Richard Brown | | | |
The more disclosure the better. Safe Trailers Save Lives. Acme Trailer specializes in Tow Bars and Tow Dollies | | | | Keywords : Tow Dolly, Brake Systems, wheel straps, Surge Drum Brake System | | | | | |
