With all your advice, I purchased my drawbar, hitchball, and pin. I even bought the black plastic cover for the hitchball. And yes, Flea, I bought it all at Walmart.

Now I just have to decide whether to rent the car trailer or the car dolly. I have a 1993 S-10 Blazer (the little Blazer). It is a five speed manual transmission. I have checked the other rental companies in my area and Uhaul is the only one offering to rent the trailer or dolly w/o a truck rental. The car trailer is $562.00 and the car dolly is $280.00.

Should I spend the extra money for the car trailer? Which unit handles better (especially for the towing novice like myself)? The one thing that I do not like about the tow dolly is that UHaul said I should disengage the axle/driveshaft (?) even though I have a manual transmission. I am not that concerned about tire wear on the Blazer because it can use some new tires when I get to my destination anyway.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

 

I believe you will be happier with the tow dolly. Your center of gravity is lower, your width is less, and your length is less. Also, your overall tow weight is less since the dolly weighs quite a bit less than the trailer. With the front wheels properly fastened to the dolly I do not think you will encounter more sway... maybe less than the trailer because of the above... and less side area for cross winds.

But, I would remove the drive shaft... even if manual. Actually, you can get away with just undoing the back end next to the differential and tying it up out of the way... a couple of u bolts as I recall.

 

My advice is sell the chevy and buy a Bronco II or explorer when you get to your destination. But if you want to keep the chevy go with the dolly less weight less cost you have a little extra money to get some nice tires for it when you get to where your taking it.

 

I am not moving to the destination. I am taking the Blazer to my best friend in Portland. For my vacation I am driving to the Northwest in my Screw anyway and I am selling the Blazer to my best friend because the vehicle she has now is no longer functioning and she needs a vehicle. I wanted to give it to her but she insisted that she would only buy it from me so we came to a figure that is acceptable for both of us. I am using that money on my vacation. As a result, the money is really not an issue. I think that the Blazer will have a longer life span in the cooler Northwest weather and I do not want to pay the insurance to keep it so I will be saving money that way. It seemed that teenage boys were the only ones interested in the Blazer so they could lower it, paint it nasty colors and do awful things to it. I wanted the Blazer to go to a good home and my friend could use it and will treat it well.

 

Okay that sounds good yeah them teenage boys now days have something wrong with them as they want to totaly destroy a car or truck any way they can and say it looks cool there are some teenage boys that are smart and do the right mods and such but but most are into crapy looking kind of stuff.

 

Go with the dolly and disconnect the drive shaft from the differential and don't forget to disengage the parking brake.

If there's any chance that you'll forget to release the parking brake, get the trailer.

 

Hi all. I am in Portland and my everyone made it in one piece. Took forever between the construction on the 5 and the hills. In the end I got the trailer instead of the dolly and it was a good choice. The trailer looked like crap though with all of the electrical tape on it. The wiring was off (very jerry-rigged) and they had to get me an adapter. During the trip the left signal wire snapped so we had to stop at the next town's Uhaul to have them fix it.

My F-150 handled like a champ, especially up and the hills. Can I say it again - I LOVE MY TRUCK. I used the low gears where appropriate.

We loaded and unloaded it ourselves and gave my friend the Blazer yesterday. We dumped the trailer off today. My friends are going to make me a certificate for my trailer towing abilities. Only clipped one corner and not very much either. Still working on proper reversing techniques though. Luckily, my friend is experienced in towing boats.

Thanks again for all the advice.

 

Glad you made it one one peice and had a safe trip there. Yeah backing up is hard when you haven't backed up a trailer before.