Has anyone car dolly towed i-MiEV?

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Thanks for resurrecting this question PV1, as I currently have a tow dolly hitched to the van and will try to answer this question before returning the dolly this weekend.

BTW- I salvaged a circa-1996 EV-converted 1985 Nissan Pulsar yesterday. It took a small crew of high schoolers less than three hours to remove all EV-related components, some of which will be resurrected on the Grumman Kurbwatt.
 
Sorry to resurrect an old topic. Did we ever figure out if the i-Miev can be dolly towed safely? I am trying to think ahead somewhat my plans to transport my EV about 900 miles at some point in the future and I think I would need to use a tow dolly for that purpose with the weight restrictions of my tow vehicle. Looking for feedback on towing the i-Miev with a dolly. Thanks.
 
You would have to tow it with the rear wheels on the dolly, which presents some problems. The steering wheel won't lock in the center position, so you'd have to leave the key in it and tie the wheel straight somehow. With the rear end up on the dolly, extra weight is put on the tiny front tires and the front bumper cover will be very close to the ground - Very little ground clearance and if you went over an undulation at speed it *might* scrape the ground, or if you hit any sort of obstruction (dead animal in the road?) you might tear the bumper cover off. If you had a blowout on a front tire at 65 mph, I could see all sorts of problems . . . .

I might try it for a very short distance, but 900 miles??

If you do it, resurrect this thread again and let us know how it went - I'm sure many people would love to read some empirical evidence rather than all of our conjecturing ;)

Both of our cars have been trailer towed with all 4 wheels on the trailer for several hundred miles - I know that's safe. Is it really much less weight to stop than towing with a dolly? Most trailers have brakes . . . . most dollies don't. In a panic stop with a lightweight tow vehicle, I think you'd be better off with the trailer

Lastly, I think someone here once tried renting a U-Haul dolly to tow an IMiEV and when they asked what vehicle needed to be towed, they refused to rent them the dolly

Edit: Yes, it was Joe - From earlier in this thread " . . . but then... oh-oh, "it's a rear-wheel drive car with an automatic transmission" which they prohibit because the driveshaft has to be removed and they don't allow that (despite me trying to explain it's an electric car with no fore-aft driveshaft and no automatic transmission) and when I said I'd simply pull it backwards that was also prohibited, so no deal."

Don
 
I did a google search and found the emergency manual for the i-Miev and they clearly don't want you towing this car with a dolly forwards or backwards.

I don't know how the folks pulling it with the RV did it unless they put it on a trailer. Like someone else mentioned here the crazy trailer from a uhaul weighs almost as much as the car! So when it comes time to transport the car I may need to pay to have it moved, or see if I can come up with a better towing vehicle for that specific trip.

It is a little ways off... I still have to find the car first! LOL Just worrying about the details I guess... I have to admit I am not liking the towing options with the i-Miev.
 
I agree with iWatson's assessment:
"U-haul is following the tow dolly manufacturers warning to "not" tow a car backwards. My tow dolly manufacturer even went as far to tell me that if I did it, I would be pulled over by the police as it's "against the law". For any other car this would be true, (except I doubt if it's against the law) but since the i-miev is so different, unusual and rare there's just no knowledge base regarding this car. A normal rear wheel drive car would have the engine up front, which if towed backwards that weight of the engine would be at the tail end of the rig hanging behind the last axle and low to the ground. This weight would cause the rig to start swaying side to side, which is very dangerous. The i-miev doesn't have an engine, and all of it's weight is on the rear axle. So towed backwards it's weight distribution is setup just like a front-wheel drive car, towed forward."

As long as there are some red reflectors on the rearmost portion of the dollied i-MiEV (preferably covering the yellow turn signals), I'd feel comfortable hitting the road with an i-MiEV pointed backwards on a tow dolly with the tranny in Neutral and steering wheel tied down. A device like The Club secures the steering wheel to the brake pedal, so the wheel and the brakes are locked out and your car has a theft deterrent. (arguable- http://freakonomics.com/2010/06/08/what-car-thieves-think-of-the-club/
 
Posting a couple of photos showing iwatson's dolly-towing setup. That is one long combination to park! :shock:

iWatson0620.jpg


iWatson0614.jpg
 
JoeS said:
Still hasn't posted of photo of exactly how the steering wheel gets strapped down... :roll:

I'm really gonna get it done Joe. I'm taking an RV trip at the end of this month to the Smokey Mountains in East Tennessee. I'll take the pictures and send them to you to post.

BTW>>>My out west adventure last August, I towed the i-miev 5,169miles

My route was Memphis, TN. to St. Louis, MO to Kansas City, MO to Mitchell, SD to Mt. Rushmore, SD to Devil's Tower, WY to Yellowstone N.P., WY to Salt Lake City, UT, to Arches National Park, Moab, UT to Monument Valley to Zion N.P. UT to Las Vegas, NV to Anaheim, CA to Grand Canyon N.P. AZ, and back to Memphis (Whew!) :)
 
iWatson, I haven't come close to your record, but just dolly-towed an i-MiEV 1252 miles from home to Durango, Colorado (second time Moab UT has seen such a rig, more on that later...) For the first dolly tow, I had the wheel tightly bound to the seat mount and seatbelt latch with camlock straps, but for subsequent reloadings, found that looping the seatbelt over the wheel worked just fine. To do this, slide the seat full forward, run the seatbelt over the centered wheel at 7 o-clock, pass under the center spoke, and then over the wheel at 5 o-clock and snap in the buckle. Then slide the seat back to tension the belt. If you run the seat belt over the spoke, it will sound the horn at an inopportune time! Lastly, don't worry that this leaves a little play in the wheel. If anything, the car seemed to travel more smoothly with a looser tie on the steering wheel, and on a U-Haul dolly, there's plenty more than the minimum 3" clearance to each dolly fender well to allow for some pivot while cornering. Just don't tell U-Haul that you're towing backwards! Two of Two law enforcement officers encountered on our journey had no problem with the rear-facing tow, and seemed to appreciate the little flashing red triangle that I hung from the hood latch. Tire wear was a non-issue, with mold release 'nubbies' still visible on the new snow tires I installed just before the tow.

With the i-MiEV weighing only 2300 lb, it should have been fine behind our Odyssey minivan, which is rated for 3500 lbs. However my tranny started slipping a week before the trip, so we bit the bullet for that replacement (original tranny lasted 130k, this genuine Honda reman only lasted 100k, after they claimed to have fixed the original shortcomings such as narrow oil passages that get clogged by bits of clutch lining...) I also ran a tranny cooler on the second transmission that doesn't seem to have helped. The new tranny was broken in on a dyno prior to installation, and my mechanic said that he'd warrant the planned tow, plus I had 2 1/2 days of break-in driving! However, it had a bit of a whine and threw an error code by mile 20, and three more times after a reset. The mechanic found no bad wiring connections and the code didn't come up again in the next 20 miles of testing, but it lit up again by mile 30 of our tow, and I limped to an off-ramp at mile 40, with one freshly-smoked tranny! We unloaded the i-MiEV and headed for home after a cool-down period, pulling over for two more cool-downs when I felt it start slipping again. The van is undergoing a warranty tranny replacement right now! :roll: Here's hoping for no second thoughts on that warranty.

EV Tow Take Two- time to throw some new starting batteries in my 1987 F250 Diesel, which hasn't ventured far from home in the past decade, just "dump runs" and towing my electric dragster to shows and races. The olde truck scarcely noticed that puny load out back, but my junkyard-salvage electric cooling fan failed before cresting Snoqualmie Pass. Fortunately, this is winter and that Ford has a semi-sized radiator, so keeping up momentum for airflow plus running the cab heater at max when topping passes was all that was needed to prevent overheating!

One of the other idiosyncracies of my old truck is that despite a fuel system rebuild last year, the new tank-switching solenoid valve seems to work intermittently, so I can only depend on one of the two 19 gallon tanks. For this tow, I had figured my minimum safe range at 216 miles, and only stretched that interval once, on the approach to Moab, Utah approaching 9 pm. Well, we sucked air and coasted to a stop at mile 201, with the fuel station literally at 202 miles. No problem, as we have a lifeboat! For its second deployment on this journey, the i-MiEV was used to fetch diesel, which was a pain as the first three gas stations didn't sell fuel cans! I returned to find my wife entertaining one of Moab's finest, who pulled up to what looked like a car thief's getaway rig, tow dolly ramps and straps deployed at the ready, but instead found the wife and kids singing karaoke from an iPhone! When my first few attempts at purging air from the fuel system failed (with no small amount of smoke and clatter), the officer asked if there was any way to get our rig off the highway shoulder, so I simply tied a tow rope to the i-MiEV and had my wife pilot the mighty bean as it towed the stricken diesel a mile down the road effortlessly. The cop was stunned, and my wife was amazed by 'how easy that felt'. After a messy, smoky air purge, we arrived safely by 2 am. (The second officer encounter noticed a burned out low beam as we exited a small town, about 30 seconds after I noticed it, so he sent us on our way with functioning high beams...)
 
That must be your Dad's Christmas gift you told me about???

Too Bad about the breakdown issues you had. But good to know the law enforcement officers were ok with everything. I use a set of lights hung out of the front windows just over the folded mirrors.

I promised JoeS several times I was going to take some photo's of the procedure I use. Most recently I promised to take some in August of last year but that trip got cancelled. My next RV trip is in two weeks. Were going to see a couple in Central Florida that we've been supporting now for several years. You likely know them....His name is Mickey and her name is Minnie.

I must really make good on my promise this time

Merry Christmas to all our EV Lovin' friends, wherever you are!
 
Jay, your account had me rolling on the floor, bringing back many memories of similar, uh, adventures, in my youth. :lol: It will be a memorable story for your kids, as well, and kudos to your wife for putting up with all these shenanigans. Great Christmas present for your mother! That diesel truck needed a workout, anyway, and this is another example of something that is foreign to us: ICE range anxiety! :evil:
Merry Christmas!
 
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