A very reasonable question I recently came upon is:

“What is the best car to behind and tow behind my RV while we are on the road?”

Now although the question seems as simple as, “Whatever you want!”, there can be a little bit more to the decision than just that.

If you pull a vehicle with an automatic, it must have the drive wheels off the ground or disconnected (by removing the driveshaft), unless it is a 4wd where you can put the transfer case in neutral.

If the drive wheels are on the ground and you simply put the automatic transmission in neutral, the transmission still turns inside and since the motor is not running and spinning the trans pump, there is no lubricant being circulated inside the transmission and the parts are wearing against one another.

In a 4wd system, the transfer case doesn’t use a pump to lubricate the internal components, this is done through sloshing the lubricant on the gears by their spinning action, but the transfer case being in neutral totally disconnects the driveshaft from the transmission, therefore the tranmission doesn’t spin.

Now if you and your family decide to start pulling a car in tow, you are really going to need to be very organized with your travels.

The best way I know to stay organized is to use Malia’s RV Checklists. They are an incredible resource for anyone who travels in an RV, Motorhome, Camper, Travel Trailer, 5th Wheel, or even just modern road warriors. They are especially useful if you have a car in tow!

Learn more about Malia’s RV Checklists here.