Originally Posted by Protagonist
I'm not the first to tow a toad behind my Interstate, but I was one of the first, having bought my toad in December 2012. Since then I've logged almost 40,000 miles towing a Honda Fit behind my Interstate.
I originally decided to go the toad route because I live in the New Orleans metro area, where hurricane evacuations are a real possibility. Before I bought my toad, my daily driver was a non-towable Dodge Durango SUV. In the event of a hurricane evacuation, I would have had to leave one vehicle behind to be eaten by the storm in order to bug out with the other. Being a single guy with no kids, I'm the only driver in my household, and having a toad means being able to evacuate both vehicles without needing a second driver. Then, having bought a toad for that reason, it didn't make much sense to leave the toad at home the rest of the time.
Storage space in an Interstate leaves a lot to be desired, so I end up using my toad as a de facto trailer while on the road, using it to carry all of the outdoor stuff for my campsite— patio mats, lawn chairs, Cobb grill, shore power cord, fresh water hose, etc. so they don't take up my limited living space. Which is why I got a Honda Fit; it's a subcompact hatchback with up to 64 cubic feet of storage— but 2013 was the last model year that was towable 4-down, so I can't recommend the Fit today. When I get to the campsite, I unpack the Honda and set up, then the Honda is ready to use as a daily driver for day trips from the campsite until I hit the road again.
Fuel economy in my Interstate takes about a 1mpg hit when towing my Honda, which has a GVWR of 3500 pounds and a curb weight of 2700 pounds. Most of the time, it tows like it's not even there. I've towed in New Mexico in July and August without overheating, even on days spent gaining altitude the whole way to the Continental Divide.
I can recommend both Roadmaster and Blue Ox towing setups; the choice boils down to which one is easier to install on the toad. In the case of the Honda Fit, the choice was Roadmaster. The front bumper had to be replaced with one that the towbar could fasten to— most vehicle bumpers (except Jeep Wranglers) are not designed to resist pulling, only to resist pushing/impacts. And the Roadmaster replacement bumper mounted without drilling new holes in the frame, but Blue Ox would have required drilling. Plus the Roadmaster towbar baseplates are exactly in front of the bumper on a Honda Fit, so that they are the same height as the hitch receiver on my Interstate. The Blue Ox baseplates mount under the front bumper, and I would have needed to use a 2" drop hitch to keep the towbar level as it should be— and considering how easy it is to scrape the Interstate's rear bumper when the road dips, having a drop hitch to further reduce rear ground clearance wouldn't have been very desirable.
Since I knew I was going to be towing my Honda a lot, I opted for a permanently-installed supplemental brake system, the Roadmaster Invisibrake. It mounts under the driver's seat, and taps into the car's own power brake system using a built-in vacuum pump and a check valve. It is activated automatically by the Interstate's brake lights, so no brake controller is needed.
For the same reason, I tapped into the car's own brake lights for the supplemental brake lights/turn signals/taillights, using blocking diodes. So no separate towing lights are needed. The Interstate's 7-pin connector provides power to run the supplemental brakes and lights as well as keep the car battery charged so that the power brake system works— though admittedly in an area where there's a lot of stop-and-go traffic when you need to use the brakes frequently, it's still possible to deplete the car battery.
On one occasion the Roadmaster brakes failed (squirrels had chewed the wiring). However, the Interstate's brakes were up to the task of stopping the van/toad combination with only a modest increase in stopping distance. And no, that does not mean you can skip installing supplemental brakes. Your state's laws concerning trailer brakes also apply to toad brakes, and my Honda, at 3500 pounds GVWR, is over Louisiana's 3000-pound-and-over trailer brake requirement.
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