IMO the tow-dolly was a whole lot easier than using a big trailer capable of carrying the truck. Probably cheaper too.
It may have been both easier and cheaper. You will never convince me it was safer.
You don't say what front drive Olds, but many of those cars are going to be no heavier than the truck and dolly. In the state I live in that would be an illegal load unless you had brakes on the dolly and truck.
Its like Russian Roulette. It really doesn't matter how many times you survive because the next time could always be your last. Only with an unsafe towed load it may be some innocent person in another car that dies.
I may seem harsh on this issue, but 25 years ago it was someone I knew that was that innocent passerby. Dead at 40 because some idiot made poor decisions and lost control of a towed load.
