I know I should dowel the 2nd and bottom tiers with a large dowel (going thru both), but do you put one thru the very top tier too ? How do you make it secure enough to travel?

Thanks!
Tina

Isn't three central dowels is 2 too many?
You should have dowels in the bottom tier to support the middle tier close to the edge or the middle tier for the middle tier to rest on. And dowels in the middle tier to support the top tier around and close to the edge of the top tier for it to rest on. Then one central dowel through the middle or just off center from the middle going through all the tiers to the bottom being just a little shorter so the top of the dowel once driven through the whole cake is just below the surface of the top of the top tier-which you can camoflouge with a bit of icing or fondant or decorations

here watch this. Tonedna1 is a great teacher.

i know that i only need one center dowel thru the hole cake (my wording was confusing on my post i guess), but what do i do when there is no topper on a fondant cake....just dowel thru the 2 bottom tiers? won't a fondant patch be very visible?

You can make a hole on the bottom of the top tier, that way you can just slide it through.

or you could use sps.