Use earthforce frigates.

For some reason people don't seem to remember that they have an amazing inbuilt engine.

I single-handedly geared a ton of t20 bases across 15 gals this uni, as well as terraformed 30+ colonies, all in my hull augged SS. Want to get really good at tractoring? Tractor yourself from your hq gal to sol with different weights, back and forth (without slaves). See how fast you can do it, and eventually you'll be a pro. Or just gear all of your bases in an engine-less ship next uni.

Because those same people use dreads and think the dreads have the same agility and the tiny capship.

Well, yeah, but even non-engineers can build bases in an SS because of its super powered tractor. Though, going to Sol and back is impressive since you never really know if a galaxy is going to have any handy tractor points. I had a Thatch augged for self tractoring before I got my SS, and it is WAY harder, especially since I only had Tractoring 14. The only thing better about the thatch was that I could switch to a push tractor if I needed to.

I think I used 3 good cap, 2 traction, and a docking aug on my Thatch. It's really tough to get within 10 docking speed of a moving base without that docking aug, and it adds 19% hull space too. It was no SS, but it had plenty of hull for a complete set of base gear, base augs, and enough rations and nukes to get it going for awhile. It beat the hell out of moving everything one piece at a time in a DF or M3.