pulling trailers with a Prius

Le 27.04.2008 21:57, R.J. Babin nous fit lire :

The prius is not allowed to pull a trailer. End of story.

- but nobody has ever questioned why........

Why?

Chas

The Prius was designed to get high mileage, not be a towing vehicle. Why? I suppose you will need to ask Toyota's design engineers that question, but it is definitely not intended for towing. The owners manual makes that very clear.

Reductio ad absurdum...

Surely a 100# trailer would work fine. A 300# trailer would not be more of a problem than two 150# people in the rear seat, and then there's luggage, etc. in the back.

So it's not the principle of the thing, but a matter of weight and distribution. A sufficiently light trailer might be okay, though a trailer hitch might be a warranty-buster.

You're assuming someone is manufacturing a receiver or hitch for the car. I doubt the car has the structure (frame) to allow towing. If Toyota says don't do it, I wouldn't. If something were to happen while towing a trailer, you may find your insurance not covering the damage.

I have a 2" receiver hitch on my 2003, NHW11. I also have a Harbor Freight folding trailer I use for lightweight, oversized loads. No real problem since I'm at city speeds and city distances.

If you are interested in doing highway travel, I'd recommend keeping the speeds as modest as possible, say 55 mph max. But if you are serious, think about installing a temperature probe. This will give you a way to at least monitor the transaxle temperature.

Bob Wilson

What you are suggesting is a pretty high wind load.

As others have said, the Prius is built for efficiency with little overhead. All come with traction control and no means of override because Toyota is concerned about protecting the delicate driveline.

At least one place sells receiver hitchs, nominally for use with bicycle racks.

This guy puts his Kayak on top, which is even greater wind load than a trailer:

The address for the trailer hitch is:

.... and this is also on the website:

**NOTE: As Toyota does not recommend towing by the Prius, Coastal Electronic Technologies intends the use of its' receiver hitches for bike racks and related accessories and not for towing.**

I would be calling this a bike hitch or an accessory hitch rather than a trailer hitch. Tomes

"Tomes" wrote in news:fv5h9d$gqu$ snipped-for-privacy@registered.motzarella.org:

I have purchased but not installed a trailer hitch for my 2008. It bolts in place of two very beefy brackets on the rear frame. My thinking on the car's capability is that at moderate speeds the trailer can't be more load than a fully loaded interior. Toyota lists the car's payload at about 800 pounds. If I keep the weight of the trailer, driver, passengers and cargo below that how can that be a problem (other than the warranty)?

The weight distribution is all wrong. Its your car, of course, so do what you want, but I assume Toyota knows a lot more about the capabilities of its products than you (or anyone else on this forum) do. I doubt the frame is designed with towing in mind. That being said, I wish you good luck with your experiment.

Last week I saw a (current edition) Prius towing a boat/trailer combination that appeared to be about 14'. The load included a motor, a couple of chests, and a lot of gear. At a stoplight I asked the obvious questions.

Answer: "I've been towing this for the past couple of summers, no problems," and "the whole shebang weighs about 750 pounds."

Is that about right for a 'shebang'?

Ike

The 'book' answer is: Don't do it. The manuals all say that the Prius should not haul a trailer.

However, there are people who do it -- I am sure.

earle

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