You CAN tow a trailer with a Prius

[plusaf]

it started with the grand concept of a coast-to-coast-to-coast trip by my wife and me, with our two dogs.

rental car? too expensive, too small. rental camper? too much gas. mobile home? ditto on all cost levels.

how about the Prius? not quite enough room for enough luggage, but the gas mileage savings would pay for hotels and meals alone, over a medium sized RV.

how about a trailer?

nah, they say it can't be done. why not? run some numbers. hitch weight: adjustable: under 50 pounds, easy; = no problem for the rear suspension. gross weight? maybe 350-500 pounds. about the same a four large people, their luggage, and a six-pack or two. let's see if it'll work.

search for trailers. find a nice 15 cu ft motorcycle trailer for a nice price on eBay. removed from bidding. i would have gone to $500.

find a nice 25 cu ft trailer, but it's a kit. $1300 or so, but so much bigger. ok, let's do it.

first, get the coastal-tech hitch. have it modified for safety chains. start assembling trailer. learn lots about assembling small trailers.

test run from cupertino to san francisco airport and back. trip mpg about 36, down from normal 40-41. quite acceptable.

test run from cupertino to truckee, CA and back. two dogs, luggage, and a spare 50 pound weight i had lying around. maintains 65 mph up all hills, both up the west side and up the east side of the sierra nevada. this looks promising.

plan the coast-to-coast-to-coast trip. load up the trailer, sans 50 pound weight, but include more luggage, tools, 2-gallon spare gas tank, extra dog food, water, etc.

will it climb pacheco pass? yup. no problem. will it climb the Grapevine? yep, passed trucks all the way up.

the story, so far, is on my website, with relevant links at
http://www.plusaf.com/coast/coast1.htm and
http://www.plusaf.com/prius/prius.htm for info on some other mods.


bottom line: average mpgs without trailer: 41.56. (for about 4000 miles)
average mpgs with trailer: 35.66 (for about 4000 miles, so far.)

handling: at virtually all speeds, you don't know it's there unless you check the rear-view mirror.

visibility? the top of the trailer comes about to the split in the rear windows, so you don't see anything but trailer out the bottom, and you see just over the top out the upper hatch window. no problem.

so, one experiment is worth ten thousand expert opinions, as my dad never said....

you can ponder it all you want, but i've done it. 4000 miles so far, and even ran out of gas once, and discovered a wonderful benefit of the hybrid... you can not only pull off the road, you can drive to a safe place on the shoulder to refuel! try that with your plain old IC engine car!

see the travel blog for details.


so, y'all can debate yourselves blue in the face, but i'm doing it, and so far, so good.

the return trip will include colorado and horsetooth reservoir, above fort collins, and across utah and nevada to the full eastern slope of the sierra nevada, again (with a stop back in truckee, of course.) note, also that taking I80 north of colorado to the west will involve passing the Bonneville Salt Flats.......

if anything breaks, i'll fess up to it, but after 4000 uneventful miles, other than some teeming rain along the Gulf coast, and missing the tropical storm through Tallahassee by a week, it's been smooth sailing.

ok, now back to your debates as to whether it's possible or not.

:P

[V8Cobrakid]

great post. have lots of fun on your trip.. er..what's left of it.

the webpage links are great. good pics. i may do this myself at some time. good to see it's been/being done.

do you have a model number on that trailer? hehe

[Frank Hudon]

yes! I'm vindicated as well, as the amount of flack I've had over my towing, it has another satisfied customer.

[narf]

I've been towing my shifter kart on a small trailer using the Prius all over Colorado, including over Monument Pass on I25. total weight of trailer and cargo about 500 lbs, and not a problem. I can still maintain 75mph up hills, and it is about a 5 to 7 mpg hit. I used a DaLan hitch, which already has tow chain loops on it and is custom made for the Prius.
[web:b93693dcd7]http://www.priuschat.com/forums/album_pic.php?pic_id=1384[/web:b93693dcd7]

[V8Cobrakid]

i'm heading to colorado in about 20 hour or so from now. i wish i had the trailer and hitch for my prius. going to drive my parents 400h instead.. nice ride.. but i prefer my Prius.

[plusaf]

i'm heading to colorado in about 20 hour or so from now. i wish i had the trailer and hitch for my prius. going to drive my parents 400h instead.. nice ride.. but i prefer my Prius.

how do you like driving the 400h?

[Marlin]

about the same as four large people, their luggage, and a six-pack or two.

Four large people, their luggage, and a six-pack or two probably exceeds the maximum load of the prius by 20%.

One of my gripes with the Prius is that the maximum load of passengers and cargo is only 825 pounds. I'm 5' 11'' and 225 pounds, and while I'm certainly overweight, I'm far from grossly obese.

However, four of me without any luggage would exceed the maximum load by 75 pounds.

[KTPhil]

It looks like you welded on chain loops; could you have just attached the chain to the diagonal braces on the hitch?

[naterprius]

Just an FYI, I have discovered that the Prius tail lights use the same connector as several other models for which there is a "breakout" or T-harness available for trailer lights. However, I cannot find one that has the same pinouts; therefore a person could make a plug and play Prius trailer harness by buying one to fit a 2004 Camry and moving some of the wires around inside the connector, then it would be good to go.

Start with Draw-Tite Part number 18308

http://www.etrailer.com/Merchant2/merchant...ategory_Code=T1

or some other similar item, then move the pins.

Nate

[Tideland Prius]

Went on a road trip. 3 guys and a girl and luggage plus shopping. I must've gone over the limit since one of the luggage was heavy. The other 3 were backpacks.