Hitch for 2002?

[Linda L]

Hi all -

I'm looking into options for carrying bikes on my (new to me) 2002. If I've kept straight what I've read, I think that Curt doesn't make a hitch for the Gen 1 Prius. So is my only option Coastal Tech? I've read so many complaints against them here that I'm really reluctant to do business with them.

Being a "young" widow with elementary age kids, I want to stay away from roof mounted bike racks, as I prefer easier access to the bikes, and would like to minimize the mpg hit. I think a trunk mounted rack would be my last choice, because I would lose access to the trunk, and I'm wondering about clearing the rear spoiler with one, anyway.

Even if I figure out the hitch, the rack choice might be an issue, because I will be carrying bikes for an adult, a 10 year old, and a 7 year old (very different size bikes).

Linda

[Wolfcub]

I posted this same question about a week ago. I can find hitches all over for the 04's and newer but not for my 02. I'm still looking and will let you know if somehow I do come up with something. Hopefully between the 2 of us we can get something to work.

[Optimus]

I posted this question a few weeks ago on the main forum. I've checked with all the main hitch manufacturers, asked sellers on Ebay, and no one makes a true hitch for the Prius. The closest thing I have found is a bike rack hitch. It looks like a tow hitch, but it's not designed for towing. Only the 2004+ can tow, so it looks like we're out of luck.

[bwilson4web]

I bought and installed the Coastal hitch and it works just fine. No real problems with them but installation was a little involved. I had to rig up a shortie, cardboard stand to hold it in place to get the bolts started. Once started, it was a piece of cake.

If you have a good mechanic, I'd recommend having them worry the installation. Any muffler shop should be able to handle it too.

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

[ChapmanF]

I just bought the Coastal hitch myself and they shipped it really quickly, and it came with a package of Jelly Bellies, which were tasty.

I found it very easy to put on. The two pull-me-out-of-a-ditch tow hook brackets originally mounted to the rear frame rails come out (two bolts each) and the hitch mounts using the same 4 bolts.

Hint: when removing the brackets, don't completely remove one bolt then start loosening the other - that tends to spin the bracket around the second bold and damage the paint on the frame rail. Instead, just get both bolts good and loose first, then take them the rest of the way out.

Following the Toyota corrosion protection tips, I smeared a bunch of paste wax on the mounting surfaces of the frame rails before mounting the hitch.

Starting the bolts in one end of the hitch had me lying sideways under the car and using my legs to hold up the driver's end of the hitch while starting the two bolts on the passenger side. Then I just scooched over to the driver's side (supporting the hitch the whole way so it wouldn't act like a big lever on the passenger side frame rail) and put in the driver's side bolts.

Access to the 4 bolts was easy with just a torque wrench, 1/2 to 3/8 adapter, and 14mm socket. I was expecting trouble with the forward bolt on the passenger side - it was a close thing, but the socket went on.

The instructions from Coastal don't give the tightening torque for the bolts, but comparing the bumps on the bolt heads to the phrenology pages, SS-1 and SS-2 in the manual, one finds they are class 9T M10-1.25 flange bolts so the magic number is 57 foot pounds, which also turns out to give that nice subjective "yep, definitely tight enough" feeling.

Coastal says to just save the original brackets somewhere. It looks like they could also be put back on below the hitch brackets, by getting 4 class 9T, M10-1.25 x 30mm bolts in place of the original 22s, to account for the thickness of the hitch bracket. They wouldn't be positioned quite right for safety chains, but they might be usable. (I know I shouldn't tow anything real, but I bet the car would survive a few short trips a year to bring something bulky from Home Depot on a lightweight trailer.)

Hitch height ends up about 12" unloaded.

In another thread somewhere about a hitch for a G2, I read that somebody had a bad experience with the hitch deflecting exhaust onto the bumper cover. Happily, this G1 hitch has no such problem; the tailpipe pokes right out over it looking just like they knew what they were doing.

-Chap

[ChapmanF]

Now that the hitch is in place, I'm trying to select a cargo carrier. I saw some at Rural King that had a 500 lb load capacity, which is completely unnecessary since the hitch is good for 200 max - and the carriers are heavy! Ok, really only about 40 to 50 lbs, but who wants to subtract that much from the 200 available for stuff? And in the unwieldy shape of a cargo carrier, it sort of feels heavier than that, too.

I'm kind of looking at these 3 (I had to e-mail the manufacturer to get the weights, which I couldn't find on the website):

HP2		39.0 lbs	500 lbs	19.25x60"
H2A		26.5 lbs	500 lbs	19.25x60"
H482FW		30.8 lbs	300 lbs	18.5x45"

I was kind of liking the last one, because it looks like a smaller, maybe more manageable size, with a capacity that only exceeds the hitch's by 50%, and the offset in the mount would keep it nicely above the exhaust - the others will be pretty much aligned with the exhaust, the way the tailpipe comes right over the top of the hitch.

But I was disappointed when my answer came back on the weight, and it's actually still heavier than the H2A. Plus there seem to be a bunch of accessories that kind of standardize on the 19.25x60" size - cargo bags and the like, plus a 3-bike add-on that's only $30; I'm guessing those things won't work with the H482FW. Dang.

Of course the difference between the H2A and the others is aluminium vs. steel ($$).

Anybody else have cargo carrier likes/dislikes?

-Chap

[ChapmanF]

I guess even a cargo carrier needs lights if your stuff will occlude the taillights (and a lighted plate mount if the stuff would cover the plate).

The outfits that sell T-connector wiring adapters appeal to me: they're sold as an assembly with connectors matching the taillight plugs for a specific vehicle (in our case, the R6 and R7 plugs) so you can just plug them in without doing any violence to the factory wiring harness. (Then you could unplug them, remove the hitch, put back the original brackets, and be perfectly stock.)

Of course nobody lists a T-connector application for a G1 Prius because we're not supposed to be towing anything. I notice I can find T-connector part numbers for other Toyota cars including Echo and Camry. I've been wondering whether (since the G1 Prius and Echo bodies were so similar) the Echo might happen to use the same R6/R7 connectors at the taillights. Unfortunately nobody in town stocks the Toyota car T-connectors, so I can't just go look.

Does anybody happen to know, or have a way to find out other than sending $10 to techinfo for a day of reading other Toyota cars' wiring diagrams? (It's not the $10 I mind so much, it's the amount of time I spent trying to work through techinfo's godawful javascript, and I didn't even keep good notes last time on how I finally did it because I vowed I wasn't gonna do it again.)

-Chap

[ChapmanF]

Originally Posted by ChapmanF

I'm kind of looking at these 3 (I had to e-mail the manufacturer to get the weights, which I couldn't find on the website)

The H2A carrier (the aluminium version) plus the bike adapter arrived today. The total was about $125 from Dick's Sporting Goods online with free shipping. With the adapter it'll carry 3 bikes. Pretty straightforward to assemble with the supplied carriage bolts and ny-lok nuts. Turns out to be from China.

Only the two platform halves are aluminium; the receiver bar and braces are steel with aluminium-colored paint. Still , that's enough to make a noticeable difference in the weight: this one makes a casual one-arm carry; the steel ones I'd seen for sale at the farm & fleet definitely felt awkward to lug around. The bike adapter is steel with a black finish. It mounts to prepunched holes at either end of the carrier, and supplies simple hoops to hold rear wheels upright; an included strap hooks into other prepunched holes to hold the bikes down. For bikes of widely different sizes, I could see some additional strap action being needed. I would probably add a strap at the front wheels in any case.

Now to try it all out some time!

-Chap

[ChapmanF]

Originally Posted by ChapmanF

The H2A carrier (the aluminium version) plus the bike adapter arrived today...Now to try it all out some time!

It doesn't take much of a driveway hump to touch bottom with the H2A, so there's a definite point in favor of something like the H482FW, or the carriers that bac found.

The H2A goes together with carriage bolts and a couple of the vertical ones are about an inch longer than necessary; the tip of the one at the far rear is what touched the driveway. I think I'm gonna trim those bolts off flush to the nuts and call it an extra inch of ground clearance....

-Chap

[ChapmanF]

Originally Posted by ChapmanF

I notice I can find T-connector part numbers for other Toyota cars including Echo and Camry. I've been wondering whether (since the G1 Prius and Echo bodies were so similar) the Echo might happen to use the same R6/R7 connectors at the taillights. Unfortunately nobody in town stocks the Toyota car T-connectors, so I can't just go look.

Why didn't I think of this earlier? The parts guy at the Toyota dealer was able to look up the part numbers of the R6/R7 connectors and cross them to the cars that use them. The ones that came up, besides Prius, were 2000 Celica, 2005 Scion tC, and 1999 Solara, always as taillight connectors.

As far as I can tell, nobody offers a T-connector adapter for any of those models either. Custom it is then, I suppose....

-Chap