Transmissio Cooler for Towing Question

While the Prius will probably be able to tow your payload, keep in mind the recommended max towing weight is 0 lbs. If you have some sort of failure due to towing, don't expect Toyota to warrant the repair as it'd be considered abuse.

FWIW, my unibody other car and previous car, 04 Nissan 350Z and 02 Nissan Maxima have max towing limits of 1000 lbs.

Since you're going that far (~800 miles one way) and you still have some powertrain warranty left, I'd recommend you rent something else that a non-zero max towing weight.

Just my 2 cents...

 

expect around 29mpg. expect to only do 30 on the long inclines. expect loss of acceleration through mountains... not delay.. lack of.. you almost have to keep the pedal floored, and don't let up or you'll go even slower!....

expect to check your oil levels .. as you may burn some up... keep other fluids on hand too.. like radiator coolant.

btw.. not to hate on cwerdna... but why do san jose people always chime in like a little angle.. always telling people to never push the button or try anything bad.

i've pulled a lot of weight in my car. i've had it packed to the ceiling with two people (including myself) with two mountain bikes on the back.. from california to colorado and back.. it's.. uh.. fun? i have a trailer and i've towed around town, and on the highway around here. it's very similar to having the car loaded with 2 passengers crammed in.

 

It's nothing to do w/San Jose. It's about safety, warranty and to a lesser degree wear and tear. IMHO, if Toyota thought it'd be a good idea to tow, they'd have given it a non-zero tow rating. There are plenty of Toyotas which meet that criteria.

Put yourself in the shoes of a service department writer. Customer comes in w/a car w/a 0 lb. max tow rating, a tow hitch and has some failure that could be caused by towing. Or how about the worst case? You have a failure while on the road and your car has to be towed to a service department, trailer and all.

By safety, I'm not just talking about load on the drivetrain but also on the brakes and body of the car. Also, think about the loads that might be incurred due to crosswinds, headwinds (esp. if the trailer is taller) and when going over bump and dips. Not all driving is just straight and level w/no wind and no bumps.

People already gripe about the Prius not tracking straight in crosswinds partly due to its shape. Think what happens when you have more surface area and something that could tug the Prius around.

If the warranty was all gone, then, sure, that's out of the picture.

In your case, it sounds like you haven't towed 1000 lbs. for ~1600 miles (I assume the OP wants to make a roundtrip).

 

Transmission fluid cooling is bullseye for conventional automatic transmissions, because they use the fluid to 'do work'. In Prius, it's just lube and waste heat transfer. Thus the need for added cooling there is not immediately obvious.

A few Prius are equipped to read transaxle fluid temps but I don't know if any of those do towing. So we could have the data but apparently we don't? With my 2001 Prius, not towing but under heavy load otherwise, MG1 temperatures would rise. Not to levels considered dangerous, but 100 C is where people might start to pay attention. On the basis of that observation I have advised other towers (inlcuding V8 CK here***) to take breaks on long uphill tow climbs. Let things cool down.

Certainly the inverter coolant fluid (different stuff) and the HV battery could get hot if they get ahead of their heat transfer systems. Overall, it is a wonderful area for experiments with instrumented Prius. For a regular model, your two choices are (1) just take it easy or (2) use a different vehicle.

More points of view at the yahoo group Prius-Trailers. I think it's with a dash...

edit *** mistake - maybe it wasn't V8Cobrakid who towed the motorcycles LA to Las Vegas and back? Sorry, I forgot who did that

 

Actually, cwerdna, the unibody flex issue was my earliest concern about this. But over the years a lot of Prius towing experience has accumulated. It seems that things work well if they don't go nuts with weight or lateral accelerations.

 

You cannot flush the Prius transaxle, it's just a resevoir of fluid of which some is pumped to lube bearings and some is slung around to cool the MG's. But changing it is a good idea, at your mileage you should. And the only transaxle cooler known is one custom built by a Prius tech as an experiment.
IF your going to tow, do so gently. The transaxle is close to $6-7,000 to replace.

Wayne

 

FWIW, I just looked up the Corolla S on Toyota's web site and it has a 1500 lb. towing capacity.

Although, I'd consider Toyota to a pretty conservative company and they have to worry about liability suits, they don't seem to be just doing blanket 0 lb. tow ratings on all their passenger cars.

 

I intended to convey that the company (to me) is quite conservative but they didn't go totally overboard by slapping 0 lb. max towing limitations on all their cars and gave an example.

I didn't intend to say that the 1500 lb. Corolla limit is conservative.

 

Two points of interest:

Toyota Yaris manual.

(Same manual for both US and Canadian cars.) Same page:

US - 0 lb rating. Don't put a hitch on it, even for a bike carrier... (paraphrasing)
Canadian - 700 lb tow rating...


Point 2:

Toyota Camry 4 cylinder:
1000 lb rating

Toyota Camry Hybrid:
0 lb rating.

Nissan Altima Hybrid (with toyota Camry transaxle assembly):
1000 lb rating...

 

But none of the rest of the Altima Hybrid (body, suspension, ICE, etc.) is from Toyota. The NAH's rear seats don't fold down either, unlike the HyCam. Not saying that this is the case w/the NAH (since I don't know), but some cars like some previous gen Acura TLs intentionally didn't include fold down rear seats to improve structural rigidity.

Let's add more data points:
09 Toyota Highlander Hybrid:
3500 lb. rating

08 Lexus RX 400h (hybrid) and 2010 RX 450h:
3500 lb. rating

 

you could probably use a car carrier that yo'd be proud to own !! I see now where U-haul is selling their car carriers, take a look at their website!! Happy Hauling!!!

 

Before you ask for a 'cooler,' what are you using to measure the temperature?

Metrics first.

Bob Wilson

 

IMHO, it just seems silly to risk a several thousand $$ out of warrantee repair for the sake of towing the MC. For a few buck (relatively) rent a U-haul truck,, or something for the week end.

As has been stated,, if the car were out of warrantee then perhaps I would risk it,,, or use it an an instrumented test bed for the rest of us.

Icarus

 

I'd rent a ute for the trip myself, but I couldn't give a rats if you damage your car. Actually, I would rather you didn't damage it, it looks bad for Prius even if you were disregarding Toyotas towing specs.
This is just what I would do if I wanted to take my bike without riding it and I only owned a Prius.

In response to others quoting towing specs for vehicles outside USA, in Australia it is unlawful to tow a bicycle trailer with a Prius as it would exceed the manufacturers towing limit of 0 kilograms.

Looking forward to reading the OPs experiences.

 

By 'ute' you mean a truck, correct?

I recall U-haul rents pickups for ~$20 / day, but they charge per mile, so I believe his trip would be very expensive.

Too bad those 4-cyl, 2WD Tacomas are hard to find at a low price. Can be found, but low price means high miles on them. Can sell those trucks in about 1 day.

 

No, he means a 'ute'. Down Under, they have modern vehicles that are akin to the El Camino. Front end of a car with a truck bed. Holden makes a nice looking one. I think even Ford makes one for the Australian market.


I'm interested in the results of this... since I also have a motorcycle and have mused about getting a trailer and towing it up to Virginia to visit a friend and do some riding.

 

So what's the feedback on your towing experience? I want to tow my Seadoo which is around 600 lbs + 200 lb trailer.

My concern is mostly pulling the Seadoo out of the water on the ramp - will that be too much strain on the transmission?

Thx.