towing question

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(captain archer @ Aug 23 2006, 09:48 PM) [snapback]308695[/snapback]</div>

FWIW, the Prius has a 700/800 (I forget which) pound carrying capacity. Four adults and a week's worth of luggage is approaching maximum, I'd think. The book specifically says "no towing." A week on the road with friends is beyond my limits.

The tow hitch I have on mine is for a bike.

 

www.coastaletech.com sells a nice hitch, but it requires some modification to allow for tow chains. The manufacturer Curt sells a tow-ready hitch, but your exhaust may need modification to prevent bumper melting. See http://darelldd.com/ev/prius.htm

Both of these hitches can be installed but the user with very little fuss. Most folks take about a half hour to do it. The hardest part is breaking loose the bolts on the car where the hitch is to mount. (use a breaker bar) U-haul sells the Curt hitch and will likely install it. If you don't want to do the install yourself, I would try them first. FYI U-haul generally will not install a hitch purchased elsewhere

The Prius has a four-wire lighting system and will need an appropriate adapter when installing the wiring harness. These can be had at pretty much any auto parts store.

You will need to find a trailer that meets your needs. Nobody knows the tow weight rating of the Prius, because Toyota does not recommend towing. The available hitches have a 200lb tounge rating. Most cars I've seen with this rating also have a 1000lb trailer weight limit. On my experiance towing with my Prius, I would suggest a 600-700lb limit would be better. I AM NOT AN EXPERT. THAT WAS JUST MY OPINION. As you load, you will need to get a feel for the car as it tows and decide for yourself if you feel confortable with the car and its load.

Aerodynamically, a covered steamlined trailer would be best, but it might be difficult to get the luggage into the space. Economically, an open utility trailer with a tarp to cover your stuff may be better. I use a 4'x8' utility trailer from Harbor Fright with 3' wooded rails. It's cheap and light, but it has a max speed of 55mph. A smaller one such as is available from Lowes or Home Depot would probably suit your need.

Good luck, and happy towing!



edited to fix a link

 

Hey Captain,

I'm a big Trek fan and liked Enterprise too.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hawkjm73 @ Aug 24 2006, 10:12 AM) [snapback]308847[/snapback]</div>

I can't speak to the OP's generation but w/the current gen w/Toyota not recommending towing means that the tow rating = 0 lbs.

Personally, I don't know how much the OP's car is worth it to him but if the 1st gen's tow rating is 0, I'd strongly suggest not doing it at all. If Toyota thought it was an ok idea, they'd have given the car a non-0 rating.

I'd just rent a minivan or large car or SUV for the trip. I think you'd be better off than screwing w/the trailer, mods, voiding the hybrid system warranties you might have left, and trouble later down the road.

 

Many people (including myself) have installed roof racks and used them to haul various things (see http://darelldd.com/ev/prius_racks.htm). IMO, that would by far be the best choice (i don't like the idea of towing when Toyota specifically says not to do it... afraid of the consequences to my warenty when i screw something up).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(captain archer @ Aug 25 2006, 11:41 AM) [snapback]309297[/snapback]</div>

Several of us have towed with good results, but, that said, you have to be willing to accept any consiquences of doing it. Toyota "dosen't recommend" towing with the Prius. Most likely, they will try to use the fact that a Prius has towed to refuse warrenty service on various parts somewhere down the road. (If they do, we need to fight. They're supposed to prove a modification caused a failure before the failure can be refused warrenty.)

A trailer setup is probably overkill for what you want to do. A roof rack will likely do what you need. You might try a trial run to see just how much will fit behind the rear seat (i.e. LOTS!) then determine how much extra volume you require. Be aware that a roof-top carrier will do nasty things to the aerodynamics and thus the MPG. You can get streamlined versions such as darreldd uses that won't have such a bad effect.

Another opion would be a hitch mounted rack. I think Coastal still sells them. This puts your stuff at a much more accessable height and places it in the air-wake of the car so it dosen't mess up your aerodynamics so much. You just need the hitch and the rack, no wires, no tow-chain mods. You can use the Curt hitch here if you want, but you'll still need to watch the exhaust.

If I were you, I would look into either of the roof or hitch-carrier options before the trailer. Either would probably cost less and would probably get the job done for you. Also, you won't have the "fun" of trying to manuver a trailer. The biggest benefit of the trailer is getting the extra weight off the suspension (means you aren't limited to the car's cargo limit), but it dosn't look like you're going to need that kind of weight increase.

 

I've been looking at a hitch in combination with the Stowaway 2 LT cargo box. It would cover the lights making it necessary to do the trailer lighting modification. In military terms I tend to "cube" the car out as my gear tends be more on the bulky vs. heavy side. Never got too serious as I grab the wife's minivan for those occasions.

Warm regards....

 

You're talking towing or a roof rack. Towing would be better for the car clearly in terms of weight. Less danger of bottoming with total weight over limits. Tires would be able to stay within their load specs.

In terms of other things I don't really see why it matters. if the car is rated for x lbs load and you carry 2x lbs, you are overloaded wherever the load is located in terms of the engine and motors.

If you choose to do it you may need to impose a very strict max speed limit of 45 mph or something and be prepared to stop and rest on big upgrades. You definitely should instrument the car properly which means canview so far as I know. You need to keep the motor windings and inverter temperatures from overheating.
With can view assuming a pre 2006 so you can use it, you can monitor all these temperatures and drive so that none exceed the normal temperatures with a properly loaded car.

So a lot depends on if you do this in winter or in 100 degree weather too.

If you choose to go push the car beyond the specs you need to be responsible for protecting everything yourself.

I've read many reports of owners towing a trailer successfully but most were doing short trips to the dump or towing something light with an almost empty car. What you're talking about doing sounds very risky.

 

If I've read previous posts correctly, the towing ban has more to do with this being a front wheel drive vehicle than it being somewhat underpowered for the job. The towed package lends instability to the vehicle when the front wheels hit a bump or the road is slick. The center of gravity, which is currently forward, is moved aft during towing. I suspect that filling my 4-bike Thule rack to the max (I don't on the Prius) would have a similar effect.

But the danger of this, and posts like it, is that these are personal opinions, not based on hard data, that we are quoting. I'm sure the data exist, so I'm asking someone who knows, not just opines, what the truth of the matter is, and the risks involved, to explain things in some simple detail. I'm open to learning.

I'm not terribly hopeful though, that "facts" will stop too many people from doing just what they want. I tried this sort of thing with the reverse-beeping debate and was pretty dismayed at the number of responses that magnified the noise-pollution, stress-inducement, intelligence-diminishing, etc. caused by this rather benign warning, while completely ignoring the safety advantages documented by a number of us, with actual damage having resulted in several cases, not caused by wanton recklessness, but by the fact that things are subtly different on a Prius and we need to change some long-held habits just a bit. Which is why the warning devices were included in the MSRP.

Many folks like to stress the phenomenal diffferences between the Prius and most other cars while, at the same time, telling us that there is little about this these changes that could do us harm in a misguided moment. I think there is a middle road where the truth lies and we place ourselves and others in danger by ignoring what they say in the stock market, "Past results are no guarantee of future performance."

Flying "by the book" kept me from so much as scratching any airplane I ever flew over a complete career. I don't see why this training isn't applicable to a car, which kills more people than "hazardous" aviation ever did. The two most dangerous categories of pilots include doctors, who have money to buy fairly sophisticated airplanes and egos that sometimes over-reach their training. And ex-airline Captains who buy hot little aircraft and think their previous experience allows them to become creative with established parameters. (This is a small percentage of both groups, but you invariably read about them in the newspapers when it all goes wrong.)

I'm advocating that we "drive by the book."

(Spell-check appears to be inop, so pardon any errors.)

 

I don't see why front drive has anything to do with it because I've owned several front drive cars that had no prohibition on towing. However I've seen rear wheel drive cars go completely unstable and oscillate down the road when driven too fast even with a small trailer. Very scary when you're driving right behind them.

 

My '04 says "towing not recommended" The service manual also has items that should be serviced more often if you are towing. No "DO NOT TOW" claim can be made.
Although the '06 is no different mechanically, I noticed that its Owner's Manual poo-poos on towing AND Hitch mounted carriers. And there is nothing in the service manual mentioning "if towing".

If you had 200 pounds of stuff in your 150 pound trailer, the tongue weight should be 35 to 53 pounds. Less than the weight of a bike and rack mounted carrier. AND less than the 200 pounds of stuff in the back of the car though the weight is behind the axel so there is more leverage.

I say FIRST see if you can carry the stuff. Tell the passengers NO HARD SUITCASES. 2 smaller soft bags/duffels will carry more and be easier to fit. My wife and I took our 2 girls to horse camp for 2 weeks. EVERYTHING the girls needed (no laundry service) fit into my Prius, 98% of it UNDER the cargo cover. If I can do that, you can take 4 adults on a 1 week trip, even if you have to pack to the glass. Tell them to get the travel size toothpaste and hair prodcuts, not the giant Costco bottles. With some forethought you can carry way more than you think INSIDE the car.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hawkjm73 @ Aug 25 2006, 10:11 AM) [snapback]309352[/snapback]</div>

Toyota would have perfectly valid reasons to refuse warranty coverage on failures caused by towing. It is automatically considered abuse since the recommended towing limit is 0. Second, you've by definition made modifications to allow for towing. The modifications themselves won't put the Prius over safe limits, but err, they would raise red flags in the eyes of Toyota and the service advisor. Why would one install a tow hitch on a car w/a tow limit of 0?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cwerdna @ Aug 29 2006, 05:51 AM) [snapback]311025[/snapback]</div>

My concern is that they would try to tie completly unrelated failures to the fact that a car had towed. Even so, they still have to be able to show the failure was due to my modification, not just that the mod is there. If I have a main battery failure somewhere down the road, they would need to show justification that the towing caused abuse that caused the failure, which I know they can't because I watch the performace of everything on my CanView. The gas engine actually takes up the extra work instead of the battery.

One need not want to tow to want a tow hitch. The biggest other use is for bicycle carriers.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(captain archer @ Aug 27 2006, 11:00 PM) [snapback]310454[/snapback]</div>

Possible swap for a Sienna minivan? 4 adults and 1 week -- No brainer to me. Do the swap!

Any family trips longer than a day we'll pretty much use our Minivan.