Can I tow a very light jet ski and trailer with my 2010 Prius IV?

The first, second or third time

 

60-0 isn't as pretty as no trailer. My Prius is as close to a 4 cylinder Ford Ranger as you can get. I don't know about my rears, but my front pads are organic. Ceramic pads are better for heat, if you plan to tow more often or like a maniac. It definitely brakes differently. Can still lock up the wheels.

A quick brief on my last tow. The bad first, BTA (MG1) hit 278F. (Max is 320F for alarm?) It didn't seem to update very often. I did a little highway driving a bit ago and the max it hit was about 170F. (will test more one day) Intermittent burning smell coming through AC when on. Doesn't seem to smell differently on fresh or recirculate. Still don't smell it under hood or anything. Generally seems to do it after accelerating up to highway speeds on a good pedal mash. But doesn't always happen for some reason. I have a oil burner. Either it's been longer than I thought or towing increased my oil burn amount a fair amount. Is a fair amount noisier driving as you have to keep the engine up to keep speed. This was with a 1,240lbs trailer 5x8' mesh gate and solid sheet walls and diamond plate floor. Also all car and trailer tire PSI was probably too low. I forgot my car can limp after sitting in the sun and that was a bit uncomfortable...

No check engine light and towing empty and 800lbs of salt, I got "about" 17mpg both times. I was probably Class 2 when it was loaded. (receiver is Class 1) I'm sure I had 300-400lbs on the tongue and I hit a nasty dip at 20mph and thought I bent stuff, but all seems fine. Trailer added up to 2,040lbs when it was loaded as well. Loaded I think it was 67mph max and unloaded 74mph max. (What it corrects to because of bigger tires) I think 55-65mph is the ideal max speed with my setup. Maybe proper tire psi can make enough of a difference.

 

Stopping distance (or time) from 60 MPH.


iPhone ?

 

Thanks for this! Some of the best information I've seen in trying to determine what the results of towing might be. I'm particularly appreciative of your specific numbers. I'm going to tow a much lighter (max 500 lb) trailer with probably less than 120 lb tongue weight. Nevertheless, I'll be towing through the Colorado mountains, up and down some decent grades. Wondering if you (or anyone please chime in!) could help me with the following questions (Gen 3)

1) I've got a scanguage 2 and will be monitoring temps. Don't know what specific upper limits I shoud be worried about. Anyone know what specific ones you'd watch ? (I've been monitoring usual temps for Engine water temp and the two inverter temps)

2) I don't understand what MG1 and MG2 are. Anyone help with these temps? Upper limits tolerable?

3) I don't know if monitoring the HV battery temp is important, also.

Could someone, anyone, give some idea of what temps would be most useful to monitor? (which ones to have on the display?) I can periodically switch to check other temps, but only have 4 temps available for constant monitoring).

Really amazingly tough to find any numbers on here as to what is the absolute (short-term) upper limits on these temps, to be able to see if I'm going to damage the system or not.

 

Personally I would monitor MG1, MG2, Inverter and Engine coolant temps as my four defaults while towing. Battery temp will be most beneficial if you are doing a lot of heavy regen since that's what heats that up the most. On down grades you should be in B mode to help slow the car and not put too much heat in the battery by constantly charging it.

MG1 runs hotter on the highway, MG2 runs hotter if you're doing a lot of slower speed work on the battery. For me, even in summer (not towing) they'll peek just over 200 degrees. They serve as a somewhat indirect indicator of the overall transaxle temp since the ATF is splashed on one of them. 300 degree range is where I would start to worry about shortening their life.

Inverter coolant for me runs 25-30F over ambient once it's hot out. Running A/C, which turns on the fans, helps keep that in check during low speeds. The cooler the better for that temp.

My engine coolant runs 195-203 on a regular basis. Sustained temps of 212 in a Prius would be an indication to me that it's being pushed too hard. It's not overheated at that point but it's better to back off well before you reach that point and give a good margin to prevent damage.

 

Check out my other post, #58 as well. My car sitting in the sun gets to 120F inside and I've see the HV battery temp at 108F before. I don't remember hearing it spool up or anything. Perhaps it's because it knows the cabin is hot. But I also usually have my AC on max. When I was towing, it was maybe in the 80's outside. At some point in the benchmark, I stopped paying attention to, inverter temp, engine/coolant temp, hv battery temp. My main worry was MG1 because of the transmission. I've seen half of those temps without a trailer. I don't remember exactly, but doing 80-100mph on a highway road trip, I think I seen MG1 at about 250F.

There is a guy in Cali, with a slightly modified Prius C. Has a roofrack and tows a trailer for work. Think he said something like 500 or 800 on the roof, probably 500~ inside and then a 2000lbs 200lbs tongue trailer. I don't know if he does all at the same time. I remember him talking about airing the rear tires to max psi.

...Idk if I mentioned it, but my tires and rims got kind of warm. Outside the car you could just feel it when near, but they weren't really that warm to the touch. It was strange. I think it was due to the slight underinflation on car and major underinflation of the trailer tires. While having too much tongue weight.