Who needs a truck, the Prius will haul it all!

My latest favorite saying comes from "A Millon Ways to die in the West". Where he says "People die at the fair". Oh my that's funny.

 

I plan to buy a Torklift 2" hitch and one of these HF trailers. I'll also get a bike carrier and already have a jetski trailer.

 

Or an old Subaru wagon.

 

I bought a hitch at e trailer and the light plug interface with the extra power supply. The Curt hitch is very nice but like alot of people here have complained the QC on the hitch build is pretty bad. The ears did not line up with the holes in the Prius chassis. had to drill out the bolt holes. Its like they weld the thing by hand.

The car can handle the smallest U Haul trailer very well but I don't tow more than 800-1000 lbs. Only thing thats immediately noticeable is with all the weight behind you the brake regen is non existent and your on its hydraulic brakes only and they are very poor.

That and I keep up with the the trans fluid changes.

Never missed my Truck since I got the trailer. Its $24.95 for the day. Rarely need it since the Prius has huge hauling ability.
Just no 4x8 stuff.........

 

The trailer I linked to above has a frame that is exactly 4 x 8. If you build the fencing around it slightly larger, then it will haul 4 x 8 neatly.

 

Yeah thats cool. I just don't want to invest $300 on a trailer. I rented the U Haul maybe 3 times so still $225 away. But if I hauled plywood all the time that's the way I would go.

I did rent one of the really light trailers once and empty it was so light it really bounced around bad on the little hitch the Curt has.
It was distressing how bad it bounced around. The U haul is very heavy and rises pretty good empty.

 

Doesn't that go against the golden rule of never give women anything that plugs in for a major holiday or event???

 

I finally assembled the folding HF trailer. It came with everything needed except for decking and the sides.

For the decking, I used cheap 19/32" CDX plywood and stained it with leftover semi-transparent deck stain.

Although it's hard to see in the photo, I decided to cut notches in the side boards and fit them in the stake pockets along with the 1"x4" lumber supports. I did this so I can fit full 4' x 8' material flat on the deck. If I had simply used 2x4 lumber and screwed the plywood sides onto it, 4x8 sheets wouldn't fit on the deck due to the thickness of the sides protruding into the area. In other words, the frame of the trailer is exactly 4' x 8', with no margin left for the sides.

Just looking at the simplicity of the trailer, I figured it would go together very quickly, but it probably took me 5 hours just to get the frame, wheels and lights on it. Then another 7 hours to get the building materials, stain and install the decking, wire the electrical harness into the Prius, and build the rails. It probably has 80 bolts holding it together!

My dad gave me an LED light kit that had a broken lens from my sister backing into it. The housing and lens that came with my trailer kit was slightly different in design, but the round LED board fit perfectly within the lens. I retrofitted them in with some hot glue and soldering. The low power draw from the lights allowed me to tap straight into my vehicle wiring without the need for a controller box. The only issue with this is I had to choose between having brake lights, or turn signals on the trailer. I choose brake lights as I think that is more important, and people can still see the turn from my car.

If I had to do it over again, I would probably just buy a used trailer on CL to save some time, although it might be difficult to find a folding one that was put together just as I would like.





19/32" CDX plywood cut in half. Went thin to reduce weight and allow folding.


Deck stained on both sides and the edges.


All done except for the corner brackets to hold the sides together.


Tested it on the Prius with a yard of soil.


The cashier at the yard made me sign a waiver before I could get the 1,800 lbs of soil loaded into my 1,000 lb capacity trailer.

 

my respects to you , but IMO I wouldn't , I'll be too scare ,

 

As a very old mechanic only tow with a 3/4 ton truck or larger. Rent a U-Haul truck for the day.

 

I already own a 3/4 ton truck (Dodge 2500 Cummins). It lives in Salem, and I grew tired of getting it every time I need to move something. There is no room to park it where I live, and I don't like commuting with it the rest of the week when I swap my Prius for it.

One time I hauled 2 yards of rock in the bed of my truck, along with 3 yards of mulch in the trailer. Now that was an exhilarating load to haul on the freeway with the steering so light, and the load pushing when going downhill.

My dad is even worse with these things. He hauled about 20,000 lbs worth of excavator and trailer off of the 2" hitch on the truck, without trailer brakes. He ended up bending the beefy receiver pin when the trailer threatened to jackknife.

What's worse, he once hauled a 5th wheel camper with his '60s stepside truck, and he didn't even have a hitch. Instead he cut 2 semi-circles out of some boards and enclosed the ball between them. Somehow a come-along was involved too.

The Prius did just fine hauling the yard of compost 5 miles, and I monitored all temperatures with Torque. Nothing went above normal range for temperature, and I have alarms set to notify if they ever do. My only concern was stopping distance, which I accounted for by driving a reasonable speed, leaving a reasonable distance between the vehicle ahead, and anticipating my stops well in advance (which I do during normal driving for efficiency reasons). I'm not going to haul 1,800 lbs across the country with the Prius, but I will exceed recommendations for the sake of practicality.

 

It looks good; GO FOR IT!!

 

Yet again had the Prius surprise some truck-people. Kept referring to it as the "Prius XL" lol.

Picked up a new electrical panel/enclosure for the house plus the cover/trim lots of disconnects and misc supplies. I did have to move the seat forward and get rid of my preferred recline, but drove 70+ miles there to pickup and 70+ miles back. Hauling well over 1400pounds worth of stuff plus me in a 12+ year old hatchback with winter tires in the rain... 48.9MPG. Does have a new battery though lol.

 

3 phase 208

 

I wish. The PoCo won't run me 3 phase. It'll be standard split single phase 240v. But only 3p panels are available. Luckily the NEC allows for using any combination of phases on the panel board so I'll just leave the middle B rail unpopulated.

 

Crap, I moved to a new place and never took photos of the entire Prius packed all foot wells to Tetris'ing the entire hatch. Drive was 50 miles one way with excess weight and net'd 62mpg @ 57 mph, did it 10 times (400 mi) total with AC on lowest ECO. No one beeped or told me I was number one either.

 

Nice color choice for your Prius .

Impressive haul.

 

one thing i carry all the time in my prius is my bike. i dont even have to take off the front wheel. just open hatch. insert bike. done

 

25CED7CD-6C30-4049-9572-D4247E2348BD by Bookkeepper posted Jul 25, 2018 at 10:11 AM

I love playing the tetris game.