2010 prius towing?

The Prius has a zero pound tow rating. Period.

Can you tow a small trailer with it?
Probably.
If you buy a '10 and slap a trailer hitch on it, you will almost certainly be able to tow a small trailer with not much in the way of harm.
You're rolling the dice a little if you have transmission problems, and the dealer sees the trailer hitch on yer ride----but I'm not thinking that towing a jet ski will bother the CVT much.
After 60,000 miles it's not going to matter-----and a G3 towing a trailer and personal water craft will certainly get a lot better mileage than anything Dodge manufactures!

If you're that worried about it, buy a Corolla.
They have a 1500-lb tow rating.

 

Very valid points. I forgot to mention mine has 70K+ miles on it. So if anything happens to it its out of warranty.

 

The last car I would want to use to tow anything would be a Prius. You do not want to put stress on the transmission, it's a CVT and cannot be rebuild like traditional automatic transmission. Although transmission failure is rare but if you look in the Gen 2 forum, it happens and it's $4k just for the transmission before labor cost.

I don't know about you guys but having a extra 2 or 3 person in the car already affects performance, can't imagine towing another 500+ lbs.

 

There have been many Prius owners towing without incident. Personally I think you are OK towing a light load. Be sure to change your transaxale fluid at least every 30K if you are going to do this, it will help the life. I just dropped my original fluid at 21,000 miles and it was black rather than red. I'm going to send in a sample of the old fluid for analysis.

It only takes about 20 minutes for a DIY job if you have car ramps. You need 4 quarts of Toyota WS, 2 crush washers, a funnel with about 2 feet of 3/8" hose, a 10mm hex key (socket drive recommended), and a 24mm or 15/16" socket. The Toyota part numbers are 08886-02305 for the WS fluid (get 4) and 90430-18008 for the crush washers (get 2).

 

LOL !!

I just installed my Curt hitch about an hour ago. Took me about 25 minutes by myself, with the rear end on ramps ... required a 3/8 inch ratchet, 6 inch extension, and 19 MM socket. They were the only tools I needed. I just pushed the exhaust system slightly out of the way and all was well. Will torque the bolts when I get home, which is why I didn't mention a torque wrench in my statement.

Got the hitch from Amazon for $106 with free shipping .... hard to beat.

REV

 

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

 

Angels don't have a towing capacity either. I checked the manual. The dealer told me the wings will shear off if I try it!

 

There are some nice towing options for the Prius

PJ Dump Trailers; Trailers For Less

Currahee Trailers; Trailers For Less

LoadTrail Equipment Trailers; Trailers For Less

 

The transmission in the Prius is not a CVT it is a fixed ratio planitary system, no clutches, brake bands, or variable speed pullies, and no reverse gear.

 

Are you trying to be sarcastic?

2010 Toyota Prius - Consumer Guide Automotive

I am pretty sure all Hybrids regardless of make are equipped with CVT ..

 

The Prius HSD can be considered a type of CVT with the variable ratios implemented electrically. (or electromechanically) Most mechanical CVT implementations are relatively fragile, whereas the Prius electrical "CVT" isn't. Personally I wouldn't refer to the HSD as a CVT as it's really a new category.

But most definitely, not ALL hybrids use a CVT.

 

No i am not being sarcastic look up introduction to prius powerflow and read.

 

Mickey, BritPrius is absolutely correct, what he failed to mention were 2 electric motor/generators and a whale of a lot of computing software that help it emulate a CVT.

 

Check out, Eahart.com/prius/psd very informative and nice to play with graphics.

 

Peef is correct here. For example, none of the GM BAS mild hybrid sedans like the Malibu and Aura hybrids used CVTs nor does the upcoming Hyundai Sonata Hybrid.

 

Thanks for the info, I was going on Toyota's website for the Prius and it was listed as a Electronic CVT, guess it's not the traditional CVT.

 

Well, there's two things here. First, there's terminology.

"Traditional" Continuously Variable Transmissions usually involve some kind of belt mechanism that would, for example, ride up and down a "V" shaped slot, giving a continuous range of gear ratios. The down side of these schemes was, with enough torque present inside the transmission, the belts would slip.

The Prius, natch, doesn't use that scheme: Instead, it plays funny buggers with a one or two (depending upon model year) planetary gears, a pair of substantial electric motors, and there's a battery in there somewhere. The same net effect, but not what was termed a CVT.

It's kind of like "hackers" who hack their way through impenetrable code to create good, efficient software (a good "hack"!), which was the original definition, and "hackers" who, as espoused by our illustrious media, are criminal people who steal money. Same word, different meanings.

Towing with a traditional CVT is probably a Really Bad Idea because, as far as I know, all of those traditional CVTs depend upon the internal grip of friction, which can be broken free with torque. Of course, one could probably say that about gears, too, but gears don't generally slip - and, if they do, it's probably all over for that transmission anyway.

Second, the fact that a car has a hybrid power plant has little to do with what kind of transmission it has. When Toyota came out with its hybrid a bunch of other auto manufactures came out with theirs - and the only thing that a lot of these other builders had done was to strap a (small) electric motor in place of the starter motor on the car. The motor didn't do much for driveability, efficiency, or much else besides a bit of a quicker getaway, but it did let the manufacturer join the bandwagon. For advertising purposes.

In my mind most of those manufacturers were guilty of a kind of mental fraud. People saw the Prius getting all this great gas mileage, it was a green car, etc., all of which was true; but these other "hybrids" were anything but.

Finally: Just like anything else involving the real world, there are always energy losses when one is passing energy through something, and the transmission and engine in a Prius is no different. A Corolla, say, that has a 1500-lbs towing capacity has that capacity because a bunch of engineers over at Toyota figured that the cooling capacity of both the engine and transmission could handle the extra losses due to the bigger load. Not to mention the braking capacity which, in those cars, is strictly a matter of how much heat energy the brakes can dump under load. The engineers who built the Prius say, "No tows!". I don't know if that's because of inadequate cooling of the ICE, MG1, or MG2; or if there's something screwy regarding the regenerative brakes; or (and here's the kicker) there's something about the algorithms that run the car that indicate in a corner case that when one is going downhill after going over a mountain pass, with 200 lbs in tow, that result in a Runaway Car (tm). Or Damaged Car. Or something equally or with greater evil. Toyota's not saying. Umm.. Do you want to be the first to find out why?

KBeck.

 

As a long time "Hacker" myself, I appreciate the reference, KBeck! =)

 

My philosophy is to try and use the best tool for the job.
Given all that the Prius IS designed to do with HSD and all that entails, electric motors and such...unless I absolutely had no choice..rental or otherwise, why would you use a Prius for towing?

Even if there is a "safe" weight amount inwhich Toyota says you can tow, clearly the Prius isn't designed in any shape or form for towing...I certainly wouldn't want to experiment with what it's long term capabilities for towing "might" be....

Roof racks? Probably a different animal...

...also my understanding is that The Prius transmission IS a planetary gear based transmission sometimes refered to as a CVT because it is utilized in a similar manner...so it's simplier for Toyota to simply call it a CVT, BUT technically it is a unique set up....

 

Me too. haha...