Pulling a leisure lite camper trailer

Toyota won't be happy with you, but I doubt you'll have any problems with such a small trailer. Several on this board have hitches and pull larger trailers. I have a hitch that I use to carry a bike rack, but I've not pulled anything yet.

I got the Curt hitch, as the other one (Coastal) has gotten some very bad reviews in terms of design, flex and quality. The Curt hitch seems to be the better choice. I've had no problems with mine, but I've not towed anything either. It's tight up against the rear bumper, and solid as a rock.

Good luck!

... Brad

 

What is a "leisure lite camper trailer" ?

.

 

Unfortunately Tow ratings are not a priority for Passenger car Manufacturers. Unlike trucks and SUVS, most were not designed for towing, but can handle up to the normal weight capacity plus acouple extra pounds with the addition of another axle.(trailer axle in this case)
Though you may not void any drive train component warranties, you might want to inquire about that under your warranty regs.

I have personally installed full tow packages on a dozen or so Prius's will up to now no ill effect. Except for the 06 change to the rear plastci fascia; we had installed our first 06 with an old4er hitch. She towed a U-Haul trailer 700 miles and when she got to LA, the plastic fascia had mlted away at the exhaust. She was kind enough to report.. that there 'might be problem'. That caused an immediate recall of the older model Curt hitche and a redesign to the current model.

Your ultra lightweight behind the Goldwing should not affect any functions of the Prius. Having bike experience keeps a good focus on safe driving as well.

The new Curt model is a 4 bolt straight to exisitng weldnuts and the wiring harness can come directly off the rear light package, or. may also use the battery charged trailer light modulite, now gaining popularity and bypassing the vehicle lighting systems.( a bit more spendy, but well worth it. There was a listing for a rewired toyota Quick connect for the prius... using another model and moving 2 of the wiring taps in the plug to fit the Prius. Electically skilled, that may be an option for you. Else standard splic, scotchlocks will get your wired. Ballmounts come in the variety of lifts and drops needed to give your trailer a level stance, and, stsndard ball sizes all apply.

The bike rack idea may hold up, but, I wonder about the leverage torgue created at the hitch bolts during a bouncing session on a road with a short extension and the additional weight of a bike or 2. I have a request to Curt about their efficiency with bike racks and bouncing tongue weight, both, with and without a trailer to assist in tongue weight physics.

In any case- good luck- you will be fine with the ultralight..

BK:rockon:

 

Your Prius will tow anything that a motorcycle could tow, that's for certain. You're obviously aware of the difference in vehicle handling when pulling a trailer as a motorcycle will be significantly more effected than a car with twice the number of wheels and more than twice the weight.

For the wiring harness, here's my page:
Prius Trailer Wiring

 

Im new here but I pull a 1995 combi-camp motorcycle camper with my Prius(when its not behind my Harley)you wont know its there.

 

My rule of thumb with a Coastal hitch on a 2002 Prius is to keep the load around 1,000 pounds or less. At freeway speeds I get about 35 mph with a loaded trailer. If I'm pulling anything heavier than that, I'm very careful about stopping distances and don't go over about 40 mph. I have one of the original Graham meters to keep an eye on torque, load, and temps.

 

When we purchased our '07 Prius the dealer installed our hitch as it was worked into the deal. We have pulled our Aluma MCTXL trailer loaded with electric mobility cart and other items to TX and back and to CO and back running 60 mph and have still been able to average about 50 mpg. We also pull our Kwik Kamp motorcycle camper with the Prius. The Kwik Kamp seems to reduce the gas mileage slightly as we only got 47 mpg for 3500 miles with it in tow. I is a little taller and might catch more wind coming over the Prius, just my uneducated guess. We now have 21000+ miles on the Prius with about 13000 miles of that being with something in tow.

With these in tow by the Goldwing stopping distance is longer but with the Prius I do not notice any difference from it being solo. However, you still want to allow extra distance to be on the safe side. Like loading for the Wing I try to keep the load balanced and only about 10 - 12 percent of the weight on the tongue.

I also have the 5 pin electrical connector. I have mine mounted inside the trunk area and hang the pigtail out under the lift gate when it is needed and store it inside out of the weather when not in use.

 

Was this dealer a Toyota dealer? If so, did he say anything about the effect on the car's warranty, since pulling a trailer is "not recommended" by Toyota?

I'm considering a hitch someday to pull a very small Phantom sailboat (400 lb. total = trailer 300+boat 100), but reluctant because of warranty concerns. For now my other car is still serviceable for pulling the boat, but if that car bites the dust I'll need to either hitch my Prius or replace it with something that can pull the trailer.

 

it should tow it no problem them prius are work horses:deadhorse:
electric motors have gobs of torque like cummins diesels you should check ur tire ratings tho

 

You seem to have good experience with this. I wondered if the belt in the trans is the reason Toyota doesn't suggest towing. It could also be the Darwin factor of someone who will try to tow their motor home.

 

Belt?? If you're thinking it uses a cone and belt CVT, it doesn't. It uses a planetary gear set. There are no belts in the Prius transaxle, AFAIK.

As for the original issue, I can't speculate on Toyota's reasons for not recommending towing.

 

There are two issues with making the Prius drive train work harder than it normally would.

• If you have any drive train problems, your dealer could argue that you have voided the waranty. Its your call on if this is a risk.
• You should consider doing an early ATF exchange (Type WS) to flush out the compounds that seem to collect in the ATF from the sealants used in manufacturing and then do it again every 60,000 miles.

Just a suggestion to give you the same happy experience that I have had with my 2004 Prius (131,00 miles so far - ATF changed twice).

JeffD

 

As a dealer for the Lees-ure Lite Tent Trailers I can tell you that you should have no problem towing the Lees-ure Lite tent trailer with your Prius. I have The lees-ure Lite tent trailers to many customers that were going to be pulling it with a Prius or other Hybrid vehicels.
When wiring for a motorcycle which almost all of them are a 5 wire system. Note that since about the start of the year(2009) all Lees-ure Lite trailers come with the seperate LED brake light assembly as a standard option inside the tail light assembly. Red-brake, Brown-tail, Green-Right Turn, Yellow-Left turn, White - ground. When wiring to a car that is a 4 wire system just do not use the red wire.

 

This thread is a year old. The OP is probably off camping in his trailer.

Tom

 

There is a plug and play kit out now, but it has a four-wire flat plug, not 5 wire. I don't know if there are 4 to 5 adapters, or if you need different wiring altogether.

It is a Tow Ready T-One Connector number 118505. The package also has the logos of DrawTite, Hidden Hitch and Reese on it (but I'm confident it will work OK with my Curt hitch ).

Apparently it is not very widely distributed yet; for example, I didn't find it on etrailer.com when I looked there. I found mine at an outfit called Hitch Republic through eBay, $70.52 with shipping: listing here, if it's not expired yet when you read this.

I just installed one on my 2006. It's pretty easy if you're comfortable getting at your spare tire, 12V battery and the back of the tail lights. The only complication I had was the ring terminal to connect to the 12V battery didn't quite fit, so I had to trim a bit of it off with tin snips. That may be because my 12V battery isn't stock--it's an Optima that I put in after the original battery wore out prematurely.

I put a similar kit on my old '93 Civic long ago. On the Prius it's easier because the 12V battery is right there so you don't have to route a 12V line to the front of the car to draw power for the trailer light module.

 

255 pounds is nothing. My trailer is 100 and I've moved fridge, stove, washer, dryer and 4 adults + hatch full of stuff.

I also used once the UHAUL full-metal closed trailer, man THAT was heavy, empty.

Just keep your speed at 50 - 55 MPH and no sudden acceleration, you'll be fine.

Just two weeks ago, I was moving stuff doing 90KPH (55?) and a Nissan Rogue pulling a medium-sized motor boat decided to pass me. Maybe 10-15 seconds after passing me, something blew, and he started spewing blue smoke like crazy, and he pulled in front of me, stank to high heaven.
He slowed down and pulled over. His Rogue looked brand new.
(I did NOT shed a tear...)