Tow Hitch on Prius C?

My 2 cents? I wouldn't risk it. Doable? Yes. Worth the potential hassle in the future? No.

There are a lot of good points made in this thread. Using a hitch is an unknown risk with a lot of subjective factors thrown in. Sure, things might not happen and everything might break the customer's way if something should go wrong. But to my way of thinking, a hitch adds too much potential for a cluster*&!k down the road.

I will be waiting for a roof rack or put my bike in the back with the seats folded down.

 

You have to consider a few things. Any car that would use a Class I hitch is going to have that in their manual. This isn't because the engineers think it's a bad idea. It's because the lawyers say to put it in there to cover corporate's butt in case someone tries to sue them because they tried to do something dumb. There are too many people that don't realize that attaching something to your vehicle is going to take away from the total cargo limit and that if you don't distribute weight properly through out the vehicle it can cause very significant problems. Then there are others that don't understand the limiting factors for towing something.

Even if the engineers were not intending to design the vehicle to have enough tolerance to handle those reasonable tow cases, they'd still have to design related tolerances for towing the vehicle itself and the consideration for uneven internal cargo loads that are still under capacity rating. If the engineers are worth their salt, a lite cargo carrier/bike rack or a motorcycle trailer are certainly within reason for this vehicle.

 

The passenger weight is carried between the wheels, where it's relatively easy for the structure to carry the load. While some passengers may be more active than others, they pretty much just sit there. Bikes in the breeze, in contrast, are not a static load. Fifty pounds carried two feet away from the attachment point, subject to wildly varying forces from wind resistance, presents an entirely different situation.

edit: Also, I should add that it's not just the balance or stability of your own car to be concerned with. When the welds or attachments fail from all the bending back and forth over the years, your bikes could be launched into traffic at 80 mph, and that's going to be a big, ugly, expensive mess.

 

For the record, wind resistance is a non-issue with hitch-mounted racks.

On my Gen-II Prius, I use nylon tie-down ribbon straps to secure the front wheel and handlebars on my road bike from pivoting and bumping into things while it's mounted on my hitch rack. Even while the car is traveling at 70mph I NEVER see the nylon strap ends flutter from wind in my rearview mirror.

The bike is sitting behind the car, out of the slipstream. There is negligible wind resistance from it, and my MPG readings confirms this (virtually no change from when my Gen-II isn't carrying the bike rack + bike).

With the stubbier end of the Prius c, it will hide a hitch rack-mounted bike from the slipstream even better than my slope-backed Gen-II.

That said, I would never dare carry more than 2 light road bikes on my Prius hitch rack.

 

I know everyone has been waiting for this. We just finished the R&D and engineering on the Prius C Hitch. We are well known for our original prius hitch. We now have the V and C models.

The hitch is complete, and will be shipping as soon as next week.

We offer the 2" and 1.25" models. It is a completely invisible/hidden installation when looking at the back of the car.

Best part is, ITS 100% NO DRILL!.

Our hitch carries a rating of 200 lbs. and 2,000's pull. All ratings are subject to vehicle mfg ratings.

For info.

contact [email protected]

To purchase visit Torklift Central ECO Series-Stealth Trailer Hitches

Select your vehicle type and size.

The C hitch will not fit the V or the standard Prius.

This hitch is JUST for the C.

Its not a universal like everyone else is making.


There is also a youtube vide of installation.
2012+ Toyota Prius C Trailer Hitch Stealth EcoHitch- Torklift Central - YouTube

As well as pictures posted here.
www.torkliftcentral.com/priusc



If you have any questions please contact us at 253-854-1832.

The installation literally took less than 10 minutes.

 

I have a 2004 Prius that I added a hitch to pretty quickly after picking it up in December of 2003. It has towed a flat trailer with antique pocket doors from Minneapolis to Chicago and back, and a motorcycle trailer (Coleman Caboose) with camping and vacation supplies through winter slush and windy rain. No problem with either. I lost about 3-4 mpg towing each of the trailers, but with husband, two kids and two dogs in the car there is no other way to make the 2G carry us all where we need to go.

My parents had a 1976 green Toyota Corolla wagon that hauled a small pop-up Coleman camper through the Rocky Mountain passes with a family of four when I was young (though we had the hold vinyl seats and no air conditioning on those summer vacations!)

I'm not in the market quite yet, but when I am, I'm actually thinking the C will be all we need instead of the larger V. That may change by the time I'm not paying daycare bills for two!

 

I've been happily surprised that the prius c has rear diffuser vanes underneath behind the bumper! (it's really cool, imho, to think that the "economy" c has some link to formula 1 )
http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-c-main-forum/108697-2012-toyota-prius-c-easter-eggs.html

Just wondering how a tow hitch and mounting bar would affect this aero feature...?

 

It has arrived:

1.25''
Torklift Central Eco-Hitch Stealth 1.25" 2012+ Toyota Prius C Trailer Hitch - Torklift Central

2''
Torklift Central Eco-Hitch Stealth 2" 2012+ Toyota Prius C Trailer Hitch - Torklift Central

Going to contact a few local shops to see if they can beat the price. If not I'll buy this one and post installation pics in a new thread (doing the same for the pending stereo install). Have to get this done before June; family is going on a 6k mile road trip

 

We need a roof rack for bikes

 

Those folks at Torklift Central offer a really well engineered product for Prius Liftback, v and now the Prius c. I would want a hitch like that on my Prius... out of the wind flow. Now I have to figure out how to get one of them across the country. They're a long way away.

I installed a regular Hidden Hitch on our Second Gen Prius back in 2005 and it handled 2 road bikes without problem. If you put one of these hitches on a c, you may want to keep loads as light as possible, especially behind the rear seats.

According to Torklift, their hitch weighs 45 lbs, the bike rack will be 25 to 35 lbs (the reason I bought an aluminum bike rack) and two road bikes might add 15-25 lbs each! All this stuff suspended off the rear of the car makes up a significant load. Probably the equivalent of a couple of adults in the back seat.

A roof rack is another choice, but involves more lifting of the bikes and more wind drag. Even without bikes installed, a roof rack will ruffle the air passing over the car at highway speeds, where an empty bike rack behind the hatch will have way less effect on Cd. I installed a roof rack on our old SW2 Saturn wagon many years ago to carry our kayaks. We drove this car (without kayaks, or the J shaped tubes that carry the kayaks on the rack) on a trip to Indianapolis and found the noise the basic rack generated to be very loud, even with airfoil shaped cross bars. So we added a Thule wind shield, and that eliminated the noise.

If I do buy a Prius c, I will probably install a hitch type rack.

 

I put a Curt hitch on the Mazda5 and used it with a small carrier to haul gas and diesel cans. I will do the same with the GenIII Prius to haul three 5 gal. cans at a time, sure keeps the smell out of the car.

 

If I put a tow hitch on the Prius C, can I use it for a cargo carrier? What would be the total weight I could put on that carrier? Thule has a cargo box that will go on the tow hitch but it weighs 57 lbs. before a single item is put in the box.

 

Prius c trailer hitch and bike rack | PriusChat

My husband and I added a hitch to our Prius c. We mainly use it for a Thule bike rack to carry our mountain bikes. See the above link for pix. I'm not sure how much more weight it could carry...but it held up very well on our long road trip and didn't have too negative of an impact on gas mileage to our surprise!

 

I was concerned that I would not be able to put a bike rack on my Prius C. This would be a problem as we have our bikes with us all the time. It sounds like you put on a hitch and rack without any problem. What type of hitch and which Thule rack did you use? I am hopeful that I can drive a Prius C and still bring along the bikes!

 

Guys, dont even worry about the warning in the manual. Just install one. I installed a lightweight hitch from Curt and have used it many times and have used it to carry 3 mountain bikes over a total distance of 400 miles.

 

I agree with Daze, I was way bummed out after I found that page in the manual, and no one has roof racks. So I just said to hell with it, and installed a hitch and rack. It works great and I have no other options, I need to carry a few bikes. When its just 1 bike I put it inside. I went for the lightest rack I could find, and I like how this one holds the wheels.

 

Hi Daze and mremaximus - what kind of hitches are those? links?

 

I bought the Curt hitch, I think Daze did also. I purchased from etrailer
Trailer Hitch for 2012 Toyota Prius C - Curt C11299

The bike rack I bought from amazon and it was 98.00
Highland SportWing 2 Bike Rack for 1-1/4" and 2" Hitches - Aluminum Highland Hitch Bike Racks 5801200

PS you need to buy an Anti-rattle device for some of the bike racks, I needed one for the rack I bought. If you don't it sways and it moves a lot.like this one...
Trailer Hitch Anti-Rattle Kit for 1-1/4" Trailer Hitches Curt Hitch Accessories F-315

 

Yes that is the exact one that i bought. Love it!