Coastal's Hitch: Max Weight?

I believe that Coastal Dave quotes 200 lbs. But you best ask him yourself.

 

nice guy! :mrgreen:

actually, i was psyched when i found that hitch. i have been worried going from a buick rendezvous to the prius. i sometimes manage to fill up the buick with 'stuff' and did not know what i would do on such occasions. this hitch could solve my problem. weight probably not a huge issue for me.

 

What about ground clearance with the hitch? The car's clearance is so small to begin with I am concerned about the hump at the top of my driveway. Would 1 1/4 have more clearance than the 2" hitch?

 

Coastal Dave has the 2 inch snugged up to the Muffler pretty tight so I doubt that there would be much difference in clearance. I got the 2 inch just to have more options to go in it

Jon

 

How do I locate Coastal Dave's Hitches?

How do I locate Coastal Dave's Hitches?
Thanks

 

Yes the documentation that comes with the hitch states max. 200 lbs tongue weight. I installed mine last weekend and it was very easy. I bought a Yakima 4 bike rack at REI and am very happy with this combo. My old bike rack mounted to the back of my Camry and left a few scratches so this solution will help keep my car looking new a while longer. One more thing, in my earlier post I was concerned about the hump at the top of the driveway. Well, no problems clearing it with the hitch, in fact I used the hump as a means to get under the car to install the hitch by parking on the top of it!
Bob

 

http://www.plusaf.com/prius/prius.htm and http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/priustrailers/

the hitch is held on by four VERY strong bolts that tie it to the chassis. i darned near dislocated one shoulder trying to tighten them to my satisfaction. the bolts and the threaded holes in the chassis they went into were stronger than i am.

the hitch is designed to carry a vertical load of luggage, bikes, etc,. which probably won't exceed several hundred pounds, or whatever Coastal will stand by.

in reality, if you're going to put a trailer on the back of a tow vehicle, you don't want too much weight on it, or you'll have "heck" to pay every time you try to lift or jack the hitch off the ball. (i'm assuming here that you're really looking to hook up a trailer and tow something... )

i balanced my trailer for about 30# at the hitch. i don't want to try to lift much more than 40-50# off the ball and pull it around a parking lot when i have to disconnect at a hotel or whatever.

the next logical question is: how much will the car pull. i look at it this way: the car is going to have to pull the load through the air, so there's an air-resistance factor that'll drop gas mileage on flat ground and accentuate the dead weight of the trailer when you're going uphill.

as a rule of thumb, consider that the prius can easily carry a multi-hundred pound driver and at least three more multi-hundred-pound passengers. i use 1000# as my rule of thumb for passengers, plus maybe another 50-100 pounds under the rear hatch. (they gotta eat, right?)

so, going up a moderate hill, your trailer shouldn't look like more than about 1100 pounds to the car.

50 of them will push down on the ball hitch; the rest will have to be hauled up the steepest hills you expect to negotiate.

in the 8000 or so miles my prius towed my trailer last year (with virtually no complaints at all!), it cost me about 10% in fuel economy (36 with the trailer, down from about 40-42 in my short-distance around-town driving without the trailer prior to the trips) and if the hills were REALLY long and steep, the propulsion battery would be drawn down to the point where the onboard systems concluded that it should take a vacation from helping go up the hill, and without the electric boost, all that happened was: the cruise-control kicked out and the car's speed dropped to the max that the ICE could handle. usually 55 or so, and only once about 45 on a really ugly long hill.

but that was it.

visit my google group site for prius&trailer folks, and share your experiences there, too.

i'd like to see a special forum here, for that, too, but it's not really an "appearance" mod, and it's certainly not a "performance" mod, unless you're competing on how many cu. ft. you can haul.


+af

 

This has been a problem for me at a relative's house. At the point where the driveway meets the street/curb, your car needs to be at an angle so that one rear tire goes down before the other. This should give you enough clearance.

 

Stop right there!!! You should not be towing with this vehicle. It's not a matter of bolt strength, it's a matter of frame & weld strength. First of all, there is neglegible aerodynamic force when compared to pulling an object...PERIOD. And many people on this forum are unhappy with the rigidity/strength of the body's frame.

When towing, the greatest pull (backward) force is created at accelerations & forward force at braking. This "jerkiness" begins to bend/twist/flex the body's frame (yes, unibody vehicles do have frames inherent in the underbody structure) in a manner it was not designed to withstand. While you may get by for 8K miles or more, I sure wouldn't want to be the sucker buying a used car from you. You're certainly weakening spot welds between the frame & attaching panels/structures & possibly bending the body's frame. Go ahead & see how much your vehicle can pull, I'd like to know if failure is caused by the weight or the repetitiveness of st-p-dity.

 

if you haven't towed a trailer with your Prius your ineligible to reply to the question.

 

Rather harsh words, don't you think? What test have you run to come up with this information? ...and I won't accept "common sense". I've towed small trailers for 10's of thousands of miles with my VW Golfs, my Miata, my MR2, and now with my Prius. They all had warnings in the owners manual not to tow with them. Towing a 400 pound trailer with my Prius creates LESS load on the car than putting 3 passengers in it, because it doesn't have to support more than 10 percent of that weight with the suspension. A 400 pound trailer has about 40 pounds of tongue weight, and can be easily moved by hand. The car barely notices it's there.

I have now towed that 400 pound trailer for a total of close to 1000 highway miles and other than a MPG hit when towing (it costs about 5 mpg), the car doesn't work too hard, has no trouble stopping, doesn't overheat, and has fine highway manners.

BTW try Hitchweb.com for Prius hitches that include safety chain loops.

[attachmentid=2335][attachmentid=2336]

 

For your reference, my Prius has a hitch (use it for bikes/skis). I don't think my words are too harsh. Afterall, you've stated that putting 3 passengers in areas of the vehicle designed to hold 3 passengers creates more stress on the car than placing a 400 lb trailer in an area that was NOT designed to support it.

Note, I am not purely speaking about tongue weight. There is now longitudinal and torsional forces placed on each frame member when you tow (which are not modeled in passenger car analyses when OEM's design vehicles). These are the forces I am referring to. The only thing you have working in your argument's favor is that the rear end is usually a little beefed-up to prevent fuel tank punctures in a crash. But still, several hundres pounds of static or repetitive force (in any direction) placed at the rear was never the design intent of Toyota.

Please keep towing your trailer. I just wouldn't want to buy this vehicle from you when it exceeds 100K miles.

BTW - I have 3 years of experience working in automotive body shops and been involved with the engineering of several vehicles at launch. While I am no structural engineer, I can speak with some certainty on the topic.

 

even an Echo has a towing capacity.

 

Anybody can abuse their car far more than towing... just by stupid driving. If I tow very conservatively vs beating the snot out of my car without towing... which is the better used car buy after 100k miles - even if they both *look* like new?

I know which one I choose.

 

You mean he actually replies to some questions? I'm going on a full year of no reaponses...

 

All I see at Hitchweb is a Class I hitch with no mentione of safety chain loops. It also seems somewhat overpriced at $170 for a 1-1/4 sized hitch. Don't most folks charge $150 for either the 1-1/4 or 2 inch hitches (Coastal Dave, Sigma)? I think I want the 2 inch because more accessories (bike racks, mostly) come in that size.

 

I think the price includes shipping, and shipping a hitch has to be at least a $20 proposition. It does have safety chain loops, (I have this hitch on my car)
Class 1 is the lightest rating at 2000 pounds. Same as Costal Dave's and I don't think you would want to tow anything that would need class 2. I don't know about what size accesories are available, I actually use the hitch for towing. I think that 1 1/4 inch is pretty standard for class 1 though. Curt /Dalan is a big name in import and custom hitches. Mine fit well and went on very easily