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

Thanks

 

I put a fridge in my Prius c once - did quite well!

 

A few weeks ago I hauled 8 6x6x8' wet, pressure treated lumber to line my driveway. Also got the hatch closed too. I had one guy come up to me in the parking lot and said "You don't see this everyday, this should be in a TV ad!

 

I had a wager with the Home Depot people when I bought the lumber for my deck. I bought all my decking material including 10ft timbers and planks and they said I can pull my truck up and they will help me load it. I told them I was just going to stick it in the back of the Prius and they gave themselves the look of "here is another one of those stupid customers that is going to fail at putting their load in the car". After pulling up they said there was no way, you need a truck for that and they rent them, blah blah blah. I bet them $5 it would fit. I just loaded them 1 at a time and closed the hatch. I got my money and left them stunned. People really don't understand how big the Prius is and how useful it is. In a truck, it would be hanging out of the bed of the truck and exposed to the elements. In the Prius, it is just another passenger.

 

Yah... but my Ford F150 can carry your Prius in the back of the truck. For serious hauling and construction i use my old F150,i have 200,000 miles on the clock. Besides i don't want the Prius to smell like the inside of my truck. I also can't put a 500lb motorcycle in the back with the seats folded down.

 

No it cannot carry a Prius in the bed. It could tow with a trailer. Just like I could tow a Prius with my Prius. My Prius doesn't smell at all. Usually a smell is because of moisture of some kind. If the inside is dry and what you are putting inside is dry, no smell. Even when I go skiing I just put the wet skis in the car and the water evaporates away no problem.

I am sure you could get a motorcycle in the back, but it would have to be tilted so the fluids would not be happy staying put on most models.





And here is a 4000lb trailer:



And then there's good old Bob W. towing his plane a few hundred miles:

 

One of the ladies at my church needed to buy cheesecakes from across the state for a fund raiser. Somehow she could only fit 24 in her SUV. I asked for one of the empty boxes to map out how many I could carry in a Prius v. I counted 96. Had they ordered more more would have fit, but it would have impaired outward vision.


As you see, the load floor is not perfectly level but quite serviceable.

 

sounds wonderful! it's funny, i've heard of about half the plants. i guess the rest don't like zone 5!

 

No you can't get a motorcycle into the back of a Prius, if you can please take a photo - i need a good laugh. It is not a work truck, period.

Nor is my F150 a hybrid... at idle it only gets 25 miles to the gallon.

I have put 5,000 lbs in the back of the truck accidentally and hauled 2000-3000 lbs boulders. I have also pulled a 24' trailer with a 3 series BMW inside to and from the track.
I have moved an entire house with the truck and trailer making just a few trips
I have done Demolition with the truck and gutted houses with the truck and a 14 foot enclosed trailer, moved yards of cement, 3/4" road base with fines from the mine and thousands of pounds of fill dirt at a time...the truck after 11 years smells like a taco truck.

I also have needed to jam on the brakes hard on a few occasions and had to swerve very hard into an opposing lane when some idiot was riding his bicycle at night, no lights and several feet away from the shoulder on a country road, with a 14' enclosed featherlite trailer attached, with 8' and 12 foot greenhouse rafters inside. The frame on the Ford F150 is a massive and it is a hydroformed frame. I just crawled underneath the truck tonight and replaced the rear shocks with 4600 heavy duty bilstein mono tube gas shocks. Tomorrow i do the front struts.

The point i am making is every tool has a purpose. I use my prius 97% of the time, it is my DD and i get 55+mpg, the truck gets driven maybe 1,000 miles a year. The motorcycle i sold was no contest for any four wheeled vehicles, for sheer enjoyment and scaring the tar out of myself on a few occasions.

Furthermore, there will come a day when you need to make an abrupt lane change or swerve the car or jam on the brakes and the Prius won't be up to the task and you will bend the unibody and possibly roll the car. Hopefully, you won't hurt yourself in the process.

Tesla also doesn't recommend towing with their vehicles for the same reason. At the end of the day the suspension and brakes aren't up for the task. sure it can do it, but... if you don't have a work vehicle then it is certainly competent enough to handle a light task. But for me I don't need to wreck my Prius cosmetically or mechanically through intentional or otherwise abuse. Theres been many a time when i have scratched my truck or dented my truck or someone pushed a shopping cart into my truck etc.

the point of all this is "why bring a boy to do a man's job"

 

On of the things I won't carry in the Prius is cow manure. Thats' where the open bed of the pickup truck comes in handy.

DBCassidy

 

The Prius continues to impress me to this very day on what it can be used for. I think of is like a Swiss army knife.

DBCassidy

 

i agree. the Prius is extraordinary in many ways. I took it car camping about a month ago. Set up a tent at night and ran the car with the lights on... after one hour it showed that i used $0.26 of gas. My truck would have swallowed $20 of petrol... No joke...

Today i returned a 65" LED TV set. Wanted to carry it with the Prius, but in the box it was half the size of the car...
Next week i am giving a friend a 10' x 4' x 3' chicken tractor (coop) no way it will fit in the Prius. Plus two RIR chickens and "Mini Rooster" = 3. I don't think you want to put some smelly chickens in your Prius? carrying livestock is were a draw the line. One chicken okay, 2 chickens perhaps. 10 pullets - NOPE.

Definitely agree that the prius is phenomenal at hauling light stuff. I don't think i would load it up with more than 400lbs. in the rear. So carrying more than 5 bags of 60lb. Quickrete (cement) i start thinking truck... more than 7 bags. TRUCK.

I did carry a bail of bermuda grass it was big but the Prius swallowed it up. When i got back there was hay all over the back and floor. It didn't cover the inside, but i needed to spend 40 minutes cleaning and vacuuming the interior. The truck is throw-and-go.

 

Right, that is when you need the first hybrid (diesel/electric trolley) I worked with.



http://www.komatsuamerica.com/PDFs/CE_Trucks_Feb09.pdf

 

The last pic here really looks like it is being weighted down too much. I thought the Prius has zero tow rating? Does this effect your warranty from Toyota?

 

I feel so bad for your transmissions....

 

I agree gas mizer; it cannot be good for that cvt.

 

This is how I define "car camping".
The Prius may be good for lighter duty stuff. =)

 

And they say the Prius is useless......ha

 

Maybe the Prius can tow a F150?

DBCassidy