MPG hit with a small trailer?

Do you plan to do anything besides driving? And when might you squeeze it in?

 

I'm guessing you'll lose 1-2 MPG. That's a small trailer. Good luck on making 10,000 miles in a 2006 Prius

 

I'd be astounded if the drag is that low. I lose at least 7 mpg with a hitch mount rack carrying two bicycles.

 

For that amount of gear I would look into a trailer hitch cargo rack or a roof rack instead. You can put a few hundred pounds on the trailer hitch. If youre taking cargo, I would just put the heavier things in the Prius and the lighter things on the cargo rack. The aerodynamic drag will be significantly less than a trailer.

The Prius is not a good vehicle to tow a lot of gear a long distance. For such a long trip (10000 miles?!) I'd likely buy a van, which would be much more practical.

 

My first thoughts went further: reduce what you're taking, and/or really try, to make it fit in the car. It's a big step, to lumbar a Prius with a trailer, or even roof rack.

 

I hope your handle doesn't describe your Prius. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend taking a 10 year old vehicle on a 10k mile tour. The risk of breakdown ruining your vacation plus expensive tows and repairs at destination and wear and tear on your car outweigh... actually, what is the reason for driving your own vehicle for this purpose? This has rental written all over it.

There are weekly rental rates that can be had for relatively cheap. I rented a Chevy Suburban for a week a couple year ago. I only needed it 4 days but the weekly $350 rate was cheaper.

 

I'd be vastly more concerned about a Harbor Freight product with cheap 8 inch wheels being able to make that distance. If / when it fails, what is the backup cargo plan?

Maybe on a full size SUV, though watching friends overload theirs (and produce horrid headlight aims), I'm not so sure it is good there either. Certainly not on a Prius.

Bingo!

Note: this is 500 miles of driving per day. This leaves very little time for stopping to do anything else.

 

Yeah, that would be punishing.

And an older car, with spec'd tow capacity zero?

 

Just keep this in mind:

 

Well, the trailer is behind the car so I though it would have less of a drag than a roof box. The trailer looks like a wheelbarrow.

 

I agree. FWIW, I drove a 2006 Prius a total of 15,000 miles around the UK and Europe, the longest single trip being ~7,000 miles, and it never missed a beat. I don't think you need to worry about whether the Prius can make it or not. Lol.

Btw, we fit everything in the car, for three adults on the 7,000 mile trip, but were not sleeping in the car, though.

 

Less? Yes. Just 1-2 mpg? That would be astonishing.

 

My roof top box would be about 10-12 MPG loss, but it's a fairly wide one.

 

The Prius is a pretty slippery car, so any alteration is likely going to have a significant effect. A total guess, but I'd bet you'd lose somewhere in the 10mpg range. Look at the specs for a Prius vs a Prius V: you lose 7 mpg simply by raising the rear hatch about a foot.

 

I build a small travel trailer on a Harbor Freight frame. About 600 pounds. Mileage hit was 32 mpg instead of 47 mpg without the trailer. More info, including a picture of the trailer at Update on Towing with Prius | PriusChat .

 

I sure wouldn't plan on that lasting 10,000 miles. Those wheels will probably wear before 1000. I would look into an actual trailer that's small, or a roof rack. Can find a trailer on Craiglist that will for less that $500 easy. While you will lose some mpg(not sure how much), you know it'll last the trip unlike that tiny thing. To be honest I would be worried your harbor freight trailer would flip in heavy weather.

 

Bringing the thread back from the dead but I know someone will want some accurate mileage numbers in the future when they are search through these. I just took my 2005 prius with 270k miles on it to Texas from Colorado and back (1400 miles) with a small trailer with two dirt bikes and gear on it. The whole setup probably weighed about 750-1000lbs. I got anywhere from 20-27 MPG and averaged about 24. It does great if you aren't going fast, going up mountains, and don't have wind. I can get 30-35 MPG with the same setup if I keep it under 50mph. For that trip I had the coolest looking prius around but I'm not sure it was worth the money/hassle of getting it all setup to haul bikes. She was running wide open for 75% of the trip with wind and trying to stay at 75mph.. I wouldn't have done that if it didn't already have 270k on it but I figured if it died, it's about time to get a new vehicle. But I made it back and this only goes to prove you can't kill the 2nd gens, they just keep going and going and going. (Never had a single repair/replacement on the vehicle - original hybrid battery)

 

Wow truly amazing!