Towing a trailer

absolutely. there are tons of threads here on trailer towing, check them out. one note of caution, toyota does not approve of it in north america. all the best!

 

I tow a 4 x 8 harbor freight trailer.

No problem. Better mileage pulling the trailer with a motorcycle than carrying my bicycles on a hitch mounted rack, mostly due to air flow, I think. On the trailer the motorcycle is parallel to the path of travel; for the bicycles, the bikes are 90-degrees to the path of travel.

Curt hitch (from e-trailer) and Curt plug-and-play wiring (also from e-trailer). All self installed.

I think a tear drop would be fine.

 

the only difference is their lawyers and ours. once they give the go ahead here, the flood gates will open and people will abuse their vehicles and class action lawsuits will begin.

 

No difference in the cars, but there is in the trailer regulations.
Why Tow Ratings are Different in the EU vs. the US | PriusChat
tl;dr The lower tongue weight of trailers in Europe allow for a heavier trailer, but going over 60mph will eventually mean loss of control and a crash. Keeping the same tongue weight under US regulations would cut the tow load in half.

A small trailer should be fine. Keep in mind that it is putting more weight 'in' the car than in markets than have a legal tow rating. From the legal stand point, if something did go wrong while towing with a Prius, you can run afoul of the insurance companies and lose warranty coverage.

 

I got a small boat trailer from Harbor Freight and modified it to haul my Kayaks behind a 2008 Prius. The car went from 44 mpg to about 38 mpg but that was still much better than 17 mpg with my pickup. I wouldn't be comfortable towing anything over say 700-800 lbs total because of the strain it would put on the engine and drive train. 1500 lbs is SUV territory, which is close to the max for my Forester and probably the Rav4. I just purchased a 2018 Prius and don't plan on installing a hitch on it for obvious reasons.

 

Keep in mind Canadian laws are different again. @Tideland Prius or @Mendel Leisk can probably weigh in on that.
Just because Canada is close does not mean it can be considered part of the US.
From what I have read, they may prefer our head of state to theirs right now, though.

 

Can you point to actual cases of insurance cases where towing with a vehicle that is not recommended for towing by the manufacturer resulted in "running afoul" of the insurance company? A case linked to the Prius would mean extra points.

 

The insurance company will look for any "OUT" for a payout.

I might have mentioned it before - but my Dad, quite a few years ago reversed out of his driveway and clipped the corner of my car - little damage to my car, but needed a new bumper, paint, boot lid etc on his. Insurance assessor came to check his car, a 3 year old Holden (GM).

I rang Dad that night to find out how he went - he said the assessor looked at the back bumper, walked around the car and peered at each tyre. He quizzed the assessor - who said, I'm checking the car is roadworthy.

It seems they'd have refused the claim if he'd had a bald tyre - even though his speed was probably 6km/hr max - in reverse.

unlike UK versions, my PRIUS says it's unsuitable to tow - so I won't be taking the risk.