You CAN tow with a Prius

Whats a stock Prius tow package?

 

OK. So here's my first post on this site.
I have a Gen 2, 2006. I'm the original owner, since March,2006. My first wife(RIP) actually used the car mostly after she confiscated the vehicle from me. ;-) It had approximately 50K on it when I retired from the BNSF RR in early 2013. After that it became our sole transportation, other than my motorcycle, which I used solely for myself as she was physically incapable of riding. Anyway, it now has 148K on it.
I just trailered my 750 lb. bike on an approximate 600 lb, 5x8 utility trailer for roughly 2400 miles. My fuel economy took the expected PLUNGE. For the life of the car (I've kept written records since day one) I have averaged 45+ mpg. Hauling that 1300+ lbs. I averaged 24 mpg. I made a command decision from the outset and limited myself to 60 mph and a maximum of 4000 rpm. We went over an innumerable number of mountain passes, the several of of which were well over 7000 ft. I kicked off the cruise whenever I figured the climb was going to be too steep and/or too long. The worst grade was 8% and we got down to 34 mph but the car handled it just fine. There's too much tongue weight on the trailer, particularly with the bike on board. The rear of the car is about 4 inches lower than when unloaded but I never once felt the car bottom out. To be worked out in the future.

 

Toughest little car ever. I put on a Curt hitch about 10 years ago. About 6 times a year Ill need to tow some wood or lawn crap or something. $20 at Uhaul for the day. Better than owning a Pickup truck.

 

We have used a Prius to haul quite a few different things (waverunner, lawnmower, hay, pigs, puppies). Once my son and I made a a small trailer he could use to pick up and haul around his FFA pigs, and it turned out to have a lot of other uses as well.

 

I drove to Indy from Mid-Michigan, bought the Versys and towed back to home.
It felt the Prius was always revving a bit higher and MPG dropped to about 35 (from normal for me at 46).
Its doable and your car won't blow up.
Simba

 

But the car does much better with the smaller trailer:
Simba

 

I have learned not to argue with those that want and DO tow with their Prius.

But to say you CAN tow with a Prius.
Sure, and I can pound a nail in a board using the handle of my screwdriver, doesn't mean it's the best tool for the job. And it's dangerous.

That's how I felt about towing with a hybrid. With HSD electric motors working in conjunction with an atkinson cycled ICE, and e-cvt transmission, regenerative brakes, this is a vehicle designed to be efficient for itself. It really isn't from nearly the ground up, designed to be a tow vehicle.

To me? Right tool for the job, and although experience of many has shown yes, you can hitch up a Prius, I still don't think it's a good idea. Maybe even dangerous.

If I remember right, doesn't Toyota simply say...Don't Tow With Your Prius?
It certainly isn't recommended from Toyota.

 

I agree with you--the Prius is not the best car to tow with.
But its doable especially if you keep your speeds in check below 65MPH.
Simba

The smaller and lighter trailer works much better.

 

Wow. You drive 55 in california. I know the law is 55 when towing. But I never seen anyone who didn't go at least 65 towing or not.....

 

Pictures please.

 

I've also towed a lot with mine, same setup as you 3 rail trailer and 2-3 dirtbikes. In a pinch I've even towed about 1500lb with another 500lb in the car, way over payload but it still got 36mpg. My headgasket started to leak at 270k. My advice is don't ignore cel and p0420 code for the cat. Once it's plugged up from burning oil, cut it out and sell it at a junkyard for $300 and get a replacement. Change the coolant regularly. Mine took a lot of abuse before it finally leaked.

 

The Little Engine that Could!

Over the Thanksgiving week of 2019, during the major winter Storm, My Wife and I moved from Chicago to Portland, Oregon. We used a POD to move our stuff with plans to Drive with a very light load but we couldn't fit everything in the POD so I ended up having a tow hitch installed, rented a 1500lbs trailer from Uhaul and towed through a Snow Storm, Mountains and Ice-covered roads on 5 grade+ slopes up and down.

It took us 5 days, we averaged about 290 miles per tank until I discovered that if you use cruise control the computer manages the energy and load far far better than you can with your foot on the gas peddle. The car would go into eco mode using Cruise control, and I found it impossible to get the balance right to drive in Eco mode using the gas peddle so that was interesting. I never felt that the car was working too hard, it was easy to control, ultimately I would forget the trailer was attached to the car and frequently I looked in my rearview mirror wondering what donkey is tailgating me in a Uhaul while simultaneously realizing as I am thinking this, it is me. I had a 1500lbs trailer that probably weighed about 2600lbs after we loaded it, which is way over the suggested limit, the guy who installed the hitch says you will be fine, just be smart, don't do stupid stuff, in my mind, I am thinking this is pretty stupid stuff for starters..



The biggest issues came with the mountains, We went thru Nebraska and cut north to Cheyenne Wyoming and continued west. Our first climb into the Rockies went very smooth after stopping in Cheyyene with no issues at all, until later that night, it all changed. Our night trip got darn right scary, the thought of dying crossed my mind many times, we are coming down a good 5-grade slope on ice and slush, I have a 2600lbs load on a car that only weighs 3500lbs, my other issue was that truckers and SUVs are flying down this mountain going 55 to 60 miles per hour honking at me on some occasions because I am crawling down this mountain at about 25 to 35 miles per hour with my hazards on, every time I did a brake check the anti locks hit instantly which made me really nervous because I knew that if I lost control of this car it would be over if we didn't get lucky and catch a guard rail which are far and few between. This was the only time I was concerned and extremely stressed from the driving, my hands were cramping from gripping the wheel for so long and so hard. This went on for about 3 hours, we were only 60 miles from our stop for the night when this started and it drew out for what seemed forever.

My biggest concern was going up the mountains and running out of torque because the batteries went dead and if that happens I am left with a Lawnmower engine to pull 5000lbs up a mountain. The batteries were doing good so far but I could see they drained fast on long uphill grades between 2 to 3 grades which gave me confidence, but I knew a big one was coming, the Highway to Heaven near Ft. Bridger. I have never taken this route out west so I had never seen this Moutain before.




The next day, we wake up in another Snow Storm, get some coffee hit the road and it was slow awful traveling, the caked up snow and ice made for a bumpy ride for about 2.5 hours and then everything cleared up just in time to hit the HIghway to Heaven, this picture is from online, none of our pictures could show the grade very well so I used this instead, this picture is looking east, we are heading west so we came down the side of the mountain you can see in the distance of the picture and we came up the side the picture was taken from.



From the top I could see the other mountain top with a little road on it, I said holy shit! I hit the gas and for the first time went over 55 mph and we hit about 70mph so that I could get the momentum I needed to get up this mountain, our Prius climbed and climbed and the battery was draining so fast, this all took place in about 2 to 3 minutes and we made it to the top of the mountain on the last battery bar. If we were going east, I honestly do not know if we would have made it, this side of the mountain was not as tall.

Overall, we were not expecting bad weather, and if we did hit bad weather we could always stop, but this was a week-long winter storm and we really wanted to be at our destination for thanksgiving, but instead, we spent it on the road in a snow storm. I did all of this very very carefully, I would not do it again, but for local towing, I would have no issues at all towing with that car, the performance, handling reliability was outstanding.

 

Here my tow set up too. It's great to move stuff that's not too heavy.

SM-J737T1 ?

 

I have a 2011 with 111,000 miles. New 12V battery last year, oil changes every 5k, new transmission fluid and both coolants last year, new plugs, new filters. In short, very well-kept. Still getting 52/48 mpg as the original sticker promised.

This morning I bought a Kendon motorcycle trailer, weight 350 lbs. I was planning to tow my 565 lb. BMW maxi-scooter from Florida to New York and back this summer. BUT ... on the 16-mile trip from buying the trailer to my driveway, my traction battery reading dropped from 7 bars to 2 -- can't remember it ever going to 2. Last five-minute mpg's went from over 50 to just above 25.

I found this alarming. If the battery gets drained like that just pulling the trailer WITHOUT THE BIKE on it, I am herewith abandoning plans to tow with my Prius. I won't make it 50 miles before the Prius will need to be towed.

Dang. I was looking forward to this trip, and many pro-towing posts on the forum had me feeling good about it. Guess every car is different. Mine does not like towing.

(fyi ... backup plan ... ship the bike north, fly there and ride it home or ship it back and fly)

 

Not sure what you found alarming. The car operating within its margins (2bars and even 1 bar is very normal) or giving you 25mpg towing that giant trailer which is more than most vehicles get not towing anything...

Don't be afraid of your car doing exactly what your car is designed to do.

 

After 18 months of daily use the project Lithium pack has only once dropped below three bars for only a second or two. Ain't no mountain high enough and no traffic jam slow enough to drop this pack down to "very normal" of one or 2 bars, where's there's hardly any power left. And it recharges from 3 bars way more efficiently / quickly than NiMH.

If you're on the west coast of US I'll give $100 discount on installation if you use my affiliate code: https://projectlithium.com/?ref=9qLPw

 

The BMS system is unchanged and therefore yes it is very normal as that's the normal behaviour. You want to give me a pack I'll gladly show you how it will fail as I've explained before. 99.9% is not good enough for automotive quality.

 

Pretending you have accurate statistics on project lithium pack viablity while at the same time asking for a free pack so you can "prove" what's wrong with your competitor isn't a good look.

 

There's nothing to prove and it isn't a competitor. It's a fire hazard. I, unlike that project, am a real engineer and have done automotive designs for the big boys.

You not understanding how the BMS system in a Prius works, yet continuing to shill an unsafe product, is not a good look.

Get back on topic as this has nothing to do with towing. The Prius BMS will happily and constantly charge the pack between 40% and 80%. If it is within those ranges, the pack is happy. If you're towing or sitting idle in a parking lot, it will not be uncommon to see the whole range. The BMS by default will actually cycle the pack through a full charge and discharge somewhat randomly. Can never really tell when that is going to happen. But it does.

For towing it is more important that you allow the car to enter S4 and fully shutdown the gas engine at temperature before going on your way. Especially if you're heading straight for the open road without many chances for a full stop.