Has anyone towed anything with their Prius Plug In? If so, how many lbs have you tried and what wiring harness did you use? thx, TP5858
welcome! i don't think i've seen anything, but if you're going to use hv mod, you can read up on the lift back threads. i have considered getting a small trailer to tow stuff to the dump. maybe 500 lbs altogether. but i would be in ev mode only. all the best!
Thx for the response, agreed it would only be a small trailer with a row boat or something to that effect 500 lbs max. However, it seems that there is some conflicting information about tow hitch wiring harnesses. I have already installed the Curt tow bar assembly for the Prius, but just now came to find out that the Curt wire harness I bought excludes the plug in for assembly. There is another company called Tow Ready that makes a harness as well, but even though their customer service told me it would work, their website says it will not. It could be that because we have plug in Prius's that there is no electrical harness that can make a trailer light up with our cars
I tow a small 4' x 8 ' tilt bed harbor freight trailer approximately once a month with my plugin Prius. I purchased a Curt hitch, 2"euro ball and harness off EBay for approximately $130. My trailer weighs approximately 300 pounds and my typical cargo is 500 pounds or less. I use the torque app to monitor transaxle and engine temps and have yet to observe any concerning temps. When I am towing I avoid carrying additional passengers/cargo in the car and arrange the trailer cargo to minimize tongue weight. I did change my transaxle fluid at 30,000 miles and plan to change it every 60,0000 miles in the future.
i would be surprised if the plug in wiring is any different than the lift back. i'm no expert, but isn't it just a matter of tapping the brake and running light wiring?
The Curt Ebay hitch package electrical harness/ converter was generic and required you to tap into the cars wiring . I enjoy soldering so I didn't mind using this harness.I did have to provide my own fuse/holder for the 12V power requirement.
Have you been at a Commack Rd., Deer Park,Home Depot during this 4th of July weekend? As Bisco said, the wiring is the same for all hatchbacks and PiP; may defire in the color combinations.
No I wasn't at the Deer Park Home Depot this passed weekend. Thank you everyone for the great responses. I put on my tow hitch, hooked up my little trailer, weighs 440 lbs, and added a plastic pontoon boat 145 lbs and towed it around all July 4th weekend. Dropped the boat into several lakes in Patchogue NY. The car and hitch and trailer performed perfectly (went without a hitch, sorry). I have not yet hooked up the wiring harness, but the boat sits lower than my own tail lights. I am going to hook it up today or tomorrow and will report back. I have both the Curt wiring harness and the Tow Ready wiring harness. Not sure which I will use yet, but I will report back on how it works out.
Sorry Bisco didn't see your request for pics until after I finished the wiring harness install, but I will post a few pics of my prius with the hitch, and trailer with my boat on it. I promise. Happy to report that this lighting harness install was not much trouble at all. I used the Curt T-Connector lighting harness model # 56147 which is actually for the regular Prius. I am sure that the Tow Ready model would have worked as well. The manufacturer says it will not work with the Plug In, however, as others on here have stated on here, this is just to cover their own behinds because we have an electric car right. Anyway, you take apart most of the trunk area to get to the wires and battery, not the Huge Space Odessey battery that is in the middle of our trunks, but the normal battery which we have as well, which is behind the passenger side rear side panels in the trunk. This install took about 30 minutes to complete. I had to call a friend midway because I needed a third hand to hold back the rear panels while I was connected the wires. It works like its supposed to, my trailer lights are working, now I don't have to worry about the police pulling me over for this. Thanks again for all the quick support on here folks!!
You can tow up to 2,000 lbs. According to hitchweb, the only hitch listed for your vehicle is #112763. I can't post links yet but if you google hitchweb you can put the part number into the keyword search and it will come up for you that way. I didn't see any wiring listed for your vehicle. I'm not entirely sure that they make anything.
Anyone else ever tow anything with their PiP? Thinking about getting a hitch for a super light pop up camper.
...(crickets)... Of course, you know the book says not to pull any trailer. I keep an old Subaru just for that. My trailer and the boat are about 400 pounds.
