Can I tow a very light jet ski and trailer with my 2010 Prius IV?

My two cent non researched or experience comment.

800 pounds I would not term light weight.
The transmissions in Prius' I think could become problematic when accelerating with that weight.

More research needed.
Especially of interest is the comment about Europe and the many who tow with sub compacts.

My vote: I would not; too much weight at 800lbs.

Never the less, good luck with your decision.

 

Towing 800# with a Prius is not the issue.

The issue is the driver. And to a lesser extent, the hills.

The regenerative braking is going to work as it always does.
Then, when it hits its limit, conventional breaking will take over.
At this point, it's not much different than having 1,000# in your car.
Although technically overloaded, this would barely cause me to flinch.

Toyota is worried about the people who don't know how to tow and are oblivious to the mass behind them.

If you don't know how to tow a trailer, this may not be something you want to take on.
If you're going to pretend that you know how to tow a trailer, you'll be inviting trouble and ASRDogman will be waiting (with baited breath I'm sure) to reply to your follow up post.
If you do know how to tow a trailer, throw the hitch on, be careful, and go do it.

 

TOYOTA says NOT to tow anything. It's not me!
Posting and follow up posting is part of Prius Chat. Duh!

If Toyota is afraid people don't know how to tow things, then why do they have trucks that can tow trailers?
If you want to tow stuff, get a vehicle that is designed for it.

But, I know people don't care about hurting other people, it's all about pleasing themselves.

Just because you can do something, doen't mean you should.

 

Exactly!!! Perfect Summary...

Because Prius are so light relative to a pretty significant wheelbase (long lever) it very easy for a heavily loaded trailer to take control of the rear end of the vehicle if it starts swaying side to side. By experimenting with increasingly heavier loads you can get a feel for how this can become a problem with controlling the vehicle at higher speeds. Both myself and others have only needed to reach that threshold once before not wanting to risk that experience again. All that being said, 800 pounds on a trailer that's narrow/optimized to carry that load probably won't be an issue, though you'll probably not feel as comfortable at speed than you think.

 

same with driving drunk. The books and the law says no, but people still do it any ways.

 

No, your comparison is entirely invalid... Driving drunk can kill someone... Driving with a trailer of reasonable size and weight does not. Unless of course the person doing the towing is only fed fear and harassment rather then detailed intelligent information about how towing will change the handling of the vehicle, in which case all you unsupportive close-minded people really could end up killing someone.

 

Towing 800 plus pounds with a vehicle that is NOT supposed to tow anything can kill someone.
The principle is the same as drunk driving.

 

Actually?
It can be worse.

Drunk drivers have at least the poor excuse of having their judgement altered by a drug.
Sober people who do things like overload their vehicles, text while driving, or any of a number of other activities do not even have the paltry excuse of a mind addled by drink.

They know better....they just don’t give a rats.

Disclaimers:
I have stated, and I believe that it is possible to tow a relatively light load under some very specific conditions with a Prius.
I have also texted while driving - again under very specific conditions (I.e. at a stop light.)

Hypocrisy is a universal human trait.

 

"Drunk drivers have at least the poor excuse of having their judgement altered by a drug."
It is self inflicted. They CHOOSE to drink and drive. they know it's wrong, they know they could kill someone,
or more than one, but they choose to do it anway.

Just like towing a vehicle.

They only care about themselves.

 

You can also tow 800# with a bicycle. Hell I saw a single human pull an entire plane on a guiness book of world records show.

My vote: HELL YES YOU CAN TOW A JETSKI WITH A PRIUS!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY STOP THERE?

But I think if you did very much of it, it would be dangerous and probably bad for your car. If it was a short tow on a low speed limit road in a rural area I wouldn't worry about it.

 

You can learn alot about how a car owner makes decisions like these by finding out how long their vehicles last before they get a new one.

Meanwhile us folks who never buy a car with less that a 100K miles on it and then go on to use that same said car for a decade or longer, probably know more about what they're willing to tow than the people who are constantly carrying upside down car loans and saying "I have really bad luck with cars."

 

These type of threads always kill me.

I'd much rather share the road with someone who knows what they're doing towing something with a Prius then the average idiot out there towing something with a truck "meant to tow".

I wonder how many of those who say Toyota knows best actually follow the service intervals or change their oil more frequently because 10k is just crazy talk

 

In my gen 2 I change the oil every 18K.

 

Remind me never to buy a used car from you.

JeffD

 

Very few things in life are binary.
Failure to maintain your car properly "can" make it dangerous to drive - but not so much if you're just not changing your oil.
However (comma!) patterns emerge.
People who are slothful about filters and fluids sometimes also fail to properly maintain things like lights, brakes, and tires.....

Better to be killed on line than on the road.

LOL'd at "average idiot....."
The buy-in for trucks with tow packages is fairly steep, and I find that a greater percentage of those folks actually KNOW what leveling bars, weight distribution hitches, trailer brakes and safety chains are and....how to use them.

There are 'ambassadors' in every community.
Yes....even Prius drivers.

Most people who REALLY know what they are doing can (and SOME do) haul small loads with a dinky trailer....using a small car.

HOWEVER (comma!) Science and data.
If you increase the mass, length, height, sail area, etc... of a small car, with small tires, and small brakes....then Sir Isaac Newton, PRS is going to sit back and wait until you get out over your skis, and then IF YOU'RE LUCKY.....and if your fellow motorists are lucky.....you might just have a financially painful lesson to learn.

Me?
The last time I was nearly killed on the roads was by a Prius, trying to hypermile through a stop sign, WAAAAAY past 'civil twilight' with their lights off, and holding their phone in front of their face....

YMMV

 

I change mine every 15k. Oil analysis said the sample was better then the averages with less miles on them......

 

what’s your choice of oil brand?

 

Plenty of payment buyers in those vehicles. That said having money doesn't mean squat.

Frequent truck forums and you'll find plenty of people who can't tell you the difference between, GVWR, GCWR, how to calculate payload, or know about axle weight limits. It's especially interesting when they fail to account for tonque weight in the payload calculation.

How many half ton pickups do you see pulling heavy travel trailers with the bed full of gear and 4 people in a crew cab? Yeah, that's not anywhere near what they're "rated" for.

I pulled my truck with a friend's newish half ton when mine broke. I was within a few hundred pounds of the tow limit and max GCWR. That was with just me in the truck....I see people pulling similar with the truck loaded heavier all the time around here.

Referencing that first paragraph, how is that any different then the people who can't understand physics and driving dynamics in every day driving. Snow and/or rain just exacerbates this.

Referencing the second part.....case in point the hypermiling Prius driver who ran the stop sign by not understanding the time and distance needed to decelerate while soley relying on regen braking.