Is the electricity really cheaper?

Here is one:
Torklift Central | 2017 Toyota Prius Prime Stealth EcoHitch

 

Yeah, I just searched and found this installation video. Looks doable DIY if you have a helper and way to raise the car high enough.

 

Will putting those tow hitch on PRIME void the warranty? The manual clearly states not to use towing hitch.

 

Same as all Prii.

In the U.S., the mere presence of a hitch receiver cannot automatically void warranties. They must show some reasonable connection between the warranty failure in question, and the modification in question.

 

Meaning if there is reasonable doubt that excessive towing caused the mechanical failure for example transmission, they may deny the warranty. I wonder if there have been any case report of such incidents here. At any rate, it seems still cheaper and safer to rent a truck from Home Depot if I need to haul something that will not fit inside of the car. lol

 

Only if you need the truck it infrequently.

I had a 2" receiver hitch on my '04, moved it to the '09.
You found this, it bolts to the frame. It is the one I'm going to buy, didn't find any 2" and I'm NOT going to "neck up" from a 1 1/4" hitch to a 2" tray:
2018 Toyota Prius Prime Trailer Hitch - Draw-Tite

And I'm going to get this cargo tray:
20x47 Reese Cargo Carrier for 1-1/4" Hitches - Steel - 300 lbs Reese Hitch Cargo Carrier 63155

Haven't looked into a trailer but for short hauling with a lighter weight trailer of not that heavy goods, it shouldn't be a problem. The tongue weight should be 10% to 15% of the trailer and load, that means if you have 1,000 pounds of trailer and load, the weight on the back of the car would only be 100 to 150 pounds. You can put you in the front and another 600 or more pounds in the cargo area, 100 pound on the hitch instead is nothing.

 

Hummm, 20x47" cargo tray. I am not sure if I ever feel such a small area to be useful. And a trailer is whole another level. Would cost substantially more, and I even have to register it to get a plate for it. So much easier with another car with larger cargo.

 

The Torklift receiver unit is 2".

 

$390, OUCH! I can get a new hitch and tray for $100 less and sell my 2" tray.

Depends on what you want to put on it
I have a cargo bag that fits and a 300' roll of 48" field fence fits, tilted a bit yes. And I made a cardboard box covered in thick waterproof "fabric" that holds three 5 gallon gas or diesel cans. Would rather not carry those inside the car. DD2 did not have a car in college (Wisconsin). DW, she and I drove to college with her stuff all inside the '09. Obtained more "stuff" while in college so we brought her back with additional stuff in the bag on the cargo tray - 1,100 miles. And no, I didn't have nearly the 300# that the tray and hitch presumably can support.

Yes a bigger vehicle that has more cargo space would have more space. And get maybe 30 MPG ALL the time. And the gas/diesel cans would have to go inside Clearly you have made do without for 1.5 years so I'm guessing the need isn't very frequent unless your son has a vehicle with a large cargo capacity.

The questions one must ask themselves are

• how often do I need more space?
• what size and shape things do I need to put in that space?

Do you need to do it frequently? Get the bigger vehicle or a trailer.
If you need to do it rarely, see if temporary extra storage on your Prime will carry what you need.
If the answer to both is "no", rent the HD truck when you need to move the bigger stuff. Well, not me, the HD is 30 miles away. And the local UHaul doesn't rent pickups.

 

Well, occasional hauling of lumber and plywoods and very large and bulky materials can be done by a rental truck. We make frequent trips to a local feed store for our backyard farm and garden. We use to be able to buy in bulk and haul all kind of stuff at once with our minivan, but we now have to make many trips to carry smaller quantity at once in PRIME. The thing is that we will eventually need another car for me and my DW. And if we are going to get another car anyway, we would like it to be useful for the purpose currently our PRIME is not satisfactory. That another car, we want to drive in deep snow, on occasional off-road and be able to carry large bulky stuff, but I am totally against getting another 20mpg gas guzzler. Thus I have been looking for a fuel-efficient hybrid SUV for sometimes.

 

Good luck! I doubt you'll find anyone making a more efficient hybrid than Toyota and the smallest SUV (RAV 4 which I know you know) has EPA 34/30. The Highlander Hybrid is 30/28 for the LE, not all that less which surprises me given it is a reasonable amount larger.

 

Yap, used Highlander 28/28 is currently on top of my short list. New HiHy is too expensive. @Trollbait just introduced me to used Ford Escape Hybrid with 34/31. I am also checking used Lexus RX hybrid 32/28. If we are buying newer and small SUV it will be a battle between RAV4 hybrid 34/30, Lexus UX hybrid 41/38, and Kia Niro hybrid 52/49. But the reason I have not decided yet is to wait for the arrival of all-new 2019 RAV4 Hybrid with 41/37.

 

Still not going to get 4x8 sheet goods inside any of those. I expect you have more animals that I do. 18 chickens going through 50# every 2 weeks, will be 1/2 that when things start to grow. Farm and garden store is only 3 miles. Hay for the 2 alpacas is delivered in the fall by the farmer (mostly retired except for hay now) 3/4 mile up the road.

 

Yeah, I miss our good old Sienna for that purpose. I had rear seats removed and stowed in the vehicle most of the time. It could fit 16 bails of straws. The largest item we have put in it was a full-size refrigerator/freezer. I thought about getting cargo van, like Ford Transit or Nissan NV200, but my DW did not approve the move.

 

For light towing needs I would be strongly pulled to the "Adventure" trim of the RAV4 -- rated for 3500lbs of towing and 1090lbs of payload with 28 mpg otherwise. The Prius Prime is ~650lbs of payload, depending on trim, and not rated for towing. I wouldn't be extremely bothered by towing in the prime so long as tongue weight+interior people/cargo doesn't go over gross (also keep in mind the hitch receiver is about 30 lbs of payload used). But I'd still want to keep speeds low and ideally use at least a surge braked trailer. A 1500lbs trailer could easily end up eating half of the payload of a Prius Prime, especially after adding a .

For those worried about warranty for towing -- the same goes for overgrossing. People seem obsessed with the tow rating and are unwilling to approach it, but then are happy to over-gross the car. That is just as much a reason to deny warranty or assign liability in an accident as towing would be.

Just for a preview of the truck world, the Tundra has only 1530-1660 of payload, but it is rated for up to 10,100 pounds of towing. So unless you have a perfectly balanced trailer with 10% of tongue weight, you will overgross even that at the rated capacity. Tacoma is ~1100lbs of payload. Basically if you really need real payload and towing -- you need step up to something with dual rear wheels or pick a domestic in 2WD with a standard, non-crew cab. The difference between an F150 2WD Regular cab and 4WD Crew is over 1000lbs of payload.

 

Thank you for all the details of what goes into towing. Since we don't bike, nor camp, nor boat, nor haul tons of stuff, I never thought about towing anything behind my car (or van or truck for that matter if I owned one). Came to PC to learn about PRIUS, but learn so much more. This place is so educational. I love it.

 

That is with all the added charges, etc. They just dropped the price on my TOU plan to $0.10/kWh from 10pm to 8am. Full charge for around $0.65, and I can drag that out for about 55 miles (some downhill).

Total commute is 81 miles round trip with about 1,500 foot elevation gain/loss and I average 135-140 gasoline MPG. Without electricity it would be about 50 - 60 MPG (I've done it when I forgot to plug in). $0.65 worth of electricity enables me to avoid burning about $2.50 worth of gas each day. Saving $50 a month in gas with $13 worth of electricity is nothing to sneeze at.

 

Has anyone actually had a warranty issue because they have a small hitch on their Prime to carry a bike?

 

Those TOU plans, unless you have solar, are a complete ripoff unless use very little power during the day. Charging the Prime battery pales in comparison to running a 20-30 amp central a/c outside the hours of 10 pm to 8 am. Now, if you have solar and NEM metering, you can stick it to the man because excess solar energy is bought back at by the power company at peak and partial peak power rates. So, consider your total power usage, when you're using power, and your rate plan, instead of just focusing on what it takes to charge the car overnight.

 

TOU still not worth it with my electricity provider.