Prius ECOHITCH, who has one?

I really like the EcoHitch for the Prius and am thinking about getting one. I'm torn on what size to go with 1.25" or 2". I'm probably just going to use it for bikes and maybe a cargo tray for longer trips. Any recommendations?

 

For anyone interested on a great deal on the EcoHitch, check out their Cyber Monday deal. I just ordered mine and will post pics when I get it.

 

Just ordered and received an EcoHitch for the Prius. It's definitely a nicely engineered piece. But...

No changes have been made in the Instructions. Same vagueness about some of the cuts that have to be made in the plastic covers. The bolts are still referred to as 18mm instead of 17mm.

In Tork Central's video they show a Prius up on a lift, with a lowered muffler. No such muffler instructions included. Only take off the rear hanger, which leaves nearly no room for the hitch install on passenger side, especially since they state to support the muffler with a stand (which I did) to prevent "non warranty" damage. Apparently more hangers must be dismounted to get the muffler out of the way far enough to make this installations possible.

So far have found that I may have to cut some metal to get the hitch to fit into the bottom of bumper. Not as simple as they made it look on the "high speed" Video. These guys should put some worded instructions with sound on their video and at the point the hitch goes into the bumper, slow the video down to normal speed to actually see how the installation was performed! Would help tremendously.

 

Thank you for posting your experience installing EcoHitch recently. I have forwarded the notes you made regarding our installation instructions and installation video to our engineering team. We will make some of your recommended changes and review your other suggestions. We value your feedback a great deal and will be sure to make any improvements necessary to both the install video and installation instructions for your hitch.

Thanks again for posting and for choosing EcoHitch.

 

One way to reduce any ground contact is with Firestone's Coil-Rite air suspension, as seen here on our 2011. The EcoHitch is worth the cost. U-HAUL installed ours for $60.00, they do more hitch installations in a day than I'll do in a lifetime. The Thule carbo box is weathertight, locks, and won't lose gear during transport...

 

I have the Eco-Hitch on my project Prius v, but it isn't on the road yet, so I can't comment on much. I bought it to use the existing bike rack I have from a previous car. Installation was super easy!



I think Torklift Central would consider this a non-standard installation though.

Bill the Engineer

 

look ma, no plastic panels.

 

Do you recall what that sheetmetal is for? It looks important. I have a 2012 Plug In and looking to get either the Curt or Ecohitch. Cheers.

 

Hi Jay-

Did you ever get this installed? I have a 2014 Prius Plugin and am also interested in your review of this product and install

 

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but I just finished installation of my x7180 Stealth Ecohitch on my 13 Prius Plug-in. Unfortunately there are no good videos or step by step instructions for installation besides this thread. I spent a lot of time watching similar videos just to get an idea. I am definitely not a mechanic, but am handy. Firstly, I can't imagine doing this install with the Prius on the ground, definitely need to get it up in the air, jackstands worked for me, even higher would have been great. Secondly, my hitch was a few mms too small to get both sides bolting on - fought with it for hours. Etrailer's advice is to flex it open using various methods, but this thing wouldn't budge, if you look how it is welded you will see why - it is not designed to flex. I ended up using a rat tail file to remove just enough material to get it bolted on. The bolt mounting on the muffler side is a bear, find someone with small hands if you can. I massacred my poor undercarriage panel, but that is totally on me as I made cuts to the wrong side, requiring me to use some extra zip ties to secure it back underneath.

As Bill the Engineer stated - this is not a standard installation.

I have notifications on so if any future installer of this particular hitch on a prius plug-in needs more information, I am happy to help.

 

I also happened to do this install on my 2015 Plug-In yesterday. It took about 3 hours, with the last hour of cutting the plastic. Mine was the 2" version which also installs a smaller third bolt on the frame rail.

* The instructions are as useless as the toilet paper it's printed on
* I backed the car up on ramps to get enough access to do everything
* My car is from rusty New York, the muffler heat shield punched through the bolts and one of the bolts broke off so I ended up setting the shield aside
* I was able to fold down the plastic shield to get access to everything without removing it (rusty bolt in the front would have broken off)
* The stock bolts in the frame rails are 17mm and the replacement bolts are 19mm (not specified in the instructions, I didn't have this socket size on hand). The smaller supplied bolts IIRC are 14mm.
* Having socket extensions and multiple socket depths really helps, especially working around the muffler
* Getting the receiver up to the frame took a lot of effort and pushing plastic out of the way. The instructions say to cut the bumper tabs off but they're designed to fold up so I left them
* The instructions say to cut the plastic before installing the receiver but I couldn't make out what or why I was supposed to cut. I did this step last and used a box cutter to make the hole for the receiver. It ended up being spot on. For the other parts of the plastic, you need to cut off where it protrudes vertically as the cross bar is now taking up that space. My box cutter ended up not being sturdy enough for this so I used a soldering iron to melt it off. A rotary tool would likely be the best for this.

There is an installation video but it's about as useless as the instructions:

All in all it seems like a quality product with terrible instructions. I only intend to use a light duty hitch cargo carrier so it should hopefully be overkill for that purpose.

 

As an update, I've had the hitch installed for 30k miles and it seems pretty bulletproof so far. The missing muffler heat shield also doesn't seem to have had any effect on the surrounding plastic.

 

Also, the Harbor Freight ATV Cargo Carrier fits perfectly into the profile of the Prius.