Coastal Tech Hitch and Prius Warranty....

Sure seems unlikely. [My uneducated opinion.]

 

The Coastal E Tech hitch doesn't include anchors for the safety chains and as such is illegal for towing. That is how they can stand behind it and say it's not for towing and only for load carrying.

 

The schedule for servicing the car includes provision for additional checks and service for towing. FWIW It is in the service schedule. I read it last night. On the other hand the Owners Manual says it's a no no.

 

Which brings up something I've been thinking about. Why CAN'T you tow with a Prius? I'm not talking a 24' travel trailer, but why not a small 4'x6' or 4'x8' trailer to get fairly light stuff to the dump or something. Or one of those little trailers used by motorcycles? I saw one that was sort of a little pop-up camper.

 

it doesn't say it's a no no, it say's Toyota doesn't recommend towing with the Prius. If you tow a 32 foot travel trailer thru the Colorado Rockies your going to have problems. If you tow your utility trailer over to the plant store and get a bunch of shrubs for your yard, and it's not up and down really big hills I don't see a problem. I do it, and it doesn't really affect the fuel ecomomy as much as the A/C does. Now that I can check the temps of the MG1 and 2 and battery current flow and such I'll be in a better position to tell if it really has a big affect but from my useage so far all I can see is about a 3 mpg hit in the mileage. My longest trip has been 15 miles and that includes one really steep hill about 3/4 mile long. I take my hitch off when not needed as there is no sense in packing around 35Lbs of iron for nothing.

 

A good lawyer would turn it into a entire case. If they did not want you to tow then they should have printed a Prius only service manual. *** Music comes up, visions of Razzle Dazzle them from Chicago running ***

 

Trailer Hitch

Where can I buy a hitch?

 

Hmmm another rookie ;-)
click This
I'll give you a few points to get you started, I have too many and they aren't good for anything anyway

 

Coastal Hitch

I am another rookie waiting for his car to arrive...

Has anyone towed with the Coastal Hitch? Can safety chains be added? What kind of hitch are you using, Frank?

I am looking to tow a Laser (small sailing dinghy). Max weight w/trailer is probably no more than 350 lbs with little wind resistance.

Thanks,

Buck

 

I built my own hitch. I'm a heavy duty mechanic combo welder fitter. I work in the forklift industry and make a lot of attachments and such for them. I used 2 1/2"x 1/2" flat bar for the cross brace and 2 1/2"x 5/8"for the tounge. Used 3/8" flat plate for the mounts for the frame rails. The max weight I'd tow with a Prius is the max load for a Prius less the weight of fuel and myself. The most I'd personally tow is about 450Lbs. including the trailer. I've never see a Coastal hitch so can't make any comments on it.

 

Re: Coastal Hitch

If you go to their site, they have a blurb like: Since Toyota doesn't recommend pulling a trailer ... There are no eyes to hook the safety chains but I suspect it wouldn't be hard to figure out a reasonable modfication.

I'm a little curious. The Corolla lists a towing capacity of 1500 pounds. I can't find the max load capacity for the car. I'm thinking about this due to Frank's comment about not having the combined weight of people, cargo and trailer exceed the Prius max load capacity. In 'normal' cars, what is the ratio of max vehicle load to towing capacity, assuming no special towing packages?

 

it's normally called CGVW combined gross vehicle weight and on the 2k4 Prius it's 845Lbs. fuel passengers and baggage. That would be the max if you used the CGVW rule for towing a trailer as well. The Classic has a CGVW of 800Lbs.

 

I think I needed to be more specific, I know the CGVW for the Prius, I was wondering what it was for the Corolla. I'm sure it isn't a direct comparison, Prius to Corolla, but if the Corolla has a similar CGVW and a 1500 pound towing capacity, why couldn't one tow the same amount with a Prius? It is possible the 1500 pounds assumes a trailer with brakes as I did see one place where 2 towing capacities were shown for a car. I think the trailer without brakes was about 800 pounds, 1500 with brakes.

 

the Corolla has a bigger engine with more torque and a shorter warranty period. The requirement for trailer brakes varies with the state/province where you live. There is a lot of other considerations for towing trailers and I'm also sure that Toyota doesn't want the Prius to be tested by a lot of people who have the ability to grossly over load the car/drivetrain capabilities. Better for Toyota when it comes to paying for warranty claims.

 

I use my Prius to tow a trailer (260 lbs.), and racing kart (180 lbs.) to the track about once a week. I have had absolutely no problems at all with arrangement. I believe the Prius has almost 300 ft/lbs of torque, so accelerating from a stop is not a problem. The biggest issue is weight, and staying within passenger/baggage/fuel weight of around 850 lbs. After some research, the lightest trailer I found was a 4'X8' made by Harbor Freight Tools, (also the cheapest at $200). The catch is that you assemble the trailer yourself.
My commute to the track is about 20 miles, all flat highway, and I could easily cruise at 75mph, but keep it down around 55-65mph for safety. I don't know how this arrangement would perform up steep, long hills or mountains, but wouldn't recommend pushing the envelope any further than I have. I'm sure there is a good reason they don't recommend towing with this vehicle. I hope I don't find out why.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Frank Hudon\";p=\"37059)</div>

Apologies for sorta diverting the thread, but 845 CGVW? No kiddin'? I never thought about vehicle carrying limits. I just figured when there was too much meat and luggage in the car to fit another body, it was officially full.

Does this mean on my next road trip to Vegas with the boyz, I need to either limit the personnel to 3, or strictly weigh everyone's luggage? I mean 4 185lb guys, plus a tank of gas, plus a box of tissues pretty much puts you at 845lbs.

What's the true safe limit, rather than the legal CYA limit, and what potential harm could I do to my car by exceeding the max CGVW?

Great. Another thing to be neurotic about...

 

you have to find the load capacity of the tires as it also figures into the equation. Car and load can't exceed the load capacity of the 4 tires. Then you have to consider which end weights more when fully loaded and then check if you've exceeded the capacity of the tires on that end. you and your buddy's ever been to the truck weight scale. Drive the front end on the platform and check the readout then pull the whole car on and read it again then put the backend on and read the weight. With those 3 readings and your hand book and the tire information you can crunch the numbers. Don't forget to fill the tank and take the tissues. I think you'll find the Toyota data pretty close. Hope this gives you some help with your neurosis