..

when I tow my trailer I just take the wire and lay it flat and close the trunk lid. Mine I cut and soldered the wires from the trailer light adapter and then taped every thing. drilled a small hole in a metal support for the tail light and put some grease on it and screwed the ground terminal on that. Cap the trailer harness with one of those fancy covers with the LED's in it so you can do a harness test before you even hook up the trailer. That way you know it's the trailer light or the car before you even get trailer connected. Trailer is a 404 Snowbear 4'square utility trailer. Good for yard waste or running to the garden supply store. Even hauled my old water heater to the recycling depot. Running the MiniScanner get to check MG temps and the inverter temps etc. Car doesn't even know it's back there.

 

I used this draw-tite harness, rearranged per instructions and installed tonight. It probably took me about 20 minutes to rearrange, another 10 minutes to install and put everything back together. Thanks for the great instructions! I passed them forward to the hitch dealer that sold me the harness. --Kim

 

Thanks for the input, Kim. What model year is your Prius? Like Nate, I'm assuming that this'll work on all Prius II's.

OK... my Curt hitch arrived yesterday, and I just ordered up the harness to repin.

Pictures eventually!

 

LOL. My signature doesn't contain a year because I bought the TRAC car on Dec 2003. The only model prius chat was discussing was the 2004 which was hard to get your hands on. I'll add the year

Thanks for bringing me up to date. Hard to believe the 2006 is the topic already.

 

I'm milking the year thing while mine is new and shiny and desirable. Few more months and I'll be hearing about the great new 2007, and, "gosh, aren't I lucky I waited until THIS model year, blah, blah."

 

OK... harness is in, tomorrow it'll get installed, and we'll have some actual pictures!

 

OK, I got the wiring harness in, and the pictures up! Takes longer to make the web page than to do the job. Let me know if/when you find errors or screw-ups! I just tossed it up:

http://www.darelldd.com/ev/prius_trailer_wiring.htm

And here is the hitch page to go with it:

http://www.darelldd.com/ev/prius_hitch.htm

 

Please...somebody at least LOOK at the page so it wasn't a complete waste of time!

 

it's not a waste, I've looked at it and emailed it on to a friend. you just need more coffee to help you relax

 

Relaxation is overrated!

 

Well, it is obvious that you are a person that believes that: Anything worth doing is worth doing right!!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 

Thanks Frank I have a friend

Very nice job Darrell. I expect my task will be 1000% easier with these very well illustrated instructions! I guess I better get on ordering the hitch from Coastal (hopefully this is an item they don't have problems getting out the door), trailer and car top cargo box to put on it! I plan to use the 40" by 48" trailer as both a flatbed for bicycles and possible trips to the dump with larger items and as a cargo trailer to double my carrying volume (being mindful of total weight of course) with the Cargo box attached.

I do have a 3 bike rack but we have 4 bikes and the wife's medium wheel base recumbant Sun EZ-1 AX sticks out on both sides of the car. I figure with a small extension of the plywood platform on the trailer, it will sit nicely right up the middle (seat removed, talk about windage!). Plus with all the other bikes on the trailer as well, access to the hatch will not be a problem.

We did get the girls to camp last year, using all available space below the level of the rear seat plus the floor and left side of the rear seat. They were fine most of the trip going down (2.5 hour trip) sitting in the middle and right rear seats. They got pissy pretty REAL fast on the way home. Loading the bulkier items in the cargo box on the trailer will make MY life better!

 

Thanks, Bruce!

Good luck with it. Should go fairly smoothly. I do wish I'd taken some *other* pictures though. Tough to plan the web page at the same time you're figuring out things for yourself. But it should be enough info to at least head you in the right directions. I really do like the Curt hitch, BTW. And I've seen the Coastal one... I recommend the Curt (assuming that the Coastal one still requires that you yank up the exhuast to get it out of the way of the hitch). I actually like the cross bar to be farther back, even with the bumper. Will provide a bit more impact protection back there!

 

Obviously I haven't done it yet, but it looks like any reasonably handy person could easily follow your directions and pictures.
I don't know about the Curt Hitch, the "cutting the plastic body pan" thing and bending the flanges so they fit the holes don't sound so fun. I like the idea that the Coastal hitch fits without any structural modifications. If I remember, lifting the exhaust is a 'may or may not need to' sort of thing so it can't need to be lifted TOO much.

 

Bruce - You have to remove that plasic body pan regardless of which hitch you go with. The removal is the bugger - cutting the plastic is not too tough! And is it true that the Coastal hitch doesn't require a bigger notch in the plastic? If so, then the flanges are not as sturdy. As for bending the flanges back to shape - I have installed about 10 hitches on my cars over the years, and EVERY one of them needed the flanges bent back into shape. That part was easer than bolting it up! But anyway... I just offer what I know and what I've seen. I would go with the Curt again if I had to do it again. The exhaust kluge is pretty cheesy, and even after doing it, the muffler can still vibrate against the cross member (this is on a friends's 2004).

 

Just keep the checks coming, and we're good to go.

 

Has anyone compared the Curt hitch to the one available from U-Haul? The U-Haul is the least expensive of the three. It is a "Class I" hitch as well. I admit to being confused by this whole Class I, II, etc. thing. I see 1.25-inch hitches and accessories listed as both Class I and II. Actually, the hitch receivers are listed as Class I and the bike rack I want is listed as Class II. I wonder if I should just punt and get the 2-inch one from Coastal.

 

Bought, modified, and installed the wiring harness as in the web page, and it works fine. Great site forthei process!

I had a lot of trouble getting the pins and receptacles out. I had to not only pull out the lock, but also force the "fingers" inside each connector before they would come out. It took a very small jeweler's screwdriver inserted in each pin/receptacle "cell" in turn to let them back out. But all went well and it is done!