Can I tow a motorcycle?

:welcome:

The official answer is no.

However, many on the board have towed a wide variety of stuff, some over fairly long distances. Do a search and you should find a lot of posts. Hopefully some of our "tow heads" will jump in and give you better information!

 

I don't know either way, but do note that there is a Yahoo group called "priustrailers".

You might read through posts on that site to see the pro's and con's and hot-to's they've developed.

 

Tell me how it works out - I'm also interested. How are you doing against the guys with the turbo Hayabusas?

 

I have a 2007 and i have a motorcycle rebuilding business. I have regularly towed my bikes from the Salvage Auctions to my shop on a regular basis since i've had the car with no issues.

I purchased the hitch from Uhaul and i found instructions (i believe off this site) where you take the wiring harness for a camry and switch some of the wires to different postions on the harness for the lights.

If all you're doing is towing it 15 miles to and from the track occasionally, you shouldn't have any issues at all. The only thing i do is remove the hitch (4 bolts) when i require warranty service from toyota.

Cheers

jonathan

 

Any idea what the maximum weight is that you pulled? I'm interested in pulling a teardrop trailer that could be up to 1500 pounds.

My guess about why Toyota doesn't recommend towing with a Prius is that the traction battery can be depleted on really long uphill tows. Then the car would only have the ICE for power, and you'd be over in the slow lane with the trucks. Rather than explain this limitation and take the flack over it, Toyota prefers to just say no towing. Towing vehicles commonly also have upgraded transmission cooling and maybe stiffer suspension.

 

I wouldn't think the traction battery really adds that much power to the system when towing since I can barely get up my semi steep driveway in EV only mode. My bet would be that none of the drivetrain is really built with towing in mind, and will probably prematurely wear components if you try to pull too much.

That being said, I'm looking at having a trailer in the next few months for EXACTLY this purpose. I figure if your trailer and whats on it combined with whatever you have in the car doesn't exceed the gross vehicle weight you aren't putting any extra strain on the car that it wasn't designed for. I'd say with most trailer/bike combos you are going to exceed that weight, but probably not by much if its only the driver in the car.

Somewhat on topic, it snowed here recently and one of my fellow workers (im a delivery driver) slide on ice into a ditch in his accord. The next day I tried to pull him out, somewhat as a joke, and to my amazement the Prius did it no problem, didn't even have to floor it. So it seems like the torque provided by the electric motor definitely would help get things moving, but I don't really see it doing much for you rolling down the highway in regard to pulling a trailer.

 

I have a trailer for hauling construction materials.

Towing regulations insist not passing half the vehicles mass (aka don't break 1500)

I've towed/pulled cars with minimal problems... Mainly slow acceleration. (it's a lot better than I ever thought it would be...). Btw, that was over mountain roads and city... A good 35 miles...

 

I wouldn't recommend hauling that much. While I have pulled as much as 1800lbs of trailer/load, it was a 15 mile one-way trip (empty trailer was 281lbs), and the car really did NOT like it. Your braking distances will go through the roof unless you have electric brakes on the trailer, and the handling gets bad.

I've never repeated that load - if I had to do it again, I would split the load and take 2 trips.

That being said, I've towed around 1000lbs a few times without issues. Again, though, short trips, 20-25 miles with the full load.

The worst mpg I've EVER had across both Prii was with a light load - VA to FL, the 281lb trailer with less than 150lbs of stuff...but the load (patio chairs) was essentially a barn door on the back of the car, the aerodynamics were horrid, and I pulled out a max of 36mpg on one of the tanks, as low as 34 on others. If I ever had to do that again, I'd get a canvas tarp over it all to help out.

 

For me the maximum i tow is around 600 lbs including the bike and trailer. The tongue weight of the trailer is around 100lbs. The car handles this weight easily and has no problems pulling away from lights quickly and climbing steep hills. The braking system doesn't have any difficulty either. A nice benefit is it seems to regenerate the batteries faster because of the extra momentum.

I would think twice about towing a trailer that's 1500lbs though. Not only would i worry about the drivetrain, but the rear suspension would probably be pretty stressed because of all the tongue weight.

Hope this helps

 

What I recall is one of the PC members hauled a trailer while moving and reported he would not do it again. The reason -

He was using a scanguage (IIRC) and it reported the 'MG2' (one of the motor-generators) temperature was getting a little high.

Search around to find this thread.

I look forward to when a Prius-like car gets a legit tow rating, even if only 800 lbs.

 

hey jonathan! how do you think a 2001 prius would do with a prohoists carrier ramp? i'd be putting a 255lb xr 250 on it. here's the carrier: PROHOISTS - AMC-400 Aluminum Motorcycle Carrier Ramp