For those with a trailer hitch?

I got a Curt for my 2017 Prius Prime and my 2023 bZ4X. Both purchases came about because it was a very good brand and they were first to market for both vehicles.

 

I sold my Curt to someone who needed one and the value of it had doubled since I put it on 9 years ago and a new coat of paint made it good as new.

In place of that hitch I installed this bumper hitch with two metal bars on top and four really long bolts: 3500 lb. Step Bumper Receiver Some on here thought the tongue weight would twist the bumper, but so far so good! Best part is, the whole thing only cost $30

 

I pull big loads. Get 21mpg. Reg unleaded. Curt hitch. Amazon wiring. Air helper springs. Tires break internal cords sometimes. Car still works fine.

 

Do you know if this would work on a 2014 Gen3 ?

 

Same design... No reason it wouldn't, but tongue weight is probably a little lower than a standard hitch and you only get one chance to cut the square hole in the bumper cover correctly. I like having a 2" receiver hitch, rather than smaller size. Way more options... If you want I can pull the bumper cover and see if the aluminum bumper has twisted at all, but only if you're serious and ready to by.

 

Thanks for the offer but I need something that increases the tongue weight above the 200# limit.
I have the Curt in my Amazon Cart just waiting on the cold wet weather to change in Texas.

I hope to tow a motorcycle on trailer when finished.

 

Firestone as well as one other company make air assist bags that go inside the rear springs. I sometimes pull up to 4,000 lb and a 4x8 enclosed trailer. Other times I pull pull in an open trailer and a thousand lb. I'm not gentle on the two pri we have. I run the engines at redline often. Toyota engines are fine w that. We've had engines out for head gasket jobs at the typical 190k mark and cylinder walls are unscathed, bearings are quiet. Never thrown a rod. Sometimes I hold my foot to the floor til the tank runs dry, refill, and do it again across multiple states. Great cars

 

Not sure of the exact weight, but if you fill a 4x8 trailer with wood, I'm guessing that's the weight with the trailer weight combined. U-Haul trailers are pretty heavy to start with

 

My boat and trailer is 1500 lb. I never thought of pulling it with my Prime. My ATV, no problem but not my boat.

 

Prius has a cooling system for each thing that makes heat. They are all adequately sized. I will note however that I can get mg1 and mg2 so hot that the system goes into 80% power limp mode until things cool down. That's not a good way to treat the system of course, but you really got to hold your foot to the floor for 10min in the FL summer with an enclosed trailer behind you to achieve this result

 

Do you use Hybrid Assistant or another mean to get MG1/2 temperature? What about the inverter coolant temperature?

 

Transmission fluid might be the more important one.

Toyota didn't give the Prius a tow rating in other markets until the gen4. That is when they installed and additional transmission cooler. This cooler is the one that all automatics have had for decades. The fluid in the Prius is one for automatics, and is not as heat tolerant as what is used in manual transmissions.

The tow limit in Europe for the gen4 is 725kg, and most of the region(and 1 or 2 states) requires trailer brakes at 500kg. The Prime rating is zero.

 

Techstream. Last 3 times I plugged chines junk into the car I damaged the car. Got stuck out of state, caused car fires. No more Chinese junk plugged into my cars. I'll break fingers if you try...

 

So how many head gaskets have those two Prii gone through?

 

I got one of those cheap Chinese adapter. Couldn't get it to talk to the car. I'm returning it. The no hassle return is the reason I buy those things using Prime only.

Can you answer something for me, does Techstream shows the engine lifetime running time or mileage? That's the main reason I want to get Techstream running. I'm not sure if the average odometer consumption hasn't been reset before I bought my 2017 Prime last July. Looking at the monthly reports for the last year, it shows an average monthly consumption around 2 to 3 L/100 km while the odometer shows an average consumption of 0.8 L/100 km. Vehicle has 146k km so it's not like it was sitting in some driveway for years.