Pulling trailers with a Prius

Le 27.04.2008 21:57, R.J. Babin nous fit lire :
> Question,
> I have a four hundred pound trailer that I use to haul about 2 to 3
> hundred pounds of Kayaks and gear, could a prius handle this load?
> Anyone have experience using a trailer with a Prius or Honda Hybrid?
> R.J. (Bob) Babin

The prius is not allowed to pull a trailer. End of story.

In article <roGdnQ-UzfMkc4nVnZ2dnUVZ8qeknZ2d@bt.com>,
"Chas Gill" <Chas.Gill@gollum.> wrote:

> "Le Forgeron" <jgrimbert@free.fr> wrote in message
> news:4814de6d$0$9526$426a74cc@news.free.fr...
> > Le 27.04.2008 21:57, R.J. Babin nous fit lire :
> >> Question,
> >> I have a four hundred pound trailer that I use to haul about 2 to 3
> >> hundred pounds of Kayaks and gear, could a prius handle this load? Anyone
> >> have experience using a trailer with a Prius or Honda Hybrid?
> >> R.J. (Bob) Babin
> >
> > The prius is not allowed to pull a trailer. End of story.
>
> - but nobody has ever questioned why........
>
> Why?

The Prius was designed to get high mileage, not be a towing vehicle.
Why? I suppose you will need to ask Toyota's design engineers that
question, but it is definitely not intended for towing. The owners
manual makes that very clear.

R.J. Babin <rbabin@> wrote:

> Question,
> I have a four hundred pound trailer that I use to haul about 2 to 3 hundred
> pounds of Kayaks and gear, could a prius handle this load? Anyone have
> experience using a trailer with a Prius or Honda Hybrid?

I have a 2" receiver hitch on my 2003, NHW11. I also have a Harbor
Freight folding trailer I use for lightweight, oversized loads. No real
problem since I'm at city speeds and city distances.

If you are interested in doing highway travel, I'd recommend keeping the
speeds as modest as possible, say 55 mph max. But if you are serious,
think about installing a temperature probe. This will give you a way to
at least monitor the transaxle temperature.

Bob Wilson