Towing a Boat With a 05 Prius???

Question

OK heres whats going down. I have a 05 Pruis and want to TOW a 16ft boat less then 10 miles AND put it in the water its a 2000 Boston whaler can i do this??? Or will my ca just not have any traction and slide into the water?

Please email me at THIS email

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Peace Walker

Answer 1

So all the gas you save with your Prius goes into the boat, and then some, ey.

Answer 2

Towing a boat with a Prius?  Are you starting a comedy routine?

Answer 3

You should be "able" to do it, but personally I wouldn't try.  Prius is meant for economy travel hence the hybrid setup not towing or launching a boat.

Yikes.

Answer 4

The Toyota Prius is not designed for towing a load.  The owner's manual does not recommend using the vehicle for towing.  (Doing so may invalidate your warranty.)

That's not to say that some owners do not do this, for light loads and/or for short trips.  You just have to take it carefully, and monitor fluid temps.

What's the tongue weight, and what is the weight of the trailer/boat combination that you'll be towing?

As for traction, that'll partially depend on what tires you have on your Prius...

You might be better off looking for a rental vehicle that can tow, or buying a buddy a beer/dinner to do the tow for you.

Answer 5

Your Prius may get the boat to the water and may even be able to launch the boat, but I doubt if you will be able to get the boat out of the water with it.

Answer 6

Hi,

short answer, no, you cannot tow with your Prius.

And your Prius has 290 foot pounds of torque, more than most mid-sized sedans, so it's not a question of the Prius being able to get the boat moving (torque starts to move a vehicle, horsepower keeps it moving).

BTW (I can't help myself), a H-D will have in the neighborhood of 80-110 ft-lb of torque for a stock engine (2005 FLHTCSE2, 1.75" Straight Pipes, S&S 510G Cams, SE AC, 2005 FLHTCSE2, SE103, SE AC, Rinehart True Duals, USB PC) according to official H-D websites I just looked through. Maybe a bit more, but its not 290 stock. Your stock Prius will out-torque a stock Harley, sorry guys.

Anyway, sorry PW, back to reality...

A vehicle can tow based on it's transmission and the way the power is transferred through the transmission to the drive wheels.

A vehicle with a CVT (continuously variable transmission) like your Prius is not able to tow, basically, because the transmission is not built to lock into a specific gear made for high torque applications like towing. The CVT is always shifting and adapting to the driving conditions to maximize mileage.

Yes, there are hybrids with CVT's that can tow, like the Highlander Hybrid that can tow 3500 lbs. However, that CVT is geared and controlled differently than the higher efficiency CVT in the Prius.

There is more to it than that, but that's essentially it.

There are people who put class one (1000 lb.) hitches on a Prius or other vehicles with CVT's, but those hitches are for bike racks that slip into the hitch receiver and basically hang off the back of the vehicle without touching the upper sections.

One last note, all modern vehicles, including the Prius, have "black boxes" that record issues with the vehicle that fall outside factory specs. For example, if you put E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gas) into the gas tank of a Toyota or Honda, it will cause the engine to misfire and that continuous misfire will show up as a code in the gas engine control modules. The next time you went into the dealership for service and the tech hooks up the diagnostic link to check your vehicle, a code would come up telling them that the engine had been misfiring for a long period of time (the tank of E85). Instant voided warranty. Never use more than E10, and only if you have to (ethanol lowers gas mileage beacuse of it's lower energy density compared to oil and it takes 1.26 gallons of gas to create 1 gallon of ethanol from corn in the US).

The same would happen if you hooked up a Prius or a Civic Hybrid and tried to tow with it. The CVT's are computer controlled and anything that falls outside normal operating specs -towing- would record and probably set off your check engine light.

Rent a truck for the day or give a few bucks to a buddy with a truck and have him do it.

Answer 7

not unless you want the car in the lake to

Answer 8

Towing with a Prius.....  you're kidding!

A Harley has more torque.

Here's a site that answers this question:  http://www.cleangreencar.co.nz/page/faq-...

Find the question that talks about towing.

Goes to show ya....  Ya can't have your granola and eat it too!

Answer 9

Buy a truck.  Even if you tried to tow the boat and made it to the ramp all the other guys at the boat ramp would make fun of you.  a prius will not tow the boat.