Did quick search. Hitches for sale at hitch world. $135. For use with a bike rack? So they sell a hitch but don’t want u to tow?
I surely wouldn’t tow with a Prius… But I’d put a bike carrier on there. IMHO…it’s the BEST way to transport a bike with a car/truck.
“So they sell a hitch but don’t want u to tow?”
“They” also sell bikinis in size XXXL.
Just because something is available, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is a good idea to use it.
Good point, @Bing. I was thinking more about putting clothes, camping gear, or other light cargo on a roof carrier. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to or even could put a heavy piece of equipment or other weighty object on the roof.
@VDCdriver, that’s not nice! I’m sure you meant to say Speedos for those of the male persuasion. ; )
I see many compact cars with hitches; they are usually the small square hole to slide in bike racks. Please note that if you install such a hitch receiver during the warranty period any power train problems will be yours if the car maker says “no towing”.
@jtsanders, You are correct, so I will revise my previous statement to say, “They also sell bikinis and Speedos in size XXXL”.
Many, many years ago cars shared a lot of parts with PU trucks. Meaning cars of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s mainly had RWD, V8 motors, and robust transmissions and differentials. They also got about 12-15 mpg.
Modern cars are designed to be light weight and for fuel efficiency. Meaning the power trains are not robust. The gears are designed to handle the expected loads and towing can add heavy stresses and overload the power trains. The motor itself might be fine, but there is a lot of stuff between the motor and the road and that’s where the issues come into play.
The chassis are also designed to be light weight and now combine high end materials (aluminum, stainless steel) into a unibody with no front to rear frame. Towing will overload these components.
And finally the brakes. A heavy load will add to brake overheating and fading. Just when you need to stop, the braking power won’t be there.
Cars are just NOT made for towing anymore. If you want to tow anything you need a PU truck, or an SUV. You might be able to tow with a full sized Ford Fusion for example, but not a mini, or small economy car such as a Civic, Fit, or Prius.
Just because you have a hitch will NOT void your warranty.
There are other uses for a hitch besides towing…
Bike Carrier…Ski-Carrier…
They’d have to PROVE you were towing and that towing caused the problem.
My Yaris isn’t supposed to be able to tow either, but I found a hitch kit for it and installed one. What do I tow with it? Well, I have a small Laser sailboat, it’s so small that two people can easily just lift it off the trailer instead of backing the trailer in the water. Sometimes I just unhitch the trailer and back it into the water by hand. The distance from my home to the lake is about 1/2 mile on a park road that has a 25 mph speed limit. I doubt the power train even feels the strain.
You can do a lot of things if you just use some common sense and judgement when doing them.
My common sense tells me that a trailer that can be towed by a motorcycle can also be towed by a Prius and the additional air resistance created by a rooftop cargo carrier is likely just as high or even higher than the pull needed to tow a very small trailer that’s in the car’s slipstream.
Also, going 70 mph without a trailer puts more strain on your drive train than going 55 with a small trailer. Air resistance quadruples with a doubling of speed.
Interestingly, Yaris cars sold in other countries are rated for towing. What’s the difference between a US and a Canadian Yaris? Probably nothing except maybe Toyota gives Canadians credit for being able to boil water and butter bread.
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Just be sure you don’t go over the GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating).
BLE, I was going to say something similar. Back in the 80s and 90s I had a corolla, and then a jetta, both small engines, manual transmissions. I occasionally towed a small U-haul with no problems.
"They’d have to PROVE you were towing and that towing caused the problem. "
You could avoid the problem of proving who caused the problem if you didn’t tow anything to begin with…
Cavell: I used a trailer hitch bike rack on a 1991 Jeep Cherokee which was rated for 5,000lbs towing. The highway from our house to the park with mountain bike trails would have been suicidal. Two lane, no shoulders, and populated by gravel trucks with drivers being paid by the load. The roof rack worked fine for skis and poles. OP needs to treat the owner’s manual as gospel. No towing means no towing.
MikeInNH: “Just because you have a hitch will NOT void your warranty”. Probably true. With an aftermarket towing hitch installed if you then suffer suspension or power/drive train damage and file a warranty claim on a vehicle prohibited per owner’s manual from the manufacturer from towing it will not matter if you were only transporting a bicycle. the burden of proof that you were not towing is in your court. Good luck.
UncleTurbo: Yes. Those vintage vehicles with a “towing package” had a robust frame. They were trucks, full size sedans, and station wagons. They were equipped with heavy duty rear suspensions, brakes, oil and transmission coolers, and radiators. My current compact car is prohibited per owners manual from towing anything. I respect that. Of course I have nothing that needs towing. If there are others who have something that needs to be towed and are willing to accept the possible damage and voided warranty. Please. Knock yourselves out.
They’d have to PROVE you were towing and that towing caused the problem.
Apparently, you haven’t ever had to deal directly with such things. They don’t have to prove anything. They see the hitch, they deny coverage. Now the onus is on you, what are you going to do? Litigation? Hope you have relatively deep pockets and lots of time to spend defending yourself…
Now the onus is on you, what are you going to do? Litigation? Hope you have relatively deep pockets and lots of time to spend defending yourself…
Or you have a really good case. “Sorry, your warranty claim on your power windows is denied because you have a trailer hitch on your car”.
So ALL of the Prius owners who’ve installed a tow hitch have voided their warranties
Even though 99.9999999999999999999999999% of them use it ONLY to mount the bike rack?
I find that kind of hard to believe
Let’s put things in perspective . . .
An aftermarket tow hitch on a Chevy Silverado 2500HD . . . yeah, probably tows a horse trailer
A tow hitch on a Prius . . . probably only used for the bike rack
I think the warrantied failure has to be something that towing could cause. In other words, your paint job, radio, power windows, fuel injectors, alternator, etc are still covered.
I have a hitch on my Yaris, but its warranty is long expired anyway, and I have the common sense to know that there’s a big difference between towing a 30 ft Airstream travel trailer down the freeway and taking my small boat on a trailer that’s so light that I can back it into the water by hand, to a lake that’s only a half mile away from my house while going no faster than 25 mph.