I was visiting my family for Christmas, and driving in town with Andrea. She spied a cute little yellow trailer at Don's Rent All in Eureka. We stopped and asked -- they were selling it for only $1500, which is $500 less than the list price.
So I called the Prius dealership, and they told me that while it wouldn't exactly void my warrantee, if anything went wrong that they could blame on hauling a trailer, they wouldn't pay to fix it. They were so serious about it that a manager called me back the next morning to emphasize the point (which means they know who I am!).
Nonetheless, I did some online feasibility research. There were some really informative websites, and it seemed entirely possible. In fact, some lunatics in the Yahoo Prius group haul boats with their Priuses! So I went back down to Don's to take a second look. I ended up talking to the boss (though I didn't know it at the time) and managed to talk him down to $1300. That's $700 less than list (a hefty 35% discount says the math teacher) -- I couldn't pass it up! So I went ahead and bought it, and they agreed to store it for me for a couple (or so...) weeks until I could install a trailer hitch.
So after a bunch of research, I ordered my parts and Dad and I installed the hitch and the wiring kit. Since wiring kits for the Prius aren't exactly common, I ended up following some online instructions to adapt a Camry wiring harness. After some initial stress (we broke 3 tiny screwdrivers trying to pry with them and still had a heck of a time getting a couple of wires to let go!!!) we finally go the wiring harness rewired for the Prius. After that, the installation of the hitch and wiring harness was pretty routine (a minimum of swearing) and we were able to go pick up the trailer that day. (Note that the time estimates are a crock of poop. We started at about 10am, and finished just after 3. Though, this did include two store trips to replace tiny screwdrivers that we broke prying with them and a missing 10mm socket. Still, longer than the instructions indicated by rather a lot.
After picking up the trailer at Don's, Dad took a few photos of our triumph.
Anyhow, after my triumphant return to Crescent City, I was faced with the sad quandary of where to park my trailer. Unlike a car, you can't secure it by simply locking the doors, so I really needed to store it in my garage. Alas, that meant that I couldn't park my car inside the garage bcause I had too much junk stored in there. And it's been raining here for the last 3 weeks. Insert a whole week of parking outside and running to and from the front door. Ugh.
Well, I bought two more wire shelves, and last night I finished the chore of mucking out my garage. I had a lot of empty cardboard boxes! In fact, I even had three boxes of crumpled newspaper from when I moved my dishes!!! So after ruthlessly pruning out a bunch of junk to give away and a whole car load of cardboard and newspaper recycling, I AM ABLE TO PARK MY TRAILER AND MY CAR IN THE GARAGE AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!!! Did I mention that it's been raining for three weeks?!?! YES!!!
Then this afternoon, I got a call from another Prius owner. Apparently, he'd been looking at the same trailer I had, though I beat him to the punch. He wanted some advice on installing a trailer hitch and wiring harness for a Prius. I thought I'd include my email to him, so that if anyone is searching for similar instructions, they can get them :)
***
Hey there,
The two best explanations I found for installing the trailer hitch and the wiring harness were by the same guy; you can find them at http://www.evnut.com/prius_hitch.htm and http://www.evnut.com/prius_trailer_wiring.htm. I ended up using the parts he used in his project. I purchased them from etrailer.com -- it's a big enough order that shipping was free. You can find them at http://www.etrailer.com/pc-H~11468.htm and http://www.etrailer.com/p-118308.htm.
I can confirm that (so far) the wiring works just fine and hasn't shorted anything out :) Once we finally got all the stupid little wires undone (try to find a non-brittle pry tool), it was really easy to rewire the part. Of course, if you're color-blind, you're going to want to get a friend to help you to make sure that you end up with the right wires in the right places :)
Etrailer.com also made a movie of installing the Curt hitch -- I felt much more confident about the project after watching it. http://www.etrailer.com/tv-hitch-install-2007-toyota-prius.aspx
Etrailer.com does sell other hitches for the Prius -- I'm quite happy with the Curt, but you can examine their selection at http://www.etrailer.com/hitch-2009_Toyota_Prius.htm. They also recommend a different wiring harness. The part they recommend doesn't require rewiring (since it's designed for the Prius) but it does require splicing wires on the Prius, which I wasn't interested in doing. You can look at it at http://www.etrailer.com/pc-VWH~119146KIT.htm?vehicleid=20098041
Here are some more random links: http://www.ehow.com/how_2091017_hitch-toyota-prius-bike-rack.html http://www.marcuse.org/harold/pages/PriusBikeRack077.htm
The tools you'll need are:
socket wrench
10mm socket
14mm socket
"breaker bar" = socket wrench with a really long handle for leverage to undo tight bolts (you can just slide a piece of pipe over a socket wrench's handle)
torque wrench (so you know the bolts tightened the right amount on the hitch)
phillips screwdriver
flathead screwdriver
teeny tiny pry tool (non brittle)
zip ties (to hold down loose wires)
knife (to shorten zip ties)
tin snips or shears to trim plastic underbody panel
and I'm probably forgetting something...
Notes:
There are 4 kinds of fasteners holding the underbody panel on -- two weird compression screws that you pry off with a flathead screwdriver, one big phillips screw, one 10mm bolt, and one weird threaded spike that you have to pull the panel straight down off of (last fastener).
Good Luck!
Hey there,
The two best explanations I found for installing the trailer hitch and the wiring harness were by the same guy; you can find them at http://www.evnut.com/prius_hitch.htm and http://www.evnut.com/prius_trailer_wiring.htm. I ended up using the parts he used in his project. I purchased them from etrailer.com -- it's a big enough order that shipping was free. You can find them at http://www.etrailer.com/pc-H~11468.htm and http://www.etrailer.com/p-118308.htm.
I can confirm that (so far) the wiring works just fine and hasn't shorted anything out :) Once we finally got all the stupid little wires undone (try to find a non-brittle pry tool), it was really easy to rewire the part. Of course, if you're color-blind, you're going to want to get a friend to help you to make sure that you end up with the right wires in the right places :)
Etrailer.com also made a movie of installing the Curt hitch -- I felt much more confident about the project after watching it. http://www.etrailer.com/tv-hitch-install-2007-toyota-prius.aspx
Etrailer.com does sell other hitches for the Prius -- I'm quite happy with the Curt, but you can examine their selection at http://www.etrailer.com/hitch-2009_Toyota_Prius.htm. They also recommend a different wiring harness. The part they recommend doesn't require rewiring (since it's designed for the Prius) but it does require splicing wires on the Prius, which I wasn't interested in doing. You can look at it at http://www.etrailer.com/pc-VWH~119146KIT.htm?vehicleid=20098041
Here are some more random links: http://www.ehow.com/how_2091017_hitch-toyota-prius-bike-rack.html http://www.marcuse.org/harold/pages/PriusBikeRack077.htm
The tools you'll need are:
socket wrench
10mm socket
14mm socket
"breaker bar" = socket wrench with a really long handle for leverage to undo tight bolts (you can just slide a piece of pipe over a socket wrench's handle)
torque wrench (so you know the bolts tightened the right amount on the hitch)
phillips screwdriver
flathead screwdriver
teeny tiny pry tool (non brittle)
zip ties (to hold down loose wires)
knife (to shorten zip ties)
tin snips or shears to trim plastic underbody panel
and I'm probably forgetting something...
Notes:
There are 4 kinds of fasteners holding the underbody panel on -- two weird compression screws that you pry off with a flathead screwdriver, one big phillips screw, one 10mm bolt, and one weird threaded spike that you have to pull the panel straight down off of (last fastener).
Good Luck!
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