You don’t need me to tell you that a Toyota Prius is a sub-par workhorse. Still, some people use their hippy-dippy hybrids to pull a dirt bike around or maybe a lightweight aluminum boat. That’s no big deal, really; Europeans tow stuff with their cars all the time! But using a Prius to pull a trailer with another Prius on it? That’s a bad idea.
That didn’t stop Brandon Youngstrom from trying, though. And I guess you could say he succeeded considering he avoided any major catastrophes. He filmed it all and posted it on his YouTube channel, Hybrid Garage, where he uploads plenty of other goofy videos. The lifted Prius on the trailer is his, too, and you can catch it jumping some sand dunes in another clip.
He fitted his 270,000-mile silver ‘Yota with a tow hitch specifically for this stunt. Now, the second-gen Prius never offered a factory receiver hitch, mainly because they were never supposed to pull anything anyway. Some owners will mount one back there so they can carry a mountain bike, but hooking up to a 16-foot utility trailer is another story—especially once you load an entire car onto it.
Youngstrom’s poor Prius could only muster 57 mph with the 4,800-pound load behind it. They tried hitting 60 mph but it never got there. It couldn’t hit the interstate for that reason and y’know what? That’s more than OK. The last thing you want is a big trailer getting squirrely, forcing the tail to wag the dog at 70 mph. This Prius doesn’t stand a chance of stopping all that weight in a hurry, which is by far the most dangerous part of the whole ordeal.
He reports that it only managed eight miles per gallon while loaded. That’s worse than a big-block Chevy pickup would get under the same circumstances. It also drained the hybrid battery in a hurry, leaving the Prius with only its 1.5-liter four-cylinder to power it. That sucker runs on the Atkinson combustion cycle and only makes 76 horsepower on its own, so you can surely see why it was maxed out at such low speeds.
Amazingly, the stock Prius suspension kept it from rubbing. The hitch setup was questionable at best, though, as you can see it flexing a lot when Youngstrom’s friend jumped on the trailer. I almost hate to give these guys props but at least they loaded the lifted Prius over the trailer axles. Any more tongue weight would surely send the tow Prius swerving at the sight of a pothole or slick surface.
You can see a Ford Super Duty in Youngstrom’s other videos, so it’s not like he doesn’t have a truck to pull his car around. This is just something he does for fun. I’m positive that’s a bad idea, and as for me and my ’06 Prius, you won’t catch us pulling a heavy-loaded trailer. I’m too busy smiling at 45+ mpg to mess that up.
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