After spending a lot of money renting cargo vans to transport my merchandise, booth equipment, personal luggage and a helper (husband) and/or dogs, my husband suggested buying a small trailer that we can tow behind his car. I’m doing research into the viability/practicality of that, since his car is a Prius V. Lots of online sources say not to do that, lots say that you can if you’re careful and smart. One of the things I’m trying to research is a place where we can both go to learn and get hands-on practice towing a small trailer. I found places that teach how to drive an RV, but that’s not really what we’re thinking of. Searching for “driving lessons” gets me all the places that do remedial driving after you get tickets and lessons for young people, also not what we need.
Does anybody here know where we can learn how to tow a trailer?
I’d suggest calling up one of the local trailer or RV stores and asking them. They’ll probably have a good idea of where you can go to get a one or two hour lesson. If you call the place you plan on buying the trailer from, they may offer to give you a quick lesson for free.
IDK about trailer school, but I know U-haul installs tow hitches and perhaps does some basic training. You-tube also comes to mind to get some basic tips.
About the car…
What dose the Prius manual say about towing? I believe the Prius comes with a conventional automatic transmission, an auxiliary tranny oil cooler and depending on age/milage a change of fluid would be a wise investment for the car’s longevity. If the car is a CVT (without a conventional ‘launch’ gear), then I would forget it, those things can not handle loads well and the cost of the new tranny is not worth it. Even with a conventional launch gear (which is new), high torque situations under loads such as accelerating up hill can easily cause some CVT’s to become scrap metal.
This. The first time I towed a trailer was also the first time I gave thought to towing a trailer. There are YouTube videos with towing tips so you can back up (the hardest part). Loading the trailer so that your tongue weight is manageable is another thing you need to learn.
The Prius had a planetary CVT that shifts teh laod berween the electric motor/generators and the gas engine. With the 2016+ model you can get a towing package (in Europe) I don’t know about the V
Nah, we live in Northern Virginia and we each use our cars to commute. I am NOT driving a truck (he won’t either) in NoVa traffic. Ugh! And we’re not buying a third vehicle.
To be honest, I’m pretty confident that I could quickly figure how how to drive correctly with a small trailer. I grew up around (semi) truck drivers and a truck driver taught me how to drive way back when. I’m very, very good at backing up using only mirrors. My husband on the other hand… well, he tries. But if I make him go to a class, then I would attend it too because fair’s fair and I don’t want to arrogantly assume I’m great. It’s really the backing-the-trailer that I worry about (when he’s driving), not so much going forward.
He found a tow hitch designed for the Prius V that we may get. I still need to check his car’s user manual because I don’t know if it’s the model year that’s rated for towing.
But really, all we need is a little 4x6 luggage trailer. All my shop stuff will fit in that while we put the dogs and our personal luggage in the car.
IMHO, backing small trailers is more difficult that backing larger ones. Very minor steering inputs yield very pronounced directional changes in small trailers. And if the trailer is small enough, by the time you can see it in your mirrors it’s already well on its way to being jackknifed. You would definitely benefit from taking it out to an empty parking lot somewhere and practice, practice, practice before taking it somewhere for real.
I towed a luggage trailer full of camping gear all over Europe. I found that a couple of poles (broomsticks not people from Poland) attached to the rear corners helped a lot because I could see them in the mirror when trying to reverse. The best method though is to uncouple the trailer and reverse it by hand.
Looking at YouTube, I see people backing up only using the side mirrors.
My father taught me and had me turn as far around as possible. For some vehicles, you can’t see out the back window very well, but it’s possible with cars.
I did learn with how to use only the mirrors later, but it easier to learn but turning around.
It’s been a really long time since I’ve backed up a trailer, but if memory serves I believe the trick is to turn yourself as far towards backwards as possible, then put your hand on the steering wheel at “6.” The trailer will go in the same direction your hand goes.
It is definitely NOT intuitive; it’s going to feel like you’re turning the wheel the wrong way but you’re not. Definitely takes some getting used to, but once you get it, it’s kind of fun.
Even if you are only so-so on the backing-up bit, you had better be spot-on with your tongue weight.
Make sure there is enough.
Otherwise you will be in someone’s dashcam video as a crazy driver with a wildly oscillating trailer that eventually causes the car and trailer to both flip in a mess at highway speeds.
And tongue weight is by no means the only thing that affects stability. There’s the distance from the towball to the car’s rear axle, the angular inertia of the trailer, trailer aerodynamics, trailer tires, etc.
You must have a stable trailer. Test this by twitching the steering wheel while going downhill (at moderate speed): sway should promptly damp itself out, as in the early part of the video linked by DCnDC.
Backing a trailer can be tricky, but you probably won’t need to do that much, and it’s something you can practice at your leisure. By contrast, an unstable trailer can go out of control in a few seconds, and typically not even a skilled driver can’t save it. (Anyone capable of controlling an unstable trailer is almost certainly smart enough not to tow one.)
(I speak with about 200k miles of trailer towing experience, mostly with one like this.)