Towing a Ford Courier Pick Up Bed Behind Prius?

[oil pan 4]

Pickup bed trailers have a pretty high empty weight. Mostly because people keep the heavy truck axle that is completely uneeded, well you need an axle and an idler axle would be fine and weigh around 1/3 of that of a drive axle.

What are these 45 to 55mph rated bearings and tires you seek of? If you buy dot approved highway tires and use an axle and hub with tapered cone bearings you would be fine.
I use 12'' rim load range E steel belted radial tires and I pull my trailer 75 to 85mph all day long.
My 4x8 trailer weighs less than 300 empty but is designed to hold 2,700lb.
Who is building this trailer?





Aerodynamics are irrelevant at 0mph when you're wheels fail.

[freebeard]

Today, 06:20 AM #10 (permalink) Angel And The Wolf

OK, Change of plans.

Today, 11:48 PM #835 (permalink) Angel And The Wolf

One mattress or two?

I was looking at mattress sizes at Wikipedia

Small single or Cot 30 in × 75 in 76 cm × 191 cm
Single, Twin, or Bunk 38[1] in × 75 in 97 cm × 191 cm
Twin extra long 38[1] in × 80 in 97 cm × 203 cm

A UK/Ireland cot is 24" wide!

[Angel And The Wolf]

Originally Posted by freebeard

One mattress or two?

two, one stacked on the other for closed travel. opening with the lid for a second bed

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Angel And The Wolf

Well, that's another thing I thought I might keep on the courier bed, is the brakes, but I'm not sure how to regulate them to work with the car brakes. Do I set them to work stronger, and let the trailer pull the car down?

As to the extra weight, the penalty is in extra gas used in acceleration and up hills, but on a round trip, that extra weight might be a plus in working the regenerative brakes a bit harder slowing the car downhill under cruise control.

If I fair the trailer properly, the longer length of the car/trailer might bring a lower CD without increasing frontal area.

Well, a lot of this probably belongs on my own thread. I don't mean to hijack.

Electronic brake controllers these days can do whatever you want them to. They can have time delays to give time before they activate, they can cut in very lightly then build in brake force, they can lead meaning they engage kind of strongly as soon as you touch the brake which is great for hills when the trailer weighs close to if not more than the tow vehicle.
Since I don't believe that the prius is rated to tow anything, it's a really good idea to make sure you can at least stop.
Insurance is likely not going to cover a crash caused by a vehicle not rated to tow something when it crashes pulling a camper.

[Angel And The Wolf]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Since I don't believe that the prius is rated to tow anything.

NUTS!
Guess I'll have to give up the idea.

[oil pan 4]

You can check on that, I don't know if it's all years or what.

I'm planning on towing with my leaf. I'm pretty sure it has 0 tow rating, but since I'm using trailer brakes and I'm in new Mexico where the traffic authority doesn't care about anything, I migh as well.

[Angel And The Wolf]

Guess it's back to this, then.

[oil pan 4]

Yeah the 2016 and up prius can tow 1,536lb.
A typical half ton pickup bed trailer weighs 1,000 to 1,200lb.

[Angel And The Wolf]

Unfortunately, my Prius is a 2011. I'll just take a page from the 1930 Cadillac, and strap storage on to my hatch, but I'll make mine lightweight (Probably from Plexiglas, painted on the inside,) and more aerodynamic. (Yes, I know this is not the perfect profile, but terminating in only tail lights and license plate cuts the horizontal drag area greatly over the standard Prius back end.)

[freebeard]

This is a modification to the car body itself, but it's the shape you want. It's not colorized but it's based off wooden boat decks with mahogany strips and brass screws, with body colored sides.

If you boat tail from inside to inside of the tail lights it saves a lot of fiddling with wiring & etc., but it induces separation before the boat tail. So — put [chevron-shaped] wickerbills or Gurney flaps at the leading edge of the taillights to wrap the airflow around.

What would really be humorous, would be to hang the license plate on a VW decklid for access to storage.

edit:

https://www.greencarreports.com/imag...erbody-shields

Your really should start here. Compare to your 2011 undercarriage. Next....



The underside of your boat tail will look like this. A fenced diffuser.

Another approach is called a high-momentum mudflap. I've seen it used on some late cars but I don't have a good example. it's a converging rather than diverging duct with a different shape. It might fit a boat tail better, ending in a vertical slot on the lower tip. The closest I have is this:


Finally, rearward vision. The top of the boat tail can be a trough like you see on mid-engined car (DeTomaso Pantera, etc.)


https://wall.alphacoders.com/by_sub_...era+Wallpapers