Towing a Ford Courier Pick Up Bed Behind Prius?
 

The Prius is 68.7 inches wide. The '78 Courier long bed is 63 inches wide, narrow enough, and low enough to hide in the Prius' aero shadow, but the bed is 59.5 inches inside, Just wide enough for a queen mattress.

When the bed is fully opened, I would erect half hoops over the whole thing, and cover it Conestoga style. Any other trailer I can find that will fit the air shadow has wheels and bearings rated for 45 to 55 mph. I built a camp trailer once on a utility trailer, drove it up to 80 mph, and blew out a wheel bearing. The courier is built for the highway.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...0&d=1525804413

Yes, the added weight of the trailer will exact an FE penalty on acceleration and up hills, but on a round trip much of that penalty will be regained in down hill coasting. And regenerative coast down for stops and reduced speed ahead zones would load up the battery more. If I put a removable cone on the back of the trailer, I may even be able to lower the CD of the combo, and lift some of the tongue weight.

Here, with the lid flipped down behind the trailer and covered for the night's camping:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...6&d=1525865248

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...7&d=1525865593

trailer
 

I did a little more streamlined trailer behind my CRX and only lost 2-mpg,while a quarter-ton heavier.

I have found a ready made tunnel tent that will fit over the combo. I'll probably back the trailer into one end of the tent, (through an enlarged door, if necessary,) then disconnect the car, pull it out, and seal the door. Entry is through the door at the other end.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Tra...ef&athena=true

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7IjjX_EpM...ng+Homes+3.png
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot...on-wheels.html

I always like the shepherd's wagon approach.

Dutch door, foldable end walls and hoops and a cover.

Yeah, my tent only goes up when parked for the night.

Anyone else pull a pick up bed with a hybrid? How's that working? I found a small lightweight trailer, but the sleeping area is too narrow for two people with "Mature" figures. And not much distance betwen the bed and the porta potty!
Lightweight Pop-Up Tent Trailors | Pop Up Tent Trailers | Small Car Tent Trailors And it costs about 35 nights in a Hampton Inn.

OK, Change of plans. OK, I realized a Twin mattress will fit between the wheel wells of the Courier Truck Bed, so all I needed was a place for my twin mattress. A side-closing lid would hold MY mattress. I just need cabin tent to cover it all, https://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/s...tm_source=bing and a floor area for chairs, potty, TV tables.

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?

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1525978971

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1525978971

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

One mattress or two?

I was looking at mattress sizes at Wikipedia

A UK/Ireland cot is 24" wide!

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

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.

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

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.

Guess it's back to this, then.

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

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.)

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-fr...6-100-1213.jpg

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://images.hgmsites.net/lrg/2016...00530264_l.jpg
https://www.greencarreports.com/imag...erbody-shields

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

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-fr...80-silver4.jpg

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:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-fr...14-1-42-00.png

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

https://images5.alphacoders.com/420/...350-420494.jpg
https://wall.alphacoders.com/by_sub_...era+Wallpapers

Yes, I know it's not the profile the tool has. I doubled the drop off curve to keep the tail short, and put the same profile on the bottom.
I was thinking of clear plexiglas covering the car's tail lights in the same angle as the boat tail, so the lights would show through. The lights at the tip of the tail need not be turn or brake lights, but just rearmost running lights and license plate lights, if the Prius' regular brake/stop/turn signal lights can be seen. Of course, access to the hatch is by sliding the boat tail out of the receiver far enough for the hatch to be opened.

See changes above: With the Prius' taillights visible through the clear parts of the boat tail, I may be able to get by with red reflectors and a license plate light on the tip.

After driving through a snowstorm in Pennsylvania, the salt spray patterns on my tail were illustrative of where there was attached airflow and where separation; the cut-outs near the lights were covered in salt, but two-thirds of the way back were clean, indicating flow reattachment.

You'll be giving up some energy in forming that recirculating vortex behind the taillights, but not enough that I'd bother with vortex traps.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-vm...407-104856.jpg

THANKS! Where did you get that tail? Almost exactly what I'm planning. Did you get improved MPG?

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ead-28466.html

He made it himself.

The big difference will be having the tail slide on it's mount. Do you have a plan for that?

IMPRESSIVE!

Yes, I hope to be able to have room forward of the receiver to slide the mount itself though, and have the mount and tail stay in the receiver when pulled back away from the hatch lid.

That's pulled back quite a lot. 24"?

To my eye, it's high-tailed. The air under the car is different than the free flow over the top. Best practice seems to be a diffuser with fencing and cross-fencing.

But since you favor that profile, why not just have it hinge and drop by the departure angle on level ground. My guess would be maybe 18" to clear the hatch's arc.

I only favor a lower profile that will clear the road when going up a steep driveway, or deep dip. The angle may not need to be so abrupt, but I have scraped my Receiver before.I think you are close at 18". Maybe even 12 ". My drawing pulls back way more than needed. I did check forward of the receiver, and it is clear for the tail mount bar to stick through at least a foot without hitting anything under the car. The tail mount bar will be removable, I only plan to use the tail for long highway trips, and I feel a latch and hinge is not as safe as a pin secured mounting bar.

If I can fit a Diffuser under without scraping.....

Telescopic drawer slides come in big sizes. And you could use three.

Reasons For Sticking With The Receiver Slide:

V shaped front end is good, but make sure the edges are generously rounded if possible. That would be top, sides, and bottom. It makes a difference for air attachment. I've built a couple aero trailers, and a 9" radius worked well (first we tried, based off calculations from Huchos book). Make sure the bed is as close as possible without contacting during a full turn. I'm trying to think what else would be useful to pass on... oh, make sure you allow a 15 or so degree angle so you can enter/exit driveways. Smashing out a rear window is a bad way to find out that 10 degrees wasn't enough. Stromforming the front wedge (top cants back) is good for filling space while allowing additional clearance.
The Prius trailer I built is actually so close to the ball that a gap filler would need to be removable. The one for behind a van was the same way. Basically the back of the coupler was the front of the trailer. Yours would be wider, so maybe you would need to start it further back. Our trailers had maybe 2" clearance on full turns.

I tow with my leaf and it's not rated to tow anything.
But I'm not doing any heavy hauling, just big bulky items.
No where near what the weight of an empty camper would be.
The heaviest thing I have moved is loads of power coop fire wood. But it's less than 2 miles from my house and speed limits were 45mph or less.

I've decided to give up the Courier bed. Someone told me the weight would overtax the electric motors. I've decided to build on a light weight boat trailer.

https://www.wholesalemarine.com/mult...D9D36D848D572D

Did you have any over heating problems on your Prius?

It's only 200 lbs, and has an axle that is highway rated. I would only use the part of the trailer that does not include any of the boat required pieces, and build a PVC pipe space frame covered with a light weight skin in the taper profile found in the "GARAGE AND TOOLS" link of this Board. Cargo holding is not as important as boat-tailing, though some light luggage could be accommodated. Tents and such.

The Frame width is 40 inches, though the fenders stick out an additional 7 inches on each side. I might see if I can shorten the axle, and mount it where the tires are inboard of the frame, to keep them from adding frontal area to the trailer.

Not trying to totally shift your build, but are you willing to work in fiberglass and epoxy?

You could build a honeycomb-core trailer in whatever shape you want at a ludicrously light weight for a relatively small cost.

If you're interested, let me know and I'll sketch up a few things.

I have had jobs where I worked in both laid mat (Fibreglass oilfield tanks) and in shot glass (Pick up bed toppers). Would the mold be Styrofoam, or could the honeycomb be bendable into curves? I'm guessing I would still use the trailer as a base. Would not a door into the trailer weaken the box, or would you suggest the box open like a funny car body? Sorry for all the questions, but you've opened up a whole new area to consider.

Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers; View topic - "Lite House" Ultralight Monocoque build - 6/25/11

This is a link to the build journal for the trailers that I built. We built two of them because the freight cost for materials was such a large percentage of the total cost of materials. There is a 4 x 10 and 5 x 12, and they are 240 and 350 lb respectively.

If I were to do this particular build again I would introduce a radius along the upper edge of everything. It would save gas. The next project on the list is a 30+ foot 5th wheel travel trailer that will be built to match the truck that will pull it.

Overheating
 

Not once have I had an overheating issue, and have pulled a variety of things up to 1000 pounds. Up hills, down hills, cruise set at 70. Fairly aerodynamic though, still maintaining 40+ mpg on all segments. Larger but lighter objects yielded lower 40 mpg numbers at lower 55 mph settings. Your mpg seems to be a good indicator of overheating/stress.
The picture is a 1000 pound loaded down trailer. The Prius was loaded pretty full with lighter stuff. 800 miles in one day, cruise set at 65 and 70 mph. The biggest issue was that the green plastic wrap didn't hold up (for waterproofing), so I had to pull off and remove it. 40+ mpg every segment, including the Tennessee mountains coming up to Nashville.
With a tonneau cover on that truck bed I wouldn't think there would be too big an issue as long as the weight doesn't get out of hand, especially if you have a well aerodynamicized transition from car to trailer (cutting down on trailer drag). Just make sure your MPG can hold around 40 and see how fast you can go.