Towing with a Hybrid?

[Mike J.]

3 hours ago, Bomber209 said:

Mike J hi,

 I beg to differ. Owners Manual Page 34, 'Traction Battery when fully charged can be up to 520 volts'. As an in service item 360 volts is nearer the mark. If you access the service point on the battery and use a suitable AVO check for yourself.

That is wrong information. The Battery consists of 20 7.2V cells - DC. The traction MOTOR is AC and the inverter converts the 144V DC to up to 520V AC. Your suggestion regarding using an AVO is not a safe option.

[Mick F]

3 hours ago, Catlover said:

It is up to the owner of a vehicle to know what the legal limits of his/her vehicle is, I would have thought.

Utterly correct of course.

I was musing on the fact that ten or fifteen years down the line and someone buys the car, he could look at the bracket sticking out of the rear, and surmise that it could have towed during its lifetime, not knowing that it's only there to bolt a bike rack onto.  Small step to fitting a towball perhaps.

Mick.

[Mike J.]

Just got this from Tesla emailing list - slightly relevant here (electric motor and towing). The Model 3 can now tow - but not much 🙂

Tesla tow hitch

[Mike J.]

If you go on to https://www.toyota-tech.eu, create an account and go to 'owner' and chose 'accessory installation manuals' you will see all that are available for your Toyota.

Yaris with actual tow hitch PDF

The hybrid has type approval for 50kg on the tow hitch - actual is 16.5kg for bike carrier and the rest for bikes (2).

[Mick F]

13 hours ago, Mike J. said:

If you go on to https://www.toyota-tech.eu, create an account and go to 'owner' and chose 'accessory installation manuals' you will see all that are available for your Toyota.

No, not quite.

The only Hybrid isn't mine.  It shows the 2012 Yaris Hybrid which isn't the same as a 2014 Yaris Hybrid.  Maybe underneath and chassis etc is the same, but my model isn't listed.  The 2012 version doesn't show a tow hitch option of course.

Good site though! 😀

Mick.

[bathtub tom]

Gone are the days when you could bolt a bit of angle iron to the bumper mounting bolts of a Moggie Minor and hitch up something (dinghy trailer in my case).