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Prius pulling. A recovery of sorts.

mattgunguy

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Likely not what your thinking. Not pulling Prius with a deuce, but pulling a deuce with a Prius. Yesterday we went on a 600 mile round trip recovery of a M105a2 and 13 9.00x20 tires and wheels. The trip there, our load out, and the first hundred miles back went real smooth. Then the fuel pump bit the big one in the middle of nowhere. For those of you who know the Missouri boot heel, There's ain't much there, and everything closes early on a Saturday. We were luck enough to die in the middle of the road within a hundred yards of a gas station.
Well, what is one to do when you're dead in the road and no one is willing to pull ya out of the road into the parking lot to be able to work on things. Well I'll tell ya what you can do. You can get a bit on the cranky side, use a few colorful expletives, and then do something a bit out of the ordinary. Ya might see the log chain wrapped around the front bumper, and the think that this is nice level ground, and then the thought crosses your mind of " well the wife's Prius has those tow truck tie downs in the rear ". Well lets go for it. What's the worst that can happen. Blow up the car as well. It's insured for stupidity right.
So I hooked things up, and let her rip. We pulled our 14,600 lbs M35a2 w/w, M105a2, and 13 mounted 9.00x20 tires around 50-100 yards with a Prius. Yeah, didn't think it'd work but I was desperate, and it did work.
We got her out of the road into the parking lot, and went in search of a inline el cheapo temp fix pump. Took an hour to find an open parts store with one and only one option for us to try. The package of said option said " hey, I'm not made for what you're gonna try to do ", but who am I to listen to instructions. Lets try it. And another 80 bucks spent, and an hour drive back. Hacksaw blade, mini pump, barbed line connecters, worm clamps, and oh crap my rubber fuel line is the same O.D. as the factory copper line. Now we are in another pickle. Cant get the rubber line over the hard line. What to do, what to do. Take stock of what ya do have to work with. Rummage around the your tool kit, and the this might be good to leave it the truck just in case box. Then you might come up with this. 2 5/16 barbed line connecter that you really don't know why you bought, 1 mapp torch that you've been searching for the last month or so, and some hard plastic fuel line that's been riding on the spare tire for the past 5 months. Now the hard plastic is to small to fill and seal the copper hard line. Unless you heat it with the afore mentioned torch and cram the 5/16 barbed line connecter in the 3/8 plastic line. Now all that's a bit on the too big side to fit in the copper hard line. Well poop, what now. Simple, wallow the hard line out some with a bent screw driver, and push harder. Eureka it fits. Now repeat crank down on the worm clamp to seal it up, and repeat on the other end of the copper line. And then you realize you didn't buy enough clamps, and the gas station only has radiator hose clamps. Bust out the zip ties folks, it'll work. It has to, we're out of options here.
Well she fired up after a few false starts. Hit the bathroom, got plenty of caffeine, topped of the tanks in both vehicles, and we ain't stopping for nothing unless we're forced to. 4 hours, 150 miles, 3 red lights ran, & one potentially snarky cop later, we made it home.
What a day.
 

swbradley1

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I love a good recovery story. At least I used a Dodge Hemi to pull my Deuce and 105 when the crankshaft broke.

If a Prius takes off on the electric part then an electric motor develops its max torque then. Good job and well done on the field expedient repair.


Now trade the car off before it blows up from the stress. :)
 

rosco

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Sometimes you take a Trip --- sometimes the Trip takes you! Great that you made it! Sure relieved to see that you used two chains, on the Prius.
 

mattgunguy

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Was very much a case how many fingers can I cross, and pray. I used to hate a Prius. Then I started to drive this one. They're not so bad. Great gas mileage.
 

FloridaAKM

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Nobody would know what you did, except that you posted it here. Tow truck $$$, Prius free for the usage... it worked, you win. You brought her home & not on a tow truck hitch with huge $$$ tow bill. Congratulations on a job well done! This time it is the Tow of Fame!
 

ke5eua

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After reading this I'm going to get a dolly converter and rig up a pintle hitch to tow my 5th wheel camper with my prius, lol.

How high did the back end come up when pulling it?
 
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mattgunguy

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Didn't lift the back at all really. I was honestly more than a little surprised that it even worked. Did it again this morning for giggles mostly, & the wife wanted a video of it. I'd post the YouTube link if someone would tell me how to.
 

rustystud

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I'm going to have to differ on that one. The tow of shame is having to paying the tow truck drive when you can't get it yourself. I felt small and stupid that day. Stupid hydraulic head.
I totally agree with you ! You got it home on your own terms, that's a win in my book ! My wife had to tow me once with the Subaru Forester. When I got out that little tow hook they have, she was like " are you kidding me !!!???? "
 

VPed

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The "Tow of Shame" should properly be reserved for when you intentionally disable your MV and then can't re-enable it, resulting in needing a tow. That did not happen in this case.
 

EMD567

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That is why murphy wasn't with us on our trip to Findlay. Glad you got it worked out.
 

mattgunguy

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All in all it wasn't a bad trip at all. I drive for a living, but I still enjoy the long drives of my own. After driving a truck in the army, & years as a commercial otr & local driver I've long since come to expect thing to crap out at the lest helpful time. Just keep calm & carry on as best as one can. Any trip that you're still breathing at the end of can't be all that bad.

I once ripped both axles out of a 53' reefer that had 43,475 pounds of loose loaded sweet potatoes. The company brought me another reefer trailer, a snow shovel, & a milk crate. 7 years later & I still can't stand the sight of sweet potatoes. Compared to that, this was nothing.
 

whiskey357

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Nice line up call totoyta and run the story line might get a shot at a commercial with it ...BUT YOU MADE It HOME......still best funny store this week so far and it just started...heheheh good one
 

steelypip

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Just for the record, Toyota has always said exactly one word about towing in relation to a Prius: Don't. The reasoning is pretty simple - it has something like 60 HP available in the engine and all the surge capacity (acceleration) is in the battery. Pretty easy to run the battery completely out climbing a long hill with a GCW greater than the max GVW, because the battery is sized for GVW only. Then you're down to a 60 HP engine trying to charge a battery and pull the car up the hill. Not pretty. Lots of the braking capacity is also in the battery. The battery also has a maximum rate of charge and discharge, which could make life very exciting going down a long hill, as the friction brakes are rather small (they don't get much use, normally). Result: hooking a trailer to the back of the Prius has lots of bad outcomes.

That said, it should have a lot of start-off pulling torque, and for a few yards on a level surface with no trailer braking requirement (you used chains and straps), about the worst thing you could have done is suck the battery dry, which is pretty OK - the computer is smart enough to keep you from killing it that way. In fact, it's a recommended battery conditioning move to back up a hill once in a while if you live in flat country and drive the car mostly empty.
 

mattgunguy

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Springfield, Mo
Ok. No longer prius powered. Got a new fuel pump put I Friday. The we preceded to upset folks. The street machine nationals were here this weekend, & all the pretty cars go for cruising Friday & Saturday. I just had to go for a.drive to test out that new pump. It's kinda funny how a 44 year old MV can draw more attention than the gillion dollar hot rod that looks just like the one next to it. Oops my bad.

Also makes the little 4x4 guys green with envy. I just couldn't he'll myself, I had to test the new fuel pump.
 
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