Anybody tow a trailer with their Clarity PHEV?

Have you ever gone 56mph in a 55 zone?
I sure hope not by the way you write. Clearly the road engineers designed it expressly for YOUR specific Clarity, ignoring that it is designed to factor an 80,000lb semi as well as family sedans, sports cars, and street bikes so there is no room to use common sense beyond the posted limit...

You do you. As noted above, there are lawyers that work around the clock writing warnings for people who also eat tide pods and property owners get sued when someone slips on ice in the winter. Common sense is not so common these days...

 

Your questions and analogies are irrelevant to the topic of towing with a Clarity.

I will agree that common sense is a rare commodity.

 

Hear, hear! The threat of litigation seems to have made all too many Americans timid and afraid to take the slightest risk.

Be bold, my friends! Live large.

​

 

FWIW - from the Japanese Clarity PHEV Owner's Manual - there is the following statement:

"Use the hook on the back of the vehicle to pull another vehicle.
And can be used in an emergency."

Didn't find any other references to towing other than the car should be flat-bedded when towing the Clarity.

From research, it appears the only other place that the Clarity PHEV is sold -- is Japan. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

 

If, by place, you mean Country, add Canada.

 

@Heino, I'll probably never use the Clarity to tow: 1) because I haven't put a hitch on it and 2) even if I had a hitch on it, I'd fear the liability of possible accident with the trailer - too much litigation these days to make me comfortable, and too easy to argue that it was negligent to tow with a vehicle that was stated by the manufacturer as "not designed to tow" - there are limits for insurance liability and you are on the hook after that. All that said, I did like the info that if worse came to worse and the Clarity needed towing with rear wheels down, that you could do it by pulling the fuse for the electronic parking brake.

 

Git ‘er done @Heino!! Enjoy your teardrop. If the engine can’t keep up with the load, just slow down and enjoy the journey...

 

Now this is someone who need to have a "pair" hanging from the back of the vehicle!! THUMBS UP from me!!

 

What can be done, will be done.

The road is full of idiots.

 

If Honda says you can tow 1,000 lbs with Clarity, that means it should be able to tow that load on any major road, let's say to Eisenhower tunnel. I am pretty sure it cannot do that. So they say it is not designed to tow.

In reality towing capability depends a lot on terrain and speed. You can definitely make a Home Depot run in flat terrain at 40 mph, but at higher elevations and steeper terrain I don't think the engine can maintain safe speed.

 

As posted in other threads, I think Honda recommends against it due to the Clarity’s issues going up hill when only the ICE is available. Under EV mode there is plenty of power, but when it’s only the ICE...

If you don’t go up hills a lot, less of an issue.

 

Just to give you an idea of how much you can climb on battery power, I did some calculations:

A loaded Clarity (no trailer) weighs 4,500 lbs. So it takes 4,500 lb.ft or 0.00169 kWh to climb one foot. Assuming a 5% typical grade for the road, that means 0.446 kWh per mile of climbing. This is just potential energy, you still need to add drivetrain losses, air resistance, heat, etc. We know that Clarity can go around 40 miles on a flat freeway using 12.5 kWh of available battery capacity (0.3125 kWh/mile). Adding this to potential energy results in 0.3125+0.446=0.76 kWh per mile of climbing. Under this condition the range on full battery will be 12.5/0.76 = 16.4 miles, which means you can drive Clarity in BEV mode for 16.4 miles and climb about 4,300 ft before it switches to HV mode. Towing a trailer will decrease this further.

 

Towed this trailer up and over this mountain then back up and over, loaded with a cabinet and desk weighing a total of about 650 lb.
Tried both HV only and EV on way back (about 20 miles uphill on EV then HV).
No issues


https://detailk2.com/mmt5x7-info
ITEM NUMBER MMT5X7
PAYLOAD CAPACITY 1,639 LB (743.4 KG)
GVW 2,090 LB (948 KG)
CURB WEIGHT 451 LB (204.6 KG)

 

Great to hear. Where did you tap for the trailer wiring? How well did regen do at slowing it on the downhills?

 

Regen downhill was good @Random.Clarity. No shimmying or weirdness but I was careful and kept good distance. After an initial fretting about it, everything felt good. I suspect that anything you do in EV mode will be good performance.
In ICE mode (whenever that occurs) you will have to think about RPMs and really be careful.
Obviously I do not recommend this to anyone, it was a test.

 

I used the Torklift kit and had it installed at a Camping Truck (or Camper World) location for $95. They put in a 4 plug that comes out of the storage cubby under the trunk area. This is good for trailers and such, not great for teardrop trailers which have round 7-pin plugs. Requires an adapter

 

Please see my post on towing a teardrop here, which is all about being bold!

 

It has been my experience with many other products that unless "tested", no recommendation can be made. I doubt very much that Honda tested the tow capacity of the Clarity. This means that they will not have any recommendation. For the sake of the lawsuits, they will state "Not rated to tow". Use of a little common sense, something not so common any more, and you should be fine for very limited use. Don't feel comfortable doing it? Then don't.

 

Data point to add. Just completed at 1300-mile road trip in the southeast. Towing a kayak trailer with two boats and a bike and some gear in kayak rear-ends to lighten the tongue. Torq-lift hitch and Curt-butchered wiring, self-installed. Car contained approximately 600 lbs of people and gear. Car tire pressure 38psi. Trailer total wt approximately 370 lbs (50 lbs tongue wt).

No problem with general acceleration or operation. Fuel economy numbers: 27-28 mpg for interstate speeds of 72-75; 32-34 mpg for highway speeds of 60 (with speed-trap reductions as necessary). Sure wish Honda had ditched the hydrogen design commonality and given this vehicle a 10+ gallon tank; range was generally less than 200 miles.

At interstate speeds, the strain on the system was such that HV-Charge tried but could not add to the battery.