Flat Towing Safe?

[jayphev]

I've been reading these forums for a while now as a guest as I researched this vehicle (which seems a perfect fit for my kind of driving - mostly city, occasional upcountry drive). Must say, great community!

Currently viewing a number of used PHEVs and about to pull the trigger on a 2014 model. Something caught my eye - the previous owner had clearly flat towed it (they cut the tow rope and left behind a piece of it). Everything else checks out so far. Should this be a concern? Can you safely flat tow the PHEV, with gear lever in neutral?

 

[jaapv]

Flat towing is only allowed for a damaged car below 30 kph and over very short distances. (User Manual) The wiring and motors can overheat -which won't do the wiring much good- and in a worst case cause a fire.
I would look for another example.

 

[DrSnapid]

I know this is an old thread.

It may say in the manual that it isn't safe to flat tow the phev. But I don't think that has ever been proven. I can't think of a single reason why it would be the case, in a back of a motorhome style A frame tow. The diffs are just normal open diffs. Electric motors don't get hot when free spinning. If cooling or similar was an issue, it should be mitigated by simply turning on the car while towing. Sometimes the manual states what Mitsubishi official stance is purely for business purposes but not technical reasons.

However, towing with a rope as OP described... That implies that the tow was not the back of a motorhome style flat towing where the car is a fully functional vehicle more like an emergency tow. Could have been from a bog most likely, could have been a breakdown... unlikely.

I'll open a separate thread for this discussion though