I head out into the desert occasionally as well as country roads. Nothing radical, mostly dirt and fire roads and such. Nothing the Civic AWD wagon I had previously couldn't handle. Made it up the the campground at the charcoal kilns in Death Valley. Was wondering if the all electric mod might help, what with the low speed torque and all. Is this an easy job, and does it effect the warranty? Have also been considering tires. What would be the tallest 15" tires that would work on a 2007, in trying to gain a little ground clearance. Thanks
All I can think is, "No good can come of this..." I don't even like parking lots, as I'm always scraping the air dam on the parking blocks and curbs! I'm not sure you can get big enough tires to make enough of a difference on the ground clearance. Maybe you can find a nice lift kit somewhere... Good luck!
Air shocks with an onboard compressor would be awesome for this. You could pump it up for the rough stuff, and lower it for highway cruising. The choice of music's up to you.
I usta do that with the 2001 Prius. Past the charcoal kilns, if you are really lucky you can get up to Mahogany Flats. That 'road' is usually in too poor conditin to even try it. Going up there I learned that Prius really hates running at high load at very low speed. If somebody wanted to get serious about off-road with this drivetrain, a much lower gearing option would be a high priority. Large tires will add a little ground clearance but in terms of effective gearing they are taking you in the wrong direction.
I predict a future episode on Jay Leno's segment "What did they think would happen?" There are just some things that the [otherwise] magnificent Prius is not very good at: Running in deep water; running out of gasoline; leaving parked at the airport for an extended period of time; and .... off-road driving.
Was just out there last year and there was a Gen II at the campground. A buddy lives on five acres in Lucerne Valley(near Mojave) with usually poor dirt roads and a friend of ours hase been out there a couple times. He does a lot of camping and has had no problem getting to where he wants to go. it was his feedback that prompted me to make the jump. He's had his for five years with absolutely no problems. Not planning on serious offroading or major modifications. These trips are only once or twice a year, and mostly graded dirt roads. Was mainly interested in advice on the all electric performance. Will leave the monster truck thing to others. Thanks to all for the replies.
I've been up my share of sand and gravel roads. It does fine, as long as you don't have a high-center over about 6 inches high. Above all avoid coming down on something that could bash a hole through that delicate transaxle case wall. Our dear departed friend Brian from BT was yay close to producing a nice skid plate, but I don't think it ever actually hit the streets. . _H*
Just wanted to thank you for bringing this to my attention. The folks at The Prius Shop just delivered one today. Looks like a fairly easy install, and will drop a line when I get it in. Seems like one of the better accessories for the car, especially if you go on dirt roads or deal with environments with lots of debris.
The skid plate is installed, and seems a worthwhile investment. While aluminum, it seems robust enough to deal with most dirt road situations and should block most road debris. It's well finished and was pretty much a bolt on operation. I had a local shop do the install, and a lift definitely makes the job easier. They charged slightly less than $100, which was worth avoiding the hassle of jacks and stands and skinned knuckles and lying under a car with everything three inches from your face. I also checked with the dealer to confirm that it doesn't effect the warranty. Does make draining the oil a bit of a pain if the cars not lifted or you don't have a pit.
