Alright guys it seems there's enough of us lifting, camperising, fitting bigger tires etc that I think we should start a thread to compile the information we find and seek, all in one place.
I've had my Prius for a few years now, I struggle with my conscience driving my 19mpg on a good day VW Vanagon and so want to build up my Prius to handle the back roads of the West. My aim is to : Increase ground clearance with a lift Add a skid plate and cat protection Install larger tires Add a full size spare or possibly donut from another vehicle Increase spring weight in the rear Add a cargo carrier on a hitch Build a bed platform that's useable with the rear seats And the icing on the cake would be a roof top tent. Prius Offroad looks to provide the best lift, I'm still researching rear springs to see what I can do for the extra weight on the hitch. I haven't found a skid plate for sale yet but there's a bunch of cat protection plates out there. Tires I'll probably go with Yokohama Geolandar's, as narrow and tall as I can fit with the lift without rubbing. I have a Thule 665c cargo carrier, at 55lbs empty I'm not sure how this is going to work, trial and error I guess. The rest, maybe you guys are interested and we can figure it out together?
Here's an alternate option for cargo and a spare https://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Cargo-Carrier/etrailer/e98875.html
Here is mine currently. 2015 Prius persona Prius off road lift 215/70/15 Yokohama geolanders 15” gen 2 wheels Roof rack with basket I have a full size spare for the roof I am looking for a skid plate. I don’t plan on Doing a lot of camping iPhone ?
Out of interest why did you swap to Gen 2 wheels? Are they lighter? Also with those mods, what was your before and after mpg?
I got 42-43 mpg normally and now I am getting 37 mpg with the roof basket and lift and tires. The basket it actually the big mpg killer. I went with gen 2 wheels because my car had the factory 17” wheels. I wanted more sidewall and AT tires were going to be hard to find for the 17” wheels. The tires cannot be bigger than 27” or you have to start cutting stuff for them to fit. I also was not 100% on keeping it this way so I wanted to be able to swap my tires and wheels back on the car. I like it to much now. I am gong to paint the wheels a graphite color soon. iPhone ?
Did you install the basket at the same time as the lift, wheels and tires? So that would be the total mpg loss for all your upgrades? Still, that's plenty reasonable given you can now do trips into the backwoods. Having said that, you're before mpg seems rather low. In my 05 I can get around 50mpg on a trip, the wife only gets low to mid 40's when she's daily driving it.
I'm just doing a bit of research on full size donut spares. It looks like the Subaru Crosstrek has a donut spare (145/90 d16) with a 26.3" diameter, which would work perfectly with the Geolandar's of 205/70/15.
I put the basket on before the lift. The basket killed like 2-4 mpg itself. That is the biggest mileage killer think, but I also didn’t drive to as much as I normally do and it was colder and really windy those days. iPhone ?
That’s good to know. I got another 15” wheel with a factory size tire for the basket if I am going out in the desert. iPhone ?
not sure if this helps but here is the spare I use on the Prime. it's slightly smaller than the OEM wheel but in an emergency should get the job done, any updates on the Subi spare? https://black.jmyntrn.com/2023/01/05/toyota-prius-prime-plug-in-phev-spare-tire/
