You can haul 10 foot long conduit and pvc pipe in your Prius.

I did the same with our two hour old Prius. We have a van for that sort of thing, so I never expected to turn the Prius into a work vehicle, but some things are just out of our control. Here's the story:

We bought our Prius through Fox Toyota in Rochester, Michigan. Rochester is a six hour drive from where we live, but Fox was great to deal with, and our kids were buying a house in Rochester, so that's how we ended up there. We caught a ride to Rochester, so when we picked up the Prius (WooHoo!) it was our only car. Our kids had moved into their new house and ripped out the bathroom. All of a sudden I was pressed into service as a plumbing and wiring expert. Our brand new shiny black Prius was off to Home Depot for supplies. We put 10' copper and PVC pipe inside with both front seats up: dropped the right back seat, put a towel on the dash, and put the pipe between the front seats - worked great.

Tom

 

As was said above I never expected to use the Prius as a work vehicle, but it never ceases to amaze me when it is pressed into service. Last week I fit an 8 foot ladder in by folding the front and rear passenger side seats and removing the headrests. I've been able to haul 2 six foot ladders and 3 people just by folding the rear passenger side. I sold my Toyota pickup to buy the Prius thinking I was sacrificing utility for comfort, but I've hardly missed it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ May 14 2006, 05:23 AM) [snapback]255116[/snapback]</div>

Yep, I did the exact same thing a few months ago. The guys at Home Depot couldn't believe it.

 

These are great stories, but I still can't bring myself to use the Prius to bring the trash & recylable to the transfer statiion.!!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(brandon @ May 14 2006, 03:36 PM) [snapback]255343[/snapback]</div>

Wow! I'm glad you haul stuff in the Prius. I held on to my old 93 Camry because I did the same thing many times. I even hauled 10 pieces of 10 foot long rebar in the old car. I slide the rebar into a 10 foot piece of 4 inch PVC pipe to help protect the interior. Now that I learned from you guys that you can use the Prius, I'll be making more stops to Home Depot.

 

I haven't hauled any 10' conduit, but did haul some 2"x12"x8' lumber to build the kids a sandbox. Also, I amazed a couple of staff at the local furniture store when I had them help me load a twin bedframe. I admit that I had measured all the pieces so I knew they would fit, but when they wheeled the bed out and first saw my car they were like "Yeah, sure." But it fit in without problem, and one of the staffers commented that it probably wouldn't have fit in her minivan.

Like others have posted, I never intended our Prius to become a substitute for our old pickup truck -- but it is nice to have the flexible hauling capability available when you need it.

 

Nice to know it can handle a load. I need to pick up chicken feed and a couple of bags of shavings this week. I was concerned I might have to ressurrect the truck(my first vehicular love) but it seems I can wait another month or two. B)

 

One of the reasons I bought my Prius was its load carrying capacity. I cannot walk very far so need an electric scooter to get around.

I made an aluminium false floor that covers most of the cargo area and extends forward to the back of the front seats. The aluminium has two ridges to guide my scooter when loading. I have two channelled ramps that hook onto pegs in the aluminium floor.

By taking off the scooter seat and folding down the steering arm I am able to run the scooter up the ramps and onto the aluminium floor and park it well forward so the front wheels are just behind the front seats. The scooter is parked at a slight angle so that the front of it is as close as possible to the rear side door on the passenger's side. This maximises room for the scooter's seat, which is loaded behind the driver's seat and held in place by a seat belt. The scooter is strapped to the four tie down points, the ramps stowed by sliding them under the scooter with a bit of packing to stop any rattles.

It all fits like a glove and still leaves room for two people in the front. There is still room for luggage as long as it is in soft carry-on bags.

The false floor is designed to distribute the load over a wide area so as not to put too much pressure on the backs of the folded back seats. I covered the underside of the aluminium floor with felt to stop it damaging the car in any way.

The whole process of installing the floor, loading the scooter and securing it takes about 10 minutes. Now I can go to distant places and get around without the need of a trailer.

The Prius is a great car.

 

that's awesome Orf!

I've used ours to haul pvc too, and really screwed up, the towel i put on the end slipped off while loading and marred the passenger side dash, my wife says I'm the only that notices it.

I do maintenance on our rentals a few times a year and I can put in the back:
gas trimmer, gas hedge pruner, gorilla 4in1 16 foot ladder (folds to about 4/5 ft.) full bucket of tools, and full milk crate of sprinkler parts all laying flat on trunk or folded down seats and still have room for 2.

Extra weight on rear wheels? Don't know! Last run I used 4.65 gal for 237.0 miles, 50.97 mpg @ $3.40, but alas, tain't my normal commute! I have never isolated this particular run from commute miles, but now I'm curious to see how the added weight mattered, I suspect that if I can lift it, it's lighter than a passenger, eh?

b

 

I just put a large cedar chest in the back of the Prius and CLOSED the hatch! The yard sale guy I bought it from could not believe that the whole thing fit in the Prius with room to spare.

(yes, I did put it on some plastic I had in there - to use in case of a tire problem and you have to put the old /dirty tire in the trunk- so I had a plastic drop cloth for just such things).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(htmlspinnr @ Feb 21 2007, 05:57 PM) [snapback]394211[/snapback]</div>

Dang, I guess my 9-6 longboard will fit in there! hadn't even bothered trying it yet, had to keep driving my smelly old Outback to the beach. NO MORE!! Speaking of, anybody looking to buy a non-hybrid?? ;-)

 

The best thing that I've fit in the Prius so far is a kegerator. The tower stuck into the front seat but the hatch shut. Go, Prius!

 

The Prius is so spacious that I've been able to get rid of my hearse. The black Prius can do it all!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Catskillguy @ May 14 2006, 12:45 PM) [snapback]255348[/snapback]</div>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - GO GREEN!

Ahem - - Really, it's not so bad. Iv'e hauled unwanted paint & used up batteries to the Recycling depot. Felt VERY good to do it in a Prius!!

 

Well our Prius is a sometimes farm vehicle. Well, ok, we haul the manure in the Toy truck. But we deliver vegetables to members of our Community Supported Agriculture project in the Prius (we only have to carry about 5 bags and a couple big boxes, though, so it is not as impressive as it first sounds).

Jim

 

Well about 2 months ago, I was checking out at HD with about 10 2x6x14ft. Yes 14ft, the two individuals behind me at check out didn't think it would fit in without going past the end of the hatch (1/2 open). While yes they stuck out they were not past the hatch, and I did rope them down. When done it was about the same as the pickup truck with the gate down that was parked next to me.