Yet another first road trip in a PiP

I'm doing the same except driving from California up to Oregon. 787 miles one way exactly. I'm looking forward to seeing how it handles on the long up hills.

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i'd be more worried about my back than fuelly. all the best jerry, have a great trip. hope the weather stays calm for you!

 

I actually learned a neat little trick. When you want to save some of that generated power from going down all those hills you can do so by getting the plug in battery icon to show instead of the hybrid battery. Once it does just switch to EV mode and charge that pack as much as you can. When you get to where you need to use the throttle again just switch back to hybrid mode and use your EV power when it makes the most sense!

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Can't wait to hear about your trips.

I just bought my '14 PiP on Friday, 11/17, and drove the family of 4 from Tampa to N. Palm Beach, FL, for Thanksgiving week. Overall, the trip is about 225 miles, mainly freeway, with a few small towns and lights to contend with. We had plenty of room for our luggage, and it was a smooth, comfortable trip. There was a strong crosswind for most of the trip, and despite that, I averaged 51mpg for the first 2/3 of the trip (Tampa to Ft. Pierce via SR and the FL Turnpike) and 54mpg for the last 2/3 from Ft. Pierce to N. Palm Beach (I-95 to Inidantown Rd to A1A).

About to take the kids up the Jupiter Lighthouse along the Juno Beach, all electric!!!

Loving this car so far.

 

Have a safe drive. If you can, I would love to know your MPG from Lexington to Cincinnati. That stretch of highway is really interesting, since most of the truckers get up to very high speeds on the downhills, and use that momentum on the up-hills. I am interested on how the hybrid system performs on that sort of terrain at highway speeds.

 

Great info. Thank you. How in the world did that truck end up on it's side like that???

Yes, I bought the PiP from Todd. I am lucky that he is about 10 minutes away from me. I had seen the "Tampa Hybrids" stickers on cars several times. I recently had some recurring trips added to my already long weekly commute, and decided that with gas prices low, my '03 Chevy Trailblazer would have some value now, and I could likely find a Prius at a reasonable price.

Prius was acquired. Great buying experience. Now, time to sell the truck when I get back at the end of this week.

I had a trip this afternoon from Ft. Lauderdale up to N. Palm Beach on I-95. I think it really put the PiP in her sweet spot. The route was about 67 miles, mainly via I-95, Set in HV the whole way, but lots of slow and go freeway traffic, never really getting above 65mph. I got 64MPG on the trip.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

 

By any measure, getting from Central FL to Central OH on 23 gals of gas is amazing.

Your trip back is sure to be much more interesting. Enjoy it.

 

My turn to update on my trip from Central California up to Portland Oregon. I pumped 8.15 gallons of gas at $3.03. I left after 5PM (That's when the future wife gets out of work). The was lots of traffic through Fresno, including a stretch of about 4 miles where I got up to 15MPH and thought I was flying. There was some construction through Merced, CA and then it cleared up pretty well. I will say that I usually keep the lumbar support fully out and when I was somewhere in the Merced area my back was starting to really feel it. I drove up to Redding,CA and stopped to get gas there. I averaged 53 mpg for that stretch. I got back on the road and only drove for about an hour to Shasta where I camped for the night. Sleeping in the back of the Prius was a pretty comfortable actually. I had packed two sleeping bags and my future wife packed her "comfy blanket." I'm 6 foot tall and she is 5'4 maybe 5'5 and we were pretty comfortable in the back of the Prius. Got up real early and drove up to Medford Oregon on the second tank of gas, 8.22 gallons. After stopping for breakfast I got back in the car and realised that I had regened 5.4 miles through all the up and down driving. Getting into Portland Oregon my average was 52 MPG. Not bad considering I used the cruise control the whole way. Lots of traffic through and areas. The radar cruise control is a nice feature to have.

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Sounds like an awesome trip through some beautiful country up there. I love the idea of camping out in the back as well. Not sure that my current wife would be as "hip" to that idea as your future wife is

The 5.4 mile re-gen is really impressive.

 

We slept in the back of ours six nights on our almost 14,000 mile trip this summer/fall PA-AK-PA. I could have done more nights back there, but that was enough for my wife. 6'1" and 5' 5".

 

Have fun! And watch the crazy drivers.

I did do a report on my long road trip... https://priuschat.com/threads/2013-phev-prius-7445-mile-road-trip.168378/#post-2387768

I have done several 1000 to 1500 mile trips, including about 933 miles this weekend to the Carolina Outer banks. I did use a charger at the hotel and one at a restaurant but it did very little to increase my overall MPG. Generally I don't worry about charging on these trips unless I can charge somewhere I plan to be. BTW, this trip I got 56 going (more downhill) and about 50 coming back.

I don't sweat the numbers on my road trips. But between them I can go for 3-4 months between fill ups! This is EXACTLY the reason I got a PHEV instead of a pure EV. I can drive 600 miles a day and not have to worry about range or sits for hours waiting a charge!

 

In general, when camping in the car for the night, where do you all park the car?

 

Regulations vary state/province to state/province. Some allow overnight in rest areas unless otherwise marked. Some allow anywhere unless otherwise marked. In our recent trip we did some at rest areas and others at remote unmarked areas. We did some campgrounds too, but avoided public/crowded spaces like Walmart parking lots. Personal opinion comes in to play here of course.

 

Sounds like a great trip. Thanks for the updates. I have also wondered how much being loaded down with luggage impacts fuel econ. I suppose that with all the variables involved in a road trip, there is really no way to figure that out for sure. I have to imagine that passenger and luggage weight have an out-sized impact on a Prius compared to, let's say, a full size SUV.

Glad you made it home safely, and brought some of that crisp cold air down our way. It might actually feel like Christmas tonight.

 

Weight certainly effects mpg, but not as much as speed. Our family did 7500 mile cross-country trip in '07-- two adults, two teens, all the camping gear, including an aero roof rack that I set up. We were at or a bit over that maximum recommended weight. We drove 60 mph (yes I know that not many would choose to do that) and we averaged 50 mpg for the trip.