Great minds think alike. But not sure if in tropical buffalo if they have dividers like we do out here . I used pressure treated lumber for ours in December: Bought one extra so returned it to the lumber yard in the same manner as @goldfinger . They got a good chuckle seeing a Prius pull up .
You can just tie-down the hatch with a long load, put a flag on the end. I did that with a shelf project, and thought I was being clever clogs: pushed a carabiner into the hatch latch in the threshold, to spoof a closed hatch condition, but I'm not sure why, wrong dimensions or whatever: it didn't buy it, and the damn thing beeped all the way there. You get used to it, like a toothache... Anyone successful doing this? Any tips?
In the Gen-2 if you put the lumber against the windscreen (resting over the dashboard) you can get 10ft lumber in there with the hatch closed. 12ft is easy with the hatch open, just use a bunjee cord. It fits and snaps into the electronic lock thing perfectly and then into the metal ring making securing it really easy. Longer than that, the hatch has to be open much larger.
I think @MichelleStone has hauled lots of timber etc in her Gen 4 too. What was the biggest load you've carried, Michelle?
We loaded a bunch of 8-foot metal lawn edging in the Prime a couple days back, with hatch fully closed. No problem with the length, but the sharp metal corners were 2.5 inches away from destroying the 11" touchscreen if we had hit a pothole or had to stop suddenly. Luckily, all went well on the drive home.
I wouldn't want to risk that: one hard stop could put that through your windshield. A cinched cord or rope, something non-elastic, is more secure.
Yes, but we're in a Prius... Hard stop from what speed??? When I've got the Prius loaded, I engage "grandma mode". In reality though, it wont move anywhere. There is nowhere for it to accelerate, it is just against the windscreen. I'd say safer than having it resting with room infront of it. In a hard braking scenario, it will move forwards into something. I like that the bungee cord "self tightens". Something non-elastic every bump and stretch may open it a little bit more. Potentially fail. Something elastic, will always go back to closed after a bump. And those little cords keep the hatch down so tightly I've never had it ride up more than the cushioning material, so a few mm's at most. Oh well.
Slamming on the brakes at highway speeds is somehow different in a Prius? Putting a hitch or end loop in rope and cinching it securely, vs a glorified rubber band, come on.
Oh, no. I don't do highway with the hatch open. Surface streets. We're talking from the home goods store to a house, they're everywhere. I've never been a place that required a highway to get building supplies like that. At highway speeds, everything in the vehicle is a projectile in an emergency situation. Had a school peer nearly die when our Science Olympiad project blew through his SUV in a crash. The metal frame with lead acid battery that was just placed in the rear tore through the passenger seat and lodged itself in the windscreen while the battery itself made its own hole slightly more towards the driver. Like a cartoon, a battery sized hole in the glass, battery 20-30 ft from the car by the time it ended.
My Dad had a serious accident, his Holden Wagon rolled 3 times after being T-Boned back in the '70s. He was on his way home from a Church Working Bee with my 2 younger siblings. Everyone was OK, mainly bruised. But the Garden Fork which was in the back of the wagon impaled the spout of the STEEL Watering Can. Dad wouldn't buy another wagon or hatch after that happened.
It sat for a long time with a post earlier - I thought it had given up, but eventually it went. Having a Sunday afternoon nap, no doubt.
Schedule 40 PVC drain pipe for a bathroom remodel. I brought along a hacksaw, which I left in the car, but realized was not needed. It ran all the way to the windshield (on top of the dash), which did leave small scuff marks that are still there..., but it fit.
