Prius overlanding thread.

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

 

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?

 

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.