Aftermarket Power Liftgate for Gen 2 (2004-2009 Prius)

Since she is still driving (else this would be a moot point) she must still have some mobility, eyesight, and so on. What is the nature of her problem with the hatch? To open it, assuming functioning lift supports, one would only need to be able to place one's hands at a height around 3 ft. off the ground and lift with almost no force after pressing the release button. You say that she is short, but certainly not shorter than that. Is the issue that she cannot reach the hatch to close it? One workaround for that would be a short stick with a hook near one end, and possibly some grip tape on the other end. She could reach up, snag the latch loop, and then pull it down. A strong magnet might work too - it could stick to the outside of the hatch. A third method could be some sort of light rope, lanyard, chain, etc attached to the inside of the hatch which could be used to pull it down. Not clear to me though where to attach it inside the hatch. In all of these scenarios it will take some force to pull the hatch down and then close it. Difficult for me to imagine how a person could drive if they could not muster that small amount of force.

 

Also the OP might contact AutoEase and find out why they don't have a kit for the 2nd Generation Prius. It might be something relatively easy to fix, like the lack of a power circuit nearby to hook it to, which could be resolved by running wires from somewhere else. Or it could be something insurmountable, like insufficient space to hold the powered struts. I don't recall the 3rd gen hatch being all that different from the 2nd gen one.

 

some have added a pull strap to the inside of the hatch bottom.

 

And the strap has to be installed in such a way so that when the hatch comes down it doesn't get in the way of the tailgate closing can be tricky I would think there should be several companies making linear actuators that would be thin enough and a pair of them would lift and pull the tailgate of the Prius It's unfortunate they didn't make that out of aluminum that would have been really something. I would think you'd be able to look at linear actuators themselves not necessarily just this manufacturer as far as I know linear actuators are very easy to deal with they're just long screws essentially or like a rack gear inside of a strut or tube I look at them for other projects all the time and it looks like there are plenty skinny enough to fit right in the trough that's provided for the other strut that's hydraulic went. There's tons of linear actuators in the 12 volt lineup on eBay and all kinds of places. Then I guess there must be some kind of solenoid or controller that you would push a button and it would undo the latch and at the same time activate the linear actuators and then they stop at limit of travel I would imagine automatically and then reverse the process to go down and then there must be some kind of protection circuit so some idiot tries to slam the trunk. They can either slide and bypass the rack or it gets ruined I don't know seems like that would be an easy thing to get around too but somebody would have to remember. If these actuators are made in such a way where somebody puts their hand on the trunk and starts to push down and ruins them both well that could be problematic like Mom forgets and starts to pull down on the hatch because she's frustrated.

 

I'm guessing that the powered lift struts use a mechanism something like a threaded shaft inline with the motor spindle on one side into a nut welded onto the other side. The whole path involving force is steel - it should be able to withstand quite a large amount of force without bending. After all, it has to hold up the hatch, and that isn't light. Of course, 250 lb guy gets frustrated and hangs on it, then all bets are off.

 

Maybe a Tesla Aftermarket Frunk unit would work. Google that under RPM Tesla.....I think it would be a space issue.

 

Looks like Mars flex might be a company to look at they make a few things for the RAV4 and what have you they look a little fat but I didn't look at the spec sheet to see the diameter of that fatness exactly and then there's some others that are quite a bit thinner better in the couple hundred dollar range The Mars flex around a hundred ...99 whatever