BT Tech Stiffening plate

It just occurred to me while taking a shower that I hadn't seen a post to this thread in a long time.

It's now 47 days since the last post by anyone other than Brian (and now me). Is that a record for this thread? Where have all the usual suspects gone?

Edit: My bad ... can't even add anymore ... it's 52 days (not 47).

 

LOL!

 

LOL!!! Now THAT was funny!! (No offense Boo)

 

Where the heck are the moderators when these kinds of offensive posts show up?

 

efusco is a moderator.

 

So.... who moderates the moderators?

 

Danny?

 

So, I was doing laundry, and I started wondering how efusco's SKID plate is working out....

 

So you almost got the joke!

 

I just put on my BT Tech chassis stiffening plate yesterday. Initially, from the views posted I thought it was going to be attached near the front of the car and I was wondering what effect that would do since the engine mount is up there and the front end looks pretty stiff.

However, when I got the plate I realized it would be mounted towards the rear of the car. The toughest part of installing the plate was getting the car up on jack stands because it is so low. Once up I realized why BT Tech created this device. Toyota must have realized that the back part of the Prius is subject to twisting or torsion and put on a dinky little strap to hold both halves of the car together. The BT plate is a gorgeous piece of machined aluminum (looks like aircraft grade) that is a bolt-on swap. Hey Guys at BT Tech, do you make golf putters? Everything fit perfectly. Some people think the plate extends below the original depth of the car, but it does not. The plate is exactly at the same height of the side frame rails. I put a straight edge across.

The stock strap is so dinky that I bent it over my knee before throwing it away. The BT plate will break you leg.

On the road I found subtle, but nice changes to the ride. Because the back end is now tied together tighter there is less wiggle or wander on the freeway especially when going into sweeping turns or over uneven surfaces. I found less need for steering corrections at highway speeds. The stock Prius has a nice ride, but does tend to wander and need constant steering corrections on the freeway.

Directional stability was improved and the car is much more pleasurable to drive.

The BT plate will not make your Prius drive like a BMW, but it will make it drive like it was supposed to. Shame on Toyota for using such a bandaid patch to keep the rear end together. Thank goodness for companies such as BT Tech and Priuschat for showing us ways to increase the joy of driving a Prius.

If you are just going to putter around town at 25 mph don't buy it. You will not notice the difference.

However, if you commute, use the freeway or expressways, or otherwise really drive your Prius I think this was a $174 (including tool) well spent.

Thank you Brian and the nice people at BT Tech who shipped my plate to Hawaii in a record 4 days. I'm mulling over buying the shock tower brace.
I

 

Thanks for your order and I am happy to hear that it made it to you in just 4 days!!

We do not make a golf putter quite yet but I will keep it in mind for a future Prius project!

Thanks again for taking the time for posting your review of our BT Tech stiffening plate here on Prius Chat. BTW, if you are thinking of purchasing one of our BT Tech Strut Tower Braces, you might want to place your order now as we are only going to have small number of them ready for shipping next week. These parts are not easy to manufacture so we do them in small batches to maintain and assure our quality.

 

I have had mine installed on my car for about 2 years now and if i got another Prius, i would definately purchase another one. Do yourself a favor and check out their new strut brace. My car now feels like a mini BMW that I used to own. My steering is now very precise with a lot less lean in the corners.

Frank

 

And yet we have testimony that the brace enabled an owner to improve his cornering from 5 mph to 40 mph at the local dead man's curve. And I was excoriated for doubting.

(I know. But sometimes I can't resist.)

 

Brian, whats the difference in your plate than this one that is $105.00 (thats including shipping) cheaper? Is the anodizing costlier?
eBay Motors: Toyota Prius 2004-2008 Custom Made Stiffening Plate (item 180218871026 end time Mar-03-08 09:19:24 PST)

Just curious.

 

Compatibility with Tom's Braces

I'm about ready to put in an order for the BT Stiffening Plate - but have one question. Does anyone know if there are compatibility issues with the Tom's Braces?

Tom's Floor Strengthening Brace
Tom's Rear Suspension Member Strengthening Brace

From the pictures it is unclear if these share any common mounting location or if there are any other concerns. My motivation for asking is that I'd like to start out inexpensive, easy and effective with the BT part, but (hopefully) retain the option to go crazy with the Tom's parts at some future date.

 

I installed this Stiffening plate, as a mater of fact, I was the first commercial purchaser of this product, it has a perfect fit, does the job and very well. For the finish of the plate, I really didn't care much, I sprayed a clear coat to it to keep it nice and shiny.

 

Thanks for the info. The ad even says that there are machining marks in it but the metal listed is the same. It's just a bare plate, unlike Brians which is anodized.

 

Hello Lumpy,

Although I have not seen the other plate you are referring to in person, ours (BT Tech) is fully CNC machined in a state of the art machine shop (Made in USA) for precision and a perfect fit.

There is more to our design than it being a simple rectangular plate made out of aluminum. For example, we have been through several design/program itterations with subtle changes to further improve our product since we released it close to 3 years ago.

All of our BT Tech stiffening plates once machined are tripple checked for accuracy and then annodized using a mil spec type III hard coating.

In other words, we do not manufacture our plates in a garage on a manual machine nor do we try to copy someones product and pass it on as our own.

All of our BT Tech products are only available through this site, (Prius Chat Store) and your purchases directly benifit PriusChat.com

Here is a picture of a batch of our BT Tech stiffening plates that were just checked for dimensional accuracy and ready for the annodizer. Note the quality of the machined finish: