A/c and camping out

Load the park brake against the park pawl to reduce the jerking which occurs each time the ICE starts or stops. Not sure how you can do this.

 

Campers with propane heaters typically have CO 'annunciating' detectors, so you're on the right track. Prius is pretty low among CO emitters, but another vehicle might stop upwind and idle their engine while you are asleep.

 

Listen to this man and heed his words. Even his teddy bears can out-camp you sissy la la's!

 

Not necessary unless the car is inside a completely closed garage. Outdoors (1) the engine will make very little CO, and (2) what little is made will simply flow away.

 

Just setting the brake normally works for me. No noticeable jerks.

 

Or a smaller piece with a magnetic strip around the edge.

 

Heidi and Jessica once held the fort all by themselves in a wicked thunderstorm, and they were just fine. Other tents were beaten down by the rain, and some blew in to the lake. Tough teddies, those two.

 

lol Silver... hehe

Ok.. it's not really camping.. it's a weekend party with a lot of friends. Either way.. the prius works great.

The parking brake is a wonderful idea..

Don't forget to keep the hood open to keep those fans from kicking on.

 

Thanks for not being offended, V8. I was checking back on the thread, thinking I'd better apologise for being so high and mighty, and then saw F8L's comment about teddy bears. So, I just played along.

But yeah, there are different ideas about 'camping'. As long as you're outdoors, appreciating nature, I think that's most of it. I've rolled in to many a site after a long day in the saddle, tired, smelly, and hungry, and the RV dwellers and I are each shaking our heads at the other.

 

they both have their place

 

Well today I took the wife to the store and pulled over into a parking spot and just waited for her. I left the car in Ready with the A/C and radio on thinking that all would be OK as has been posted here. Well the battery went from 6 blue bars to 2 purple bars and the ICE never did come on. I got scared and started moving so the ICE would run. What was going on?

EDIT: Also in Park mode

 

The car was behaving as expected, but you panicked. If you continued to wait, the car would have started up the ICE and charged the battery up a bit. Keep in mind that when you get down to the last bar on display on the "Energy" screen, the battery is still more than 40% charged.

If you wait long enough next time, you'll find that when the ICE starts up, it only runs long enough to get the display up to about 3 blue bars or so, and then shuts back off. It will then shut off the ICE and continue to drain the battery until it needs to start up the ICE again. Each time it starts up the ICE it will only charge it to the 3 blue bar level.

I can understand your concern over running your hybrid battery dead. However, if the car doesn't behave properly and eventually charge up the battery the way we've described, you probably want to find that out soon so you can call the dealership and have them fix it. I can't guarantee that there is nothing wrong with your car, but you haven't described anything yet that would cause concern.

 

If you'd waited a few more minutes the engine would have started. Now, if the battery display ever gets to *one* bar, that's a sign that something isn't working right.

 

When I first got my scangauge I sat in the car with it on just to see how low it would go. Sure enough, as soon as the SOC (state of charge) dropped to 39.5 (two purple bars showing at the time), the ICE started up. It will show 2 purple bars when it gets down to somewhere between 40 and 45%, and continue to remain purple until it either gets low enough for the computer to tell it to recharge or you engage drive or you turn it off.

 

wow

 

:usa2:I have had mine go to one pink bar for a few minutes the the engine started and right up to three blue bars.

 

same.. i see 1 bar at times.