BT Stiffening Plate Review

I thought the install was very easy, in fact I can think of anything I've done to any of my cars that were much easier. I have a set of car ramps that I backed my car up onto which gave me a bit more room to work. Many have done the install without doing that and have had no problems.

So far I like my plate. It does make a nice differenc, it's suttle but I can feel the difference. I always thought my car had a slight jumpy feeling in the rear end, the plate removed this. Also the car feels like it stays flatter in turns. In a nut shell the car feels more refined and solid.

Ken

 

Hi All,

I installed a BT-Tech plate on my new 06 Prius this weekend. Just in time! Today in Chicagoland we have very strong and gusting Westerly winds, and my drive home is across those winds. The Prius seemed to me to be much more well behaved with the BT-Tech plate.

Here is my engineer's guess at what is going on. I think the OEM steel reinforcing plate is being plucked like a guitar string when there is a side load on the car. With the mass of each half the car resonating through this OEM steel tension member the vibration period is probably around a second, with a damping time of about 4 or 5 seconds. With multiple perturbations one's butt can get quite confused as to which way to turn the steering wheel! I have been so confused on a few occaisions.

The Aluminum BT-Tech plate seems to be acting more like a vibration damper than a stiffening plate, although it may be stiffening as well. Aluminum is commonly used in such applications that require dampening of random vibrations over steel. The BT-Tech plate seems to me to be dampening a side load induced vibration in the back end of the Prius in about 1/3 of a second (better than a 10 times improvement). I base this on feeling one really bad side gust of wind and counter steering. I felt a distint tweak to the rear end in synchrony with the gust and the decay of the gust. Before installing the plate this probably would have been a caucophony of vibrations that I would not have recognized well.

I believe the BT-Tech Prius stiffening plate allowed me to control the car much better. Having less deflection, and having the deflection decay 10 times faster I found I was able to easily steer by the seat of my pants and keep the car well centered in the lane. This was not the case before installing the BT-Tech plate in similar conditions.

 

when i first bought my Prius last year i was not happy with the way the car handled at all. i took the car to my dealer several times and my complaint was the unsteady feeling it had on the highway and the poor overall handling. He basically said that there was nothing he could do and either get used to it or sell the car. A few months ago someone turned me on to the bt tech plate and i went ahead and bought it hoping for the best. Being in the machining business for over 40 years i can say without hesitation that this plate that bt made is superb. The machinine work along with the design and radiused edges are all extremely well executed and remind me of some of the aerospace work my company did.

After i had the plate installed i was astonished at the differences in my car. My Prius is much more stable on the highway and the feel of the car is alot better. Before when i went over rough pavement it felt like the car was going in different directions.now the car feels stable and well planted even on the roughest of roads.
i must say that at one point i was considering selling my Prius because of the way my car felt but now with the plate it has transformed the way my car feels.

Ken Stewart

 

Thanks BellBoy for asking what I was about to. Further does one have to get it up on a hoist or can you simply ride one side up on a curb and slide under the car? If anyone has paid to have it installed what were you charged?

Thanks again

 

Mine just arrived. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

 

Hi Roger,

I backed my car square up a slight hill just off one side of the pavement. The plate is a little behind center on the car. The rear wheels were about 12 inches higher than the front and the plate was just short of being off the pavement. Be careful you have clearance when you back it up for the tailpipe and aerodynamic skirts front and back. Try a little, stop and get out and see how far you can go. After getting the car high enough in the back end, I set the parking brake and blocked the front tires. I then reached in from either side to get to the bolts. Reading the torque wrench took some contortions. But otherwise no problem.

Good Luck!

 

Despite the snow flurries, I bolted mine in today. Wow. The tail
no longer wags the dog.
.
The bolts on the old brace weren't exactly *loose*, but took almost
no effort to start turning. I suspect that given the size of the
hole slop in that thing, it was sliding all over the place, not to
mention twisting. Good riddance.
.
Anyone else notice all the *other* little stiffeners while you're
under there? The little bar bolted across the top of the arch just
ahead of the fuel tank? The little diagonal straps out at the
corners? Looks like Toyota maybe knew there were a couple of issues
going on back there, and tried to compensate here and there. Oh,
and those Very Structural braces that bolt in on top of the battery
box are part of that too.
.
The small cutouts at the corners of the BT plate land directly on
the raised [i.e. hanging lower] bumps on the arch, leaving the center
of the plate by the bolts gapping just a *tiny* amount away from
the flatter part of the arch. Is this intentional? I suppose it
spreads out the contact points, which is probably a good thing.
Is it likely that the frame pieces will eventually deform a little
to relax the resultant stress, and I'll have to re-torque the plate
bolts eventually? [Once I was under there doing it, 24 ft-lb does
feel like a *lot* against those little bolts, so it wouldn't
surprise me if a tiny bit of permanent deformation happens and
helps stiffen the whole assembly up better.]
.
Road trip this weekend!
.
_H*

 

Just ordered the BT Tech chassis stiffening plate this past week..should arrive by Tuesday....I ordered it after reading all the positive things about it from PRIUSCHAT. I took a 12 hour trip from Houston, Texas, to Amarillo, Texas, and it was rather windy the whole way up. The MPG averaged around 38 due to windy conditions, all the gear we had in the car, and going about 75 mph. The car did pretty well, but like everyone says, in certain areas, such as going around trucks or getting those sudden windbursts, it does get rocked around on the interstate. I have 31,000 miles on the Prius, and have had it about 1 year and 5 months. This plate should make the car feel tremendously better. I'll reply back after installation and a few trips back and forth to Austin. Thanks for all the great feedback, fellow Prius owners....

Craig

 

Thanks for your order Craig. Please report back once you had a chance to try it out.


Thanks!!

Brian
BT Tech
305-652-3115

 

I ordered mine on March 16th, hope it comes soon.
Does it matter how flat my driveway is when I install the brace?

 

ESPOAFD, have you installed the plate yet? What are your comments yet about the "new" handling?

Thanks.

Craig

 

What he said!.... ditto!

Feels like a sports car now!

 

I will add my experience to the discussion. When I picked up my Prius, I had a 150 mile highway drive to get home from the dealer. There was a 25-30 mph wind and the car felt really twitchy. Then an 18-wheeler blew by and I really got buffeted. I was ready to turn around and give the car back to the dealer.

I decided to order the stiffening plate instead and installed it last Thursday before hitting the road for a major trip from southern CT to Montreal. I have now driven around 575 mostly highway miles with the plate installed and am really pleased with it. The entire trip has been in a 20-ish mph wind, with gusts up to around 35. The car is solid! I have passed and been passed by 18-wheelers with only a tiny twitch (some of the times; others, nothing at all).

I only really discovered how windy it was at rest stops.

The most interesting test involved tucking in behind three other Prii at different points along the way and watching them get knocked all over the place by the crosswinds and passing trucks, while there was no discernable impact on my car. Unless they were really lousy drivers (or just not paying attention... or putting on makeup and talking on the phone and... well, you get the idea), I can say that the plate makes a big difference.

I also notice a difference with the way the car tracks around curves - much flatter (although it still leans some).

I was on the fence on this purchase for a couple of weeks. Glad I got off it and bought the plate.

Thanks BT.

 

We recently purchased a large quantity of M6 hex sockets at a discounted price and Danny has just put them up on the PC store. If you have already purchased our plate and want to add the tool to your order, please order it online in the store or contact us directly by PM or at the number listed below.


Thanks!!

Brian
BT Tech
305-652-3115

 

A flexible chassis or unitized body would certainly affect wheel alignment, imo. I would be certain to use a level surface, or have it done at a shop with a proper lift. I would appreciate BT's opinion in response to SirGreen's question.

 

Thanks OU I just installed My Prius Stiffening Plate. Now I can drive safely down
route 9 on my way to the Postal Tech Center in Norman.
My driveway has a slight slant to it, but I didn't feel any pull when I loosened
the old plate. I plan on having it torque when I get my first oil change.
Now all I need to do is drive it and seehow it feels.
Thanks BT I ordered it on Thursday and and its on my Prius on Tuesday.

 

Let's clarify something.. The chasis is not so flexible you have to worry about installing our stiffening plate if you are on even vs un-even ground.

We have had customers that installed our stiffening plate on lifts, crawling under the car, having the car backed over a curb to provide additional space..etc.etc.. Just make sure that the car is being supported SAFELY and if you do jack it up in the air, DO NOT FORGET TO USE JACK STANDS!!!


Thanks!!

Brian
BT Tech
305-652-3115

 

Thanks BT, I would hate to think I was causing a bind just driving along.
Seems to ride nice now even over the railroad tracks.

 

You are very welcome. Please be sure to report your impressions of our plate.


Thanks!!

Brian
BT Tech
305-652-3115