Cross Country Road Trip - Denver Concerns

I live in Taos, NM which is about 4 hours south of Denver and at 7000'. We have had a relatively dry winter and the forecast for this month is fairly dry as well. The interstate is well plowed when it snows but a spring storm can dump a lot of heavy wet snow quickly which makes driving pretty hazardous. Driving the Rockies at this time of year is a crap shoot-could be beautiful, could be miserable. I have driven my C4 in snow and ice and it did fine (I have the 16" tires which are wider though). Hills are no problem---I go over an 8000' pass everyday.

 

You don't really have to commit to the Colorado Rockies before reaching Denver. Check the weather and road reports from there. If the extra distance from aborting is too much, then decide at St. Louis.

 

I'm in Boulder. Even on nice winter days here - sunny and in the 40s - it can be snowing like crazy in the mountains. They do very little to the roads and in the mountains it is common to have a few inches of packed powder on the roads driving through the passes. I'm a New Englander so I grew up driving in snow and honestly the road conditions here can be terrible. They plow a bit and then just wait for the sun to come out and melt the rest. Even with brand new snow tires it can be sketchy. If I were you I'd keep to the south or be prepared to spend a day or two waiting out the snow in Denver.

You also mention the pickup on the mountains- on long climbs the battery is drained pretty quickly and then you need to keep the accelerator floored just to keep the car at about 50mph.

 

That pattern seemed specific to the GenII, and even then not to all owners. If appears fixed in the more powerful GenIII Liftback, I had no such problem in Colorado.

But OP's 'c' is a separate animal, not the same as either Liftback. Can some 'c' owners chime in here?

 

I agree. I live in a mountainous area of British Columbia. I have driven through the Rockies several times and I have never encountered batteries draining. Both the Ice and the electric motor combine to climb mountains and there is no battery drain. I also drove on a 5,000 + mile trip through the western USA this past September through all sorts of geographical conditions without any problems.

 

I haven't taken my C into the Rockies yet, but, it preformed flawlessly in the mountains of New Hampshire, up state New York, and Vermont. My driving was on secondary roads that were as steep or steeper than any you might encounter on the Interstate system out west, not as long though (I lived out in Denver for several years). The C is capable of handling any grade a normal car can. Snow might be an issue, just keep an eye on the weather forecast. By doing the same, I beat the ice problems in Atlanta while returning from Florida about a month ago, thank goodness.

 

I've made the round trip 5 times though not in a Prissy, and I prefer the southern route through Dallas because the traffic is lighter and there is more open country. Unless you have people or sightseeing to do the southern route is much better. Besides you get to see the Grand Canyon that way. Yes, the weather is a factor as well. Though I haven't tackled the Rockies in my Prissy I have tackled the I40 ascent to and from Asheville 3 times and outran everything on the road easily; I don't remember any of the interstates in CO, NM, or A that match that section of I40. Take note twio that the middle of the US is a section that needs to be traversed as quickly and uncommitted as possible, northern or southern routes. Too flat for me.

 

It sounds like you haven't done Vail Pass.

 

My wife and I crossed the Rockies on Trail Ridge Road in the 1970s in a VW Beetle.
Trail Ridge Road - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It was late August, so no snow on the road at least.

 

No worries. Dave Heinz and Dave Yarborough went from the Red Ball Garage in NYC to the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach in 32 hours, 52 minutes. In 1979, in a Jaguar XJS ;-)

 

My experience on the Gen2 heading up into the mountains north of Phoenix is that pedal on the floor may not be your best option for long climbs. I was surprised to find that the Prius can hold speed and even accelerate on grades that many other vehicles seemed to be struggling with, particularly when the electric motor is supplementing drive. However, if you push it too hard for too long and deplete the battery you will be left with very poor performance on the remainder of the climb as it switches to charging mode to bring the battery back up to a healthy range. What I found was if you watch the energy display and back off on the pedal a little to where its no longer using power from the battery (either no arrow or lightly charging) I could maintain 65-70 and even accelerate on substantial grades without ever getting into that low power / battery depleted state. This also left enough power in the battery that if I did get stuck behind a 30mph rollling roadblock in the left lane, I could get back up to speed once it cleared without running the battery down too far and loosing power.

Note that you don't have to have the pedal on the floor to be using a significant electric drive current. It seems like Prius uses discrete rpm states on the ICE, then uses either charge or discharge on the electric drive to vary the gear ratio to maintain a given power output. So even when not on the floor for a long climb you can deplete the battery and lose some power, and sometimes actually pushing the pedal a little harder and picking up a little more speed can get you into that low drive/charge current mode depending on the grade and speed.

It does often seem like other drivers are a little surprised to see a Prius charging right up the ~7 mile / 7% grade up the Mogollon rim on I-17 at 75mph I know there are steeper ones out there, but if a Gen2 can do that I'm sure the c / Gen3s will be fine.

 

Darren - We are getting hit by a pretty decent storm today (Friday 3/7). If you still want to get an idea of conditions in the mountains to the west of Denver take a look at cotrip.org - things are pretty grim right now.

 

Darren - Good luck and happy I could help.