1946 Chevy Prius Truck

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by Hoopie

Drove the Priuck across the scales today. Weighed 3300. 2002 Prius weighs 2765. Different is 535. I think I can drop that with little effort.

But that 3300 is probably gross weight (fluids and fuel and you). It is not curb weight, is it? Because the Pius weight you are using must be curb weight, which would be less.

Also, the 1946 arrangement had maybe 90-100 HP? the 2002 Prius had 114hp, so maybe your power:weight ratio is better than the OEM 1946, no? The original truck, with steel bed and engine and such, weighed maybe 3500 or 4000 lbs?

All that said, the truck bed looks cool... and wicked heavy. Is it? Those steelie wheels also look cool, but they must be heavy. A good looking pair of lightweight rims and tires? Those two changes could mean hundreds of pounds, if what you have now is as heavy as I imagine it might be. I'm sure you know lots of other mods too.

[freebeard]

Dimple-died speed holes all down the frame rails.

Given the weight and aerodynamics it won't have the efficiency of a Prius, the real measure will be against the 1946 Chevy. My guess would be going from 10 to 30mpg.

Big day tomorrow?

[roflwaffle]

As long as you aren't driving too fast (> 50mph?), I'm hoping you'll get 30-40 mpg. Maybe less if the rear end is causing a lot of drag, but an extra few hundred pounds won't hurt Prius mpg much unless you're doing a lot of stop and go.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by roflwaffle

As long as you aren't driving too fast (> 50mph?), I'm hoping you'll get 30-40 mpg. Maybe less if the rear end is causing a lot of drag, but an extra few hundred pounds won't hurt Prius mpg much unless you're doing a lot of stop and go.

Not sure about 40mpg

But I would think 30mpg at city speeds might be possible.

For Higher speeds he would need to start constructing a long belly pan and likely be careful with tire /rim selection and start streamlining gaps and protuberances
Alignment and stance of the chassis will likely need touching as well, he would need to set things a little on the squirmy side to get best efficiency.

Step 1 is to drive the chassis with instrumentation a lot to figure out where he is starting.

A CD .75 brick is likely lower on the spectrum than some might figure but also easier to streamline.

[freebeard]

Overpower it with teardrop:

[Hoopie]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRI6UdbfR3Y

https://youtu.be/dRI6UdbfR3Y

[Daox]

Very cool. What were people's reaction to the truck?

[Hoopie]

Originally Posted by Daox

Very cool. What were people's reaction to the truck?

Everybody I talked with loved it. Even the Old timers. One guy said, it's what we've always done, pull out something old and put in something new. Overall great reactions. Also it drives like a dream.

No mpg figures yet, still don't have the MFD hooked up. Can't do it the old way either because the speedometer is not working. I need to hook up the rear wheel speed sensors. Plan on wiring them to the fronts and fooling the computer into thinking it's reading all four. I keep you posted.

[rmay635703]

If you want a cheap speedo and odometer get a $5 android phone and install a free GPS speedo app.

My $5 tracfone works well as an odometer and elevation gage.

If I ever get new batteries for my c-car I'm duct taping the phone to the dash

[MetroMPG]

He needs to be able to feed the speed signal to the computer so the multi-function display (with fuel economy info) works.

I'm sure you knew that.