You can take your Prius RVing

[botsapper]

Winnebago was soo last gen. Here's the Campinn/Prius conversion for hybrid camping. A wild sculpture or elephantitis or finally a 'Snow Kamm' realized. It is certainly an eye opener but the fiberglass shell could hold a small family of four is a cozy cocoon. One of Tokyo Salon's more sedate offerings.

Toyota Prius conversion by Campinn Photo Gallery - Autoblog

[brucey]

Why not just pull a pop up trailer at that point? GAH think of all the extra frontal area alone.

[JasonG]

Well, it is better than a truck camper.
Looks fairly roomy inside Toyota Prius conversion by Campinn Photo Gallery - Autoblog

On the other side, how much can a Prius tow?

[skyking]

There are some very light tent trailers out there, suitable for a motorcycle. The Prius can certainly handle one of those. Besides, that abortion looks like a bad Elvis Impersonator Pompadour. :P

[botsapper]

Aero-snow examples.

Me thinks the wind was blowing from 3 o'clock, hence the lopsided 'camper shell' design. http://www.funny-potato.com/blog/wp-...2/car-snow.jpg

Inspirational camper model. http://www.thecaptainsmemos.com/wp-c...02/winter1.jpg

[jamesqf]

Well, why even a tent trailer? A decent backpacking tent weighs only a few pounds.

And I'll just mention that the Insight has been down many a dirt road in Nevada & northern California, and has forded a number of streams.

[slowmover]

A trailer to be set up as a camp kitchen that can also heat water, plus carry tent, etc, would be the way to go. These date back to the Model T, and the Australians seem to have the most up-to-date ones now.

A van with a custom bed contoured to fit would make more sense.

[pete c]

Priuses and RVs in the same sentence gave me an idea.

I would think that a prius would make a perfect toad (the car you drag behind your RV). It's light and with a few mods, could serve as one hell of a battery bank/generator when camping away from shore power. I would think that a fully charged prius should be able to provide enough power to run an AC overnight.

[slowmover]

Big trucks are showing an up to [8] battery bank to run A/C in hot climates (with a giant alternator as well). But the cubic foot interior is pretty small, even in a "condo" sleeper, as compared to a Class C (any smaller motorhome wouldn't need a "toad" (towed) behind it.

The idea certainly has merit.

[pete c]

I would think that if you started out with a fully charged battery in the prius, it would get you through a fair number of hours of AC use.

The idea way of doing it would be to figure out a way to link the RV brakes to the Prius' regen braking. Imagine the poor little prius attempting to regen brake 10 tons of RV.

I think we will see some sort of hybrid drive before long on RVs for the simple reason that it serves double duty. It gives that extra oomph needed for hill climbing and as a high capacity inverter, making noisy generators unnecessary.