2010 Prius Build Thread

[hayden55]

Honestly both good points. I think thats why Trump has so many quarrels with politics because he seems to not agree with either 100% of the time. Good to help with the two-party b.s. that certain people are stuck with. Still love the reactions. Its hilarious! The big 2" hitch, the aero bits, the stickers, all talking points. Also the boat when attached.

[Angel And The Wolf]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Although I'm still registered to a political party (due to laziness), my identity is individual, not in a group.

Libertarian is my philosophy. Sometimes I vote Libertarian. Sometimes I walk away from a Libertarian candidate, like the time we had one running for Texas Supreme Court, who blurted out "We have to stop these gays from getting married!" This year, at least in US House races and US Senate race, I'm voting Democrat,because "We have to stop this fake president from ruining our country!"
I was just replying to Hayden55 about his Trump stickers.

[elhigh]

Can we please take the political stuff elsewhere? I come to EM for car stuff, and for flinging manure I'll go read Mother Earth News.

[Angel And The Wolf]

Sure.

[hayden55]

Yeah its all literally a personal opinion.
So does anybody have any ideas on a good underbody panel material? Trying to smooth it off and make an under tray but not sure about what to use. Corrugated plastic seems to be a little flimsy and expensive.

[Ecky]

I doubt you'll find anything cheaper than coroplast. Mine has held up through several years of extreme abuse, sometimes even "skiing" over snow banks.

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by hayden55

Yeah its all literally a personal opinion.
So does anybody have any ideas on a good underbody panel material? Trying to smooth it off and make an under tray but not sure about what to use. Corrugated plastic seems to be a little flimsy and expensive.

I had coroplast under mine, but had melting issues at the resonator toward the back of the car. I ended up taking it off, and in the next couple of weeks here will be using aluminum sheet to make a new panel. You can get it pretty cheaply in 36"x36" sheets from Home Depot.

[hayden55]

Originally Posted by Vman455

I had coroplast under mine, but had melting issues at the resonator toward the back of the car. I ended up taking it off, and in the next couple of weeks here will be using aluminum sheet to make a new panel. You can get it pretty cheaply in 36"x36" sheets from Home Depot.

Hmmm... what thickness?

[hayden55]

Filled up the Prius a second ago.
The car used 9.458 gal to travel 510.482 miles **Subtracted the 2% for smaller tires** This is officially my longest tank!
Interesting enough:
First 202 miles @ 42.6 mpg (sg2) = 4.742 gal
(highway, misty rain, nasty, windy 40F)
Last 308.482 took 4.716 gal = 65.4 mpg average in town!
(70/40F)
Only changes recently have been:
1. Engine Off Coasting Downhills
2. Reduction in speed from 46 to 42 to keep the engine off more.
3. Anytime the engine is off for coasting I try and use the electric motor to speed up to 44 then put the car into neutral.
4. Same old DWB attitude
5. Bridgestone EP422 185/65/15
6. Vinyl aero wheel covers
7. Trying more to never use the real brakes when I need to slow.
8. Havent had to use the HVAC system

Crazy how much driving style helps. On some warm days I have gone 20 miles around town in stop in go traffic and came home with 74 mpg displayed on my sg2.
This coming from the guy who used to average 45/39.

[hayden55]

Next up on the list:
Adjustable rear coilovers. Contrary to what you think when you hear "Adjustable coilover" they are actually pretty simple to setup and don't cost nearly the premium most charge for this.
Benefits:
You can pick your own spring rate
You can choose your own drop rate (bump travel)
Interestingly, you can possibly lower your frontal area!
Increase rear weigh bias, tune understeer etc...
Formula one actually designs a rake into their chassis to increase the area of the rear wing exposed to wind/ AoA to increase downforce... well this is a hybrid and that is something we don't need. Well sure enough... I'm sure Toyota did this to combat suspension droop at full gvwr but there is a about 1" rake front to rear. I measured this "relatively" using the center of each wheel arch front to rear and came up with 26" F / 27" R.
Next up: we are going to be dropping the roof profile to be more inline with the body so I measured the roof at ~52" to be conservative-ish. Doing the math that is 0.3611ft2 of frontal area! Doing the math on the drag area that would be a 1.567% reduction. Not scientist accurate but it sounds interesting. I think this will be a great little mod because
A: torsion beam suspension won't need to be realigned,
B: I can keep my front approach angle so I wont scrape on everything,
C: everything is adjustable so I can do just about whatever I want in regards to spring rate, ride height, and bump travel, and
D: I'm only lowering the rear an inch! Everything should ride just fine. I'll bump the rear spring rate up to compensate for the lower height to keep the car from riding the bumpstops and be done with it. Also, the spring setup should weigh around less than half of stock so I should lose a couple pounds and the increased rear spring rate should give me less understeer without adding weight with a sway bar. Weight bias change shouldn't be too significant from a 1" drop on a 106" wheelbase but we are in a 60% front weight bias car. Nice part is I already have some 8 and 10" 175 lb springs. Just need some height adjuster to fit the car.
As always math is best-guess accurate and I could have made mistakes so lmk.
Exciting stuff!