3rd gen Prius aeromod thread

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by D15r

Wait did I read that correctly...You can run a/c all night while camping? How does that work?.. does the petrol engine start automatically and recharge the batteries during the night?

If you'r so inclined, yes. A few people on Priuschat have tried it and report the engine runs 3-5 minutes every half hour or so.

[Vman455]

Added wheel arch reflectors from a 2014-2016 Chrysler 200:

[Vman455]

The signs I put in the window last year didn't last long--I printed them on regular paper, and they started fraying pretty quickly. I discovered this week that Fedex Office will print custom vinyl window decals pretty cheaply, so I've been toying with this layout:



I'll have them reverse-printed on clear vinyl and stick them on the inside of each rear window.

[Vman455]

Update: The accents are finally going green.





Matching wheelcovers in progress.

I also replaced the LED turn signals, which were cheapy Superbright SMD towers that washed out in direct sunlight, with VLEDs Tritons:



I swapped the placement of the turn signals in the rear, so now it's turns on bottom, reverse lights on top.

Originally Posted by marky899

Hey Vman455,

loving the thread.

How did you attatch the side skirts? Im guessing you used the same brackets as on the front but did you have to drill holes in your sills to bolt them on securely?

Also have you took them off now?

The side skirts are off for now; I used the same L-brackets, but had to put some screws in the sills as well, and even then it was still pretty wavy. If I come up with a better solution in future I may put them back on.

Originally Posted by redpoint5

The inverter is on the driver's side on the Gen III (opposite side for Gen II). For this reason, I have blocked the passenger side upper grill, but left the driver's side open. My lower grill is 100% blocked year-round unless I plan to climb mountain passes in the summer. I've got Torque set to alarm if any temperature parameter gets too warm, which so far has never happened.

The inverter is on that side, but the inverter coolant radiator is centered behind the two upper grills. I leave those open in the summer, blocked in winter, and partially blocked spring and fall.

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I'll be replacing my OEM 12v battery with this Prismatic LiFePO4 battery, which is cheaper than the OEM, and weighs only 6.6 lbs. I'm setting up a test environment to compare the lead acid charge / discharge cycle efficiency compared to the LiFePO4 before I mount it in the Prius. Lead acid batteries are very inefficient when charged at near full capacity, which is normally when they are charged.

If you do this, can you do a write-up?

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I removed my rear wiper, but couldn't find the right size plastic cap to plug the hole. I just cut cardboard to stuff into the hole, and then put a strip of black duct tape over it. The black tape blends in with the blacked out portion of the window. I'll never need to run that wiper anyhow.

If I remember right, I found the plug at Lowe's. In electrical, I think, they have nylon plugs of various sizes.

[freebeard]

I've been toying with this layout:

You have five bullet points. If you arrange them in two columns, it's easier for the reader to find the beginning of the next line.

The mountains and highway camouflage the text. Slide them down with the Ecomodder logo, else put a 1-pixel white border around the characters.

If you post the text, I could run it through Mac OSX Summarize Text. At about 80% it would probably be as readable. It's pretty good at throwing out redundancies.

All IMHO of course. What size will it be? Where does the QR point?

[Vman455]

Actual size= 18 inches wide. I had the text in two columns on my first version, but didn't like the look (the one I posted here is version 3). I'll try one with outlined text to see if it's more readable.

[freebeard]

Since you didn't post the text I figured out that I could click on the picture and not have to squint. The text isn't all that bad.

OTOH less than half the vertical height is devoted to text. How many layers is the file in?

OPEC LOL on a car that gets it's electricity from gasoline?

[Vman455]

The wheelcovers are a lot more noticeable now. I finally cleaned the white paint off the wheel arch where I scraped against the corner of the building last year, and bought a suction cup to try pulling the dent out so I can make wheel skirts.

[Vman455]

Did coastdown testing today, since the weather was nice and the winds unusually light. Using this method, I did 6 runs (3 north, 3 south) on a flat stretch of road, measured the mirrors I took off the car to get an accurate frontal area, adjusted rho for altitude, temperature, and pressure, estimated the weight (curb weight+me+150 lbs of sound deadening--it might be lighter in actuality since the tank is almost empty) and plugged it all into the spreadsheet. Looks like around Cd .212 and Crr .010.

[19bonestock88]

.212 Cd? That's pretty great! I wonder where I'm at, but haven't done any formal testing...