Eco off-road on a budget? Or destroying a Prius, you decide.

[Pressingonward]

This should be entertaining...I'll follow along

[freebeard]

In the case of rear engine, rear drive the only place 4WD has an advantage is [reputedly] in crawling boulder-sized rocks.

I've not driven a FWD car off-road, but my Type II panel van could back up uphill on wet leaves with no problem.

[aardvarcus]

This thing is just begging for a stand-alone Electric rear axle out of the Highlander Hybrids to make it all wheel drive.

At one point I had 26 1/2 inch tires on a car that was supposed to have 24 inch tires. (2002 Celica) The ground clearance was simply amazing, mainly because you didn't have big differentials hanging down.

If you are actually serious about taking on a trail, you would really want to have a winch or come along to get you out of sticky situations. I would also suggest rolling the fenders so that you can fit some even larger all-terrain tires on it. Your biggest weakness is you're not going to be able to beat on the suspension, you'll need to drive gingerly. Skid plates to protect the Bottom would also go a long way.

If this is just for trolling, and not actually for taking off the road, you need a decal indicating how much ground clearance do you have under the diff. Oh and some aftermarket shock and suspension stickers.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I've not driven a FWD car off-road, but my Type II panel van could back up uphill on wet leaves with no problem.

We used to back up hills in our VW beetles (the air-cooled ones) in slippery conditions. I think the Prius should do just fine getting into drive-in campgrounds.

[roosterk0031]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

I'll take 4wd, and suspension articulation over .3" of ground clearance at the lowest point anyday.

I bet the "off road" Prius gets stuck on wet grass with a slight slope even with the best tires.

Is there wet grass down under? Saying the guy that got his Impala stuck in the drive way a few weeks ago and had to use a Rogue to pull it out.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by bobo333

I took the opportunity while the rear end was apart to swap to my Subaru wheels with 215/70/16 Toyo Open Country AT2 tyres on them, they fit very snugly once I'd removed the mudflaps, plastic wheel arch liners and little air deflector thingos, the fronts were the same, with just some plastic removal needed to get them in.

Considering there is a company in Germany offering conversion kits for regular axles to convert them into portal axles for some 4WD rigs, and such approach would be likely to turn it easier to fit bigger tyres, makes me wonder if a similar conversion could be done in a Prius.

[bobo333]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

The shadows cast onto the hood by the lightsfitten onto on the front bumper suggest the shape of a fairing you could make for them, no? In the photo, you can imagine the shadow is the fairing and conceive how it might look:

A good point, but this video suggests its not needed, I plan to do my own tuft testing to confirm on this car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjttwGPWh-s

Originally Posted by redneck

No more scrunching down...

Those lights look impressive in the video but are absolutely useless in the real world, the hot spot is so small and so far away that it doesn't improve vision at all

Originally Posted by aardvarcus

This thing is just begging for a stand-alone Electric rear axle out of the Highlander Hybrids to make it all wheel drive.

At one point I had 26 1/2 inch tires on a car that was supposed to have 24 inch tires. (2002 Celica) The ground clearance was simply amazing, mainly because you didn't have big differentials hanging down.

If you are actually serious about taking on a trail, you would really want to have a winch or come along to get you out of sticky situations. I would also suggest rolling the fenders so that you can fit some even larger all-terrain tires on it. Your biggest weakness is you're not going to be able to beat on the suspension, you'll need to drive gingerly. Skid plates to protect the Bottom would also go a long way.

An electric rear axle would be epic! Well outside the budget for this build at the moment though.

I have recovery boards, various straps, shovel and high lift jack so far, winch is on the list of things to do, probably on a portable mount that can go in the rear hitch reciever or another one i plan to integrate in the front bumper.

These tyres are probably one size larger than my ideal balance between off road ability and on road manners, going bigger reduces gearing too much to make it worthwhile.

Skid plates are probably the next mod il do, i want a full flat floor to get some of the aero back that i lost with big wheels.

[bobo333]

Onto the solar fitment! I was tossing up many different mounting options and roof rack systems and all sorts for ages, as with everything on this car a balance between off road usability and on road manners/mpg was tricky.

Eventually I decided to just keep it simple and glue them directly to the roof, this will provide the best aerodynamics but may reduce the power the solar panels produce in summer if they get too hot, il keep an eye on it but we are only just starting winter in Australia so that's a long way away.


I removed the AM/FM radio antenna and ran the solar wiring through the resulting hole in the roof, the antenna itself I just tucked under the roof lining so it still works but doesn't have quite the same signal range it did before. I usually connect my phone for music so that's not an issue.



I used an Anderson plug to connect the panel to the wire going into the car so that if I park in the shade I can unplug the rooftop panels and plug in an extension cord to some portable panels which I can sit away from the car in the sun.



Moving into the boot, The original plan was to make a board to replace the factory tray that fits above the spare tyre which my car was missing when I bought it, on that board il mount the solar controller as well as a 240v mains charger for the 12v system and a 600w inverter, I may also fit my 2000w inverter later down the track along with some extra batteries and an external 240v input/output plug/socket so I can use the Prius as a UPS for my house. Ive since changed my mind and I think I might mount them in front of the hybrid battery where the back seat used to be instead for better weight distribution



The next stage will be to upgrade the 12v battery, I'm not sure whether to go for a larger capacity AGM or if the factory DC-DC charger is capable of charging a lithium battery.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by bobo333

An electric rear axle would be epic! Well outside the budget for this build at the moment though.

Who knows what might happen in the future... If you could integrate it to the original electronics, might not be a bad idea.

[elhigh]

The new e-AWD is going to make for some pretty cool overlander Prii in a few years, once they get old enough to get cheap. Somebody may be making supplemental battery packs to expand Prius e-range then, too, offsetting some of the economy lost to offroading mods