Round Trip With A Prius And Trailer

[Angel And The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Here was my solution to the air gap. It worked really well, and I could still achieve greater than 70mpg at the right speed with this trailer.

Yes, I built one much like yours, years ago but without the slider. Gave my 36 MPH 1998 Accord V6 40 MPH at highway speed.

Northern Tool has the 40 x 48 for $299, but shipping is at least $102. Fortunately, There's a Harbor Freight store in town, and I can buy it in the store for $289.

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

No, the point is that those plans only apply to full time professional drivers of big rigs. The rest of us live in that chaos that your plans painstakingly avoid. Our start times and end times are dictated to us, and the only things we have to deal with the chaos are awareness and driver skill.



I'm sorry, but didn't you just say that skill at the wheel was irrelevant? It seems like what you just described. And for those of us not driving fully laden 18 wheelers, pack behavior helps. Your tips are great for training full time drivers of heavy trucks, but they don't transfer very well to lighter vehicles where driving isn't the end in itself.

Ha! Yet I learned ALL these a few DECADES before I ever drove a big truck.

Having a plan template is how any of us go from one-off claims to predictable fuel burn.

Slow down. You’ve misread me twice. Knowing WHAT are the penalties in planning a road trip explains quite a few variances from one trip leg to another. From last years trip versus this years.

What’s the fuel cpm at 70-mpg versus 50-mpg? What’s the percentage difference? THATS how one either adds or subtracts from the strictness of a plan. What’s worth the effort? What changes, if any?

A fiil-in-the-blank overlay. Your design. Used every trip of the same type.

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[PA Prius]

Fyi, a friend pulled a U-Haul trailer with his Gen2 Prius 500 miles recently. He had reserved a 4' x 8' and they thought he would be happy that they upgraded him to a 5' x 8'. He was not. He averaged 25 mpg mostly driving 55mph.

Someone else wondered why you need the trailer and I don't think I saw a response to that. A number of years ago our family (mom, dad, two teen daughters) did a coast to coast road trip in our '04 Prius including a lot of camping. We had all the camping gear, two coolers, etc, inside and on the roof and we averaged 50 mpg for those 7500 miles. Key was that we agreed to stick to 60 mph, and my aero-designed roof packing system.