Camping ala Prius

delrey · 07-07-2004, 02:59 PM

Hi All -

I took my son camping over the long weekend -- we drove down to Yosemite and camped near Tuolumne Meadows.

I was pleasantly surprised at being able to fit everything in the car, without impeding my view out the back! No problems with the drive up either, even though the car was pretty fully loaded - two adults & one kid plus LOTS of camping gear, but never ran the battery all the way down in the process of climbing to 8600 ft. elevation.

We arrived right after a storm and had to drive over some recent snow/hail which was high enough to scrape under the car bottom. No problems handling though & I got to look up what the little light with a road and snowflake means (Cold! less than 37 deg F, but you non-californians already knew that ...)

I did have a problem getting up the last bit of campground "road" up to the actual campsite. It had a few rocks that were not going to clear - we tried backing in since the front seems to scrape more going first. Still had a rough time maneuvering so that various rocks didn't scrape other things underneath ... it took a long time to drive 20 feet! We should have gone in forward and not backward after all, I think.

Does anyone have other suggestions for this situation?

Overall a great success!

DaveinOlyWA · 07-07-2004, 09:24 PM

wow 8600 feet!

so you didnt notice any carburation or power loss??

that in itself is rather impressive. as far as the trail, maybe you should just stay off the RV trail

delrey · 07-08-2004, 02:30 AM

Quote:

wow 8600 feet!
so you didnt notice any carburation or power loss??

Nope, didn't notice a thing.

Quote:

as far as the trail, maybe you should just stay off the RV trail

Well, OK, but what scraping speedbumps in a parking lot? What about my driveway? Oops, I'm whining, sorry!

I can't drive in forwards without scraping the heck out of the front underneath. Now that I've figured out backing in to fix this problem I should see if anything needs repair.

DaveinOlyWA · 07-08-2004, 07:35 AM

actually i will say that i do notice very little ground clearance on my Prius also but that just makes its aerodynamic properties better to increase MPG. but i dont have much problems with scraping and we do have some piss poor roads where i live.

07-07-2004, 02:59 PM	#1
delrey Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: SF Bay Area (East Bay) Posts: 218 My Car: 2004 Prius Model: Package: #9 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Friends: 0	Camping ala Prius Hi All - I took my son camping over the long weekend -- we drove down to Yosemite and camped near Tuolumne Meadows. I was pleasantly surprised at being able to fit everything in the car, without impeding my view out the back! No problems with the drive up either, even though the car was pretty fully loaded - two adults & one kid plus LOTS of camping gear, but never ran the battery all the way down in the process of climbing to 8600 ft. elevation. We arrived right after a storm and had to drive over some recent snow/hail which was high enough to scrape under the car bottom. No problems handling though & I got to look up what the little light with a road and snowflake means (Cold! less than 37 deg F, but you non-californians already knew that ...) I did have a problem getting up the last bit of campground "road" up to the actual campsite. It had a few rocks that were not going to clear - we tried backing in since the front seems to scrape more going first. Still had a rough time maneuvering so that various rocks didn't scrape other things underneath ... it took a long time to drive 20 feet! We should have gone in forward and not backward after all, I think. Does anyone have other suggestions for this situation? Overall a great success! __________________ '04 Seaside #9 - @ 140k averaging 45 MPG iPhone 4 / Vais Ipod Interface / CoastalEtech NAV override

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07-07-2004, 09:24 PM	#2
DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!! Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: South Puget Sound, WA Posts: 14,711 My Car: 2010 Prius Model: IV Package: Solar Roof Thanks: 203 Thanked 519 Times in 375 Posts Friends: 14	wow 8600 feet! so you didnt notice any carburation or power loss?? that in itself is rather impressive. as far as the trail, maybe you should just stay off the RV trail

07-08-2004, 07:35 AM	#4
DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!! Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: South Puget Sound, WA Posts: 14,711 My Car: 2010 Prius Model: IV Package: Solar Roof Thanks: 203 Thanked 519 Times in 375 Posts Friends: 14	actually i will say that i do notice very little ground clearance on my Prius also but that just makes its aerodynamic properties better to increase MPG. but i dont have much problems with scraping and we do have some piss poor roads where i live.