Prius Driving up a mountain?

[BertinNC]

I am planning to take my new Silver Bullet to Canaan Valley Ski Resort in WV and know that those little mountain roads can be pretty steep at times. Do you think this little car can carry four people up the mountain? Does it have enough horsepower? My wife has a Honda Accord and we will take one or the other. Some of our friends are also going and taking their truck. Which car do you think we should take or should we leave it at the bottom of the moutain and have them take two trips in the truck carrying everybody to the lodge?

[sleeka]

Originally posted by BertinNC@Jan 11 2006, 12:01 AM
I am planning to take my new Silver Bullet to Canaan Valley Ski Resort in WV and know that those little mountain roads can be pretty steep at times. Do you think this little car can carry four people up the mountain? Does it have enough horsepower? My wife has a Honda Accord and we will take one or the other.  Some of our friends are also going and taking their truck.  Which car do you think we should take or should we leave it at the bottom of the moutain and have them take two trips in the truck carrying everybody to the lodge?

[snapback]186921[/snapback]

It's not the amount of horsepower a car develops that will get you up hills, but torque (or twisting power at the driveshaft).
The Prius develops a lot more torque than many V8s thanks to the electric motor...400 nm. If you haven't tried it on hills yet, be prepared to be very surprised!

Take the Prius, and enjoy the drive!

[KMO]

Er, yes, but it's the power that keeps you going at speed. Up a steep hill, if you have half the power, you'll have pretty much half the top speed.

So it'll definitely go up any hill, but the question is how fast?

I don't imagine the Prius will have too many problems, but expect it to be pretty noisy - lots of engine revs.

[djasonw]

Originally posted by BertinNC@Jan 10 2006, 09:01 AM
I am planning to take my new Silver Bullet to Canaan Valley Ski Resort in WV and know that those little mountain roads can be pretty steep at times. Do you think this little car can carry four people up the mountain? Does it have enough horsepower? My wife has a Honda Accord and we will take one or the other.  Some of our friends are also going and taking their truck.  Which car do you think we should take or should we leave it at the bottom of the moutain and have them take two trips in the truck carrying everybody to the lodge?

[snapback]186921[/snapback]

I think you should take the bus. Same silly post is on edmunds and priusonline. You should have bought a H3. That'll make it up the hill!!

Seriously.... try it with GOOD RUBBER BABY!!!

[geologyrox]

ooooh, I hadn't thought of that - I had been all excited about driving down them, because of regen brakes (we got stuck for quite a while playing hacky at a lookout waiting for the brakes on the van to cool down last year.)

I hadn't considered that I'd be that annoying car going up that can't go at half the speed limit. I do find it strange that we haven't heard complaints about them if they truly can't cut it. I tend to think the car will perform as well as my camry could - now I'm just worried if a passenger car in general can handle these steep hills easily. I've only driven in Florida, and theres nothing that even compares to that here.

I'd love to hear from someone that's spent a lot of time in the hills.


EDIT: i read it again - managed to miss the smiley - i'm just imagining things

[djasonw]

Originally posted by geologyrox@Jan 10 2006, 09:59 AM
ooooh, I hadn't thought of that - I had been all excited about driving down them, because of regen brakes (we got stuck for quite a while playing hacky at a lookout waiting for the brakes on the van to cool down last year.)

I hadn't considered that I'd be that annoying car going up that can't go at half the speed limit.  I do find it strange that we haven't heard complaints about them if they truly can't cut it.  I tend to think the car will perform as well as my camry could - now I'm just worried if a passenger car in general can handle these steep hills easily.  I've only driven in Florida, and theres nothing that even compares to that here. 

I'd love to hear from someone that's spent a lot of time in the hills.

[snapback]186955[/snapback]

No need to worry about hills. I've read many reports of owners driving in the Rockies with no issues at all. As a matter of fact, at elevation, a Prius may have an advantage that only a turbo would have (assuming SOC is 60% or so).

[ces63]

Originally posted by BertinNC@Jan 10 2006, 08:01 PM
I am planning to take my new Silver Bullet to Canaan Valley Ski Resort in WV and know that those little mountain roads can be pretty steep at times. Do you think this little car can carry four people up the mountain? Does it have enough horsepower? My wife has a Honda Accord and we will take one or the other.  Some of our friends are also going and taking their truck.  Which car do you think we should take or should we leave it at the bottom of the moutain and have them take two trips in the truck carrying everybody to the lodge?

[snapback]186921[/snapback]

This is a copy of a post I made last summer. There were two of us and about 200 lbs of camping gear and bicycles.

Recently drove from lovell wyoming to sheridan over highway 14a. The total altitude gain is about 6000 ft in 30 miles with the last 10 miles up a 10% grade. The Prius finally ran out of battery power on the 10% grade but was still able to maintain 35 to 40 mph on the gasoline engine alone. It was 90 degrees in lovell when we left and had no heating problem. Was quite pleased with the performance. 2004 Prius with 27,000 miles.

[BertinNC]

thanks for the defense geologyrox. I knew that it would go up hills and through mountainous terrain. But if anybody has ever gone skiing knows that all of a sudden you get off the "normal" mountain roads and take those little tight windy steep roads to get to the ski lodge. That was what I was really wondering about.

And yes, it was more about being embarrased by not being able to get up there. My wife and I are taking my step daughters and we are meeting their father and step mother along the way in their truck. Yes, that's right the ex's are all going together for the girl's last ski trip before they both go off to college. So I don't want to be stranded and need the ex husband to bail me out at the bottom.

As far as the same silly post on edmunds and priusonline. I use this site almost exclusively, but yesterday I could not log on here in the afternoon so I went to the other sites. I wanted to get a good broad opinion. Lighten up Frances.

[BertinNC]

Originally posted by ces63@Jan 10 2006, 11:23 AM
The Prius finally ran out of battery power on the 10% grade but was still able to maintain 35 to 40 mph on the gasoline engine alone.

[snapback]186977[/snapback]

Is there anyway to recharge the battery once it gets drained like that and you still need to go uphill, besides going downhill and braking? Can you pull over and the gas motor rechange any of the battery?

[geologyrox]

Originally posted by BertinNC@Jan 10 2006, 11:26 AM
thanks for the defense geologyrox.  I knew that it would go up hills and through mountainous terrain.  But if anybody has ever gone skiing knows that all of a sudden you get off the "normal" mountain roads and take those little tight windy steep roads to get to the ski lodge.  That was what I was really wondering about.

And yes, it was more about being embarrased by not being able to get up there.  My wife and I are taking my step daughters and we are meeting their father and step mother along the way in their truck.  Yes, that's right the ex's are all going together for the girl's last ski trip before they both go off to college.  So I don't want to be stranded and need the ex husband to bail me out at the bottom.

As far as the same silly post on edmunds and priusonline.  I use this site almost exclusively, but yesterday I could not log on here in the afternoon so I went to the other sites.  I wanted to get a good broad opinion.  Lighten up Frances.

[snapback]186980[/snapback]

I completely understand the worry - I can't think of a worse way to spend that last ski weekend, but I suppose that's your business =) If the 35-40 mph max is right, I wouldn't worry - we didn't exceed that anyway - grade of the road aside, it's the tight corners and REALLY steep grade just off to our side that acts as a speed limiter for me.