Off road with Prius

I head out into the desert occasionally as well as country roads. Nothing radical, mostly dirt and fire roads and such. Nothing the Civic AWD wagon I had previously couldn't handle. Made it up the the campground at the charcoal kilns in Death Valley.

Was wondering if the all electric mod might help, what with the low speed torque and all. Is this an easy job, and does it effect the warranty?

Have also been considering tires. What would be the tallest 15" tires that would work on a 2007, in trying to gain a little ground clearance.

Thanks

 

Was just out there last year and there was a Gen II at the campground. A buddy lives on five acres in Lucerne Valley(near Mojave) with usually poor dirt roads and a friend of ours hase been out there a couple times. He does a lot of camping and has had no problem getting to where he wants to go. it was his feedback that prompted me to make the jump. He's had his for five years with absolutely no problems.

Not planning on serious offroading or major modifications. These trips are only once or twice a year, and mostly graded dirt roads. Was mainly interested in advice on the all electric performance.

Will leave the monster truck thing to others.

Thanks to all for the replies.

 

Just wanted to thank you for bringing this to my attention. The folks at The Prius Shop just delivered one today. Looks like a fairly easy install, and will drop a line when I get it in.

Seems like one of the better accessories for the car, especially if you go on dirt roads or deal with environments with lots of debris.

 

Hmmmmm. I did hang in East LA a bit...

 

The skid plate is installed, and seems a worthwhile investment. While aluminum, it seems robust enough to deal with most dirt road situations and should block most road debris. It's well finished and was pretty much a bolt on operation.

I had a local shop do the install, and a lift definitely makes the job easier. They charged slightly less than $100, which was worth avoiding the hassle of jacks and stands and skinned knuckles and lying under a car with everything three inches from your face.

I also checked with the dealer to confirm that it doesn't effect the warranty. Does make draining the oil a bit of a pain if the cars not lifted or you don't have a pit.

 

Here's a quick pick of the skid plate on the '07.