Am I hurting my car?

It shouldn't harm the car or the tires. You aren't actually spinning the wheels much. If you try to use a little less throttle it should actually work better. Try -slowly- increasing throttle until the car starts moving. Once the wheels loose traction what little traction there is actually decreases. So trying to prevent wheel spin should make it go up the hill a little faster (though it won't help a lot).
Proper winter tires will help -a lot-. Also, if there is sand or rough ice/snow along the side of the road or in the centre, putting wheels on that can help. But be careful you don't slide off the road due to the camber.

 

It's pretty hard to hurt the car. The worst that might happen is triggering a fail safe condition (triangle MIL) if a component begins to overheat.

You seem like a good candidate for an Autosock.

 

Next time try in in Eco mode...it'll give you finer throttle control.

 

Gen II doesn't have eco mode

 

Is there any way to get a little bit of a running start at he hill and build up a little momentum?

Its not going to hurt the car per-se, but its not the most efficient way to deal with the hill no...

 

When you press the gas pedal, just hold it in the position where the wheels start to spin. Don't let up on the pedal. The TC will smooth out and you will move slowly. People make the mistake of letting up on the gas when the wheels spin and then giving it the gas again.

 

Ah my mistake.

 

just don't try to go uphill backwards, the GenII prius only goes backward using battery charge and may not be powerful enough to power up over the hill.

I wonder what happens if the above situation occurs and an unaware driver tries to back up with the battery at 1 purple bar? I realize the bars don't represent the 0-100% SOC, but still.

 

The electric motors can propel the car to 40 mph.. I'm pretty sure they'll be able to handle any hill at low speed. I live and parallel park on a ~10% grade and have never had a problem (traction considerations aside).

As far as the scenario, the car would command the engine to run, which would turn MG1 to produce electricity. This electricity would be routed to MG2 to propel the car.

 

I was going to say this, but the manual and other gurus tell me there is NO charging or power supplied to the system when in "N" or "R". I suspect you are correct however, as supplying no power in R would be silly. Unless it's a problem with polarity.

Remember, in "R" all motive power comes from a "reverse polarity" driving of MG2. So you have a maximum of 40 HP (torque would be adequate except it is limited to protect the battery - battery current limit). I've experienced almost getting stuck in soft wood chips on mud due to the very high torque required to move the car. I did manage to move the needed two car lengths to back out but it was slow and worrisome.

 

Indeed, the traction battery isn't charged in R, so one could entirely drain the traction battery by backing up a hill. The battery and motors have enough *power* to do it, but the battery may not have enough *energy*.

 

Time for new front tires with studs

If you didn't have a critical situation regular winter tires would be fine but
your's is a potentially dangerous scenario.
Put studs on the rear also, you have to go down the hill half the time

 

i have experienced the car not able to get up a hill in reverse, family driveway is short and moderately steep.
the prius will not go up the driveway in reverse, it only makes it about 2/3 of the way.
i have tried it several times in the last 6 months, often with green bars... still no good.
it definitely would be a pain if it was a parallel parking space, and couldnt back up to get out.
luckily theres enough room at the bottom of the driveway to do a 6 point turn and drive up in "D"
definitely a deficiency in my opinion.
i am not accustomed to being stuck in a fully operational vehicle due to a design flaw...

 

to the original poster, if you are in that kind of winter weather area, it would be smart to get winter tires, a full 2nd set for the winter months would be a worthwhile investment. you will either use them forever or can eventually sell them to new owner or another prius lover in your area...
you must be slipping in other places also????
or at least get a better all season tire next time yours wear out...

also worth noting while you are sitting there spinning going 2 feet at a time, you are a sitting duck, waiting to get slammed by a SUV jammin up the hill from behind you, or some clown sliding down the hill into you, you know once you are going down hill its very hard to control or avoid a car stuck in the middle...

 

since the traction control stops you from spinning the tires, it's saving them.

i see prius tire wear in two ways.. 1... it's a fairly light car so use should be ok... till you take in account the electric motor provided 295 ft-lbs of torque at 0... then, any wheel spin is bad since it breaks loose soo quickly.. yet as long as you're not "burning them up" (which again the car doesn't let you do)...

so.. unless you're turning off traction control.. then you're ok... with traction control off you're damaging tires...

its rather hard to abuse the engine... i've towed cars.. trailors... concrete loads.. lumbar loads... lots of things you're REALLY not supposed to do with a prius...

tires are replacable anyways

on a side note

on slippery surfaces.. i simply accelerate to get a net effort out of the car.. if you want it to gain traction and get you up that hill while mildly slipping, hold it down 100%.. it won't go crazy.. it just goes crazy.. oh wait.. contradicting myself... it goes hyper... slip grab, slip grab.. much faster (and rougher) till you take off at a speed you want... fast (works on gravel, ice, and mud too... much more so on ice and mud... toyota and lexus cars hate gravel... very floating feeling.. very poor traction usually)