Ladder rack on a Prius? Is it out there/possible?

If you put a Thule or Yakima or some other standard rack on the Prius (either the temporary ones that lock into the door frames, or you can bolt tracks on to the roof), I am sure you could secure a ladder to it. And the Prius does have hooks at front and rear for you to secure the ends of the ladder to. I imagine it would be not much different from having a kayak on top, which many people on here do (you can search the forums for it).

Hope that helps a little?

 

How long is your 28' ladder when collapsed? Or are you talking about something that truly is 28'? Either way, a Yakima or thule would carry it just fine. Add gunwale clips, and you just need to tie it down - won't go anywhere. I do this all the time, though not with anything 28' long. Longest I've done is 16'. And I do carry a 16' kakak on me Prius as well.

 

this almost sounds like it may be a safety issue.

I would love a rack.. but all the material i carry seems to fit inside my car. 10 to 12ft if i leave the hatch open and tag with a red flag.

How long is the prius? I'm only assuming roughly 13 or 14 feet. if an suv or other tall car were to approach you... i see a ladder going through their windshield.

Not to mention pedestrian safety...

would a collapsed 20 work? assuming it would depend on commercial vs resident installs...

 

Possible? Absolutely. Easy too. Easier than getting it on/off a truck, certainly. Put the Gunwale supports exactly where you need them once, then toss the ladder up, and strap it down to the rack.

These are the brackets I'm talking about: Yakima Gunwale Brackets from REI.com

Still looking for the answer about length.

If I had 30 calls in a day, I'd probably kill myself.

 

Hi Alex,

Before you go too far with the thought of a rack for your existing ladder, have you thought of using a collapsible or telescoping ladder?

These would fit nicely inside your Prius.

Gorilla Ladders has a 21' ladder that stores at 5'7" long.

I did Google searches for all of the following... (found some ladders that I had never seen before)

collapsible ladder
telescoping ladder
folding ladder

Ultimately, it completely depends on how long you really need your ladder to be.

Later,
Tim

 

You will beat the living sh*t out of a Prius doing Cable installs which will ruin its resale resulting in a negative $$$ impact on what you are trying to accomplish.. Its a urban commuter CAR,,repeat that CAR. Is there any other CAR that you can think of that might better suit you? Oh and its a really small and light car.
Just get a used 4 cyl Nissan truck for christ sakes.
Oh and if a cable guy pulls up to my house with a 15 foot ladder strapped to his Prius roof I'd laugh my you know what off.

 

Personally I'd use a 4 cylinder ute. Not a Datsun though, never a Datsun.

I'm not saying a Prius wont work, it could be the best thing. Get a second hand one rather than new to reduce the impact of knocking the car around for work and it reduces your initial outlay. Have a rear bar made which bolts on where a towbar would bolt to support the back end of the ladder. You may find a fitting for the receiver in a towbar.

Can you have the vehicle you currently use converted to LP (propane) gas?

 

I tend to agree with edthefox5 and believe that if you are loading ladders on and off your Prius (plus unloading God-knows-what-all-else from the interior) 30 times per day you are likely to beat it to death in fairly short order. I'm not saying that Prii are flimsy, but they aren't designed for heavy hauling and banging about either.

This is one of those odd unintended consequence things, the effect of a sudden and dramatic increase in the price of fuel. People will inevitably begin taking steps to save fuel and in doing so cause themselves other sorts of harm, physical and economic. I think you'd be better off to buy a basic Tacoma, a 2wd with the 4cyl engine version can be had for around $15,000. It is very rugged, will last for years or even decades doing the sort of work you describe, racks are readily available and quite convenient and heavy-duty, and the mileage, while nowhere near Prius standards, isn't too bad and the $10,000+ you'll save in the initial purchase price will not only buy you a lot of gas, even at $4 or $5 per gallon, but the truck will bear up under that sort of use, something that I suspect the Prius will not.

 

Hi Alex,

How about the foldable fiberglass ladder, then? They have those, too!

Ultimately, how long do you need it to be? A 17' fiberglass ladded folds to 4'6".

Later,
Tim

 

Yeah--the Prius is designed to be a passenger car, not a commercial van. If you're a cab driver, you're in business. But if you need a commercial van, you're out of luck.

Try the Ford Escape hybrid. The 4x2 model. You'll get in the mid 30s on gas. About $30K.

With gas prices rising out of control, the truck industry has been caught unprepared. Expect hybrid vans and trucks for commercial use to hit the market sooner than you think.

 

No one seems to have mentioned the obvious so here goes:

The OP mentions that he wants to try to save money on gasoline by switching to a Prius (which an average person will probably get 40-50 mpg). But because he will need to strap a ladder to his roof, all the calculations will be whacked. The Prius aerodynamics are thrown off. I've read some posts stating that when someone adds a cargo rack, the mpg drops to 20s (ie. http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-main-forum/47920-beyond-dismal-mpg-cargo-rack.html). If I were the OP, I would also want to survey some people who carry kayaks and cargo on top to see what MPG they normally get. The gas savings might not be as high as you hope they will be.

Also, the OP seems new to the Prius forums so he should also be aware that the wait lists are LONG for a Prius and that there is almost no way he's going to buy it for less than MSRP. He might even have to pay a premium over MSRP.

I hate to be the bad guy here, but I figured you should be as informed as possible.

 

with the hatch open.. windows down and roughly 1000lbs of material in the car.. i never get lower than 35.. which isn't bad.. because i currently get 40 with my tires...

How about a trailer... you could carry all your extra materials since they are localized in the trailer (which may be easier than unloading the car... based off stacking design of a trailer "toolbox") and the excess length from the latter would be "covered".. since it would stick over your trailer and not someone else car.

do you absolutely need that L bend at the end to hold the rear of the ladder?

 

In my experience the MPG reduction by roof loads varies considerably with speed. At 35 mph and below, the reduction is very difficult to measure (small).

If the long ladders must be used, what about a vertical support coming straight up from an installed rear cargo hitch? Like this:

Darby Extend-A-Truck Hitch Rack .. Canoe, Boat, Ladder, Lumber Carrier - BOAT YARD

 

Small and light? It is the biggest and heaviest gas car I've ever had!

I'd tip him. And then ask if he's considered going full EV.

Oh, that's NOTHING! You don't need any extra support. If you've seen my pictures, you've seen a couple of kayaks longer than 14' mounted on a Prius. I've personally carried longer ladders that that. Just load them from the side. Child's play.

Nothing at all. If you WANT something for the loading you are talking about, you can certainly mount a trailer hitch, and build or buy a T-shaped rack extender. I've done that before to hold a boat on my Toyota Pickup when I didn't have the camper shell on it.

14' won't stick out either end enough to need a flag... though you may still want one for piece of mind, or because you really like flags.

Remind me why we care what it was designed for? It wasn't designed to carry cargo or pull a trailer, but that's about all I use it for. And except for the part where it burns gas, I couldn't be happier with the situation.

By a few mpg, yes.

I won't bother following the link because I carry cargo boxes, ladders and kayaks on my car regularly. And I have NEVER gotten below 35 mpg even when flogging the damn thing. Normally I can still pull off 40mpg fully loaded with trailer and all.

Done.

 

A 14' ladder should be a piece of cake. And you'll have plenty of cargo space to store all the stuff you need to do your job. Of course you shouldn't expect to achieve 50mpg with all that weight in tow, either.

But I have a feeling you're looking at this investment from more than just a pure economic standpoint. There's definitely a psychological comfort that comes from one's reduced pain at the pump, although in reality other commodity prices have risen even more than fuel (e.g. milk, bread, etc.)

 

if the ladder is 14' collapsed.. you should be able to do this very easily and frankly easier than lifting it up to the height of a truck rack.. As for tools.. you might have a problem getting in and out of the hatch with the ladder on the rack.. could you get to the tools you need from the rear doors with the seats down?.. and yes.. a $500/mo savings in gas is WORTH ONE HELL OF A LOT!

fyi.. the prius is 14.58 feet long.... no worries on the ladder length, hell I fit 10' long boards in the car all the time with the hatch closed!

 

We just installed a basic Thule roof rack system along with a hitch attachement and then a Thule "Goal Post" Pick up truck water sport carrier. We have a 28' ALuminum ladder on top and it works great. You do not even know it is there!