Carrying an ebike with a Prius

I carry two at times, a folding Montague, in the space where the front seat normally goes (passenger side....) and an e fat bike on a home built rack/receiver hitch. Not both at the same time, the folder for long road trips, and the fattie for local real rough trail rides, as in rocky. Carrying the Montague inside means of course no extra drag. Charging either bike while on the road or parked is accomplished by a upgraded direct to the batter(12 volt battery) outlet, and a cheap inverter, drawing about 24 amps. With the car, a 2013 PIP, either running down the road or parked but ON.

Having the ebike along on a road trip gives one lots of additional options for exploring and generally messing around. The fact that it's all hidden when not in use is a bonus. That'd be the Montague, when the fat bike is being hauled it's pretty hard to miss! I love the contrast between the normal low drag sleek Prius lines, and then this big fat tired muddy thing hanging off the rear. The rear receiver rack k is so much better then a roof top mount, I could not live with that, way too much drag, even for local driving, and just looks goofy to me.

 

I take out the passenger seat, correct, a 5 minute job. Anyone riding in the back seat has plenty of leg room! Otherwise, it is amazing how much room it opens up for general cargo of any kind. My wife doesn't mind, as she's lived in Hawaii the last 35 years, ha ha! I fly a tandem seat aircraft, so having a passenger behind me is somewhat the norm. I could of course carry the Montague folder in the rear, but when on a road trip that area is used for other gear.

 

As I recall, when I took the seat out, I just unplugged whatever needed unplugging, and eventually put a piece of black tape over the display light concerning the airbag, that was all. There's plenty of room for the bike, and on a trip lots of other stuff, all without impinging on the main cargo area in the rear. Nothing can touch it from a interior volume/economy viewpoint! Yeah, the odd passenger has to deal with sitting a bit behind me, but conversation etc. is still about the same, and like I said they have PLENTY of leg room. I know this, because I always ask, ha ha!

My previous car was a Toyota Yaris, (which I really liked) which I also took the front seat out of, but just on long trips, so I could sleep in it. The PIP has it beat hands down for utility, way more room, plus gets better mileage, on average about 10 MPG more, I guess in retrospect, the Yaris was also a gas hog. One thing I miss, was the ability to drift it in the winter using the parking brake. My rural mailbox is on a road too narrow to make a u turn, unless you lock up the rears and romp on the throttle, one shortcoming of the Prius.

 

Today, after a 369 MPG drive to a buddy's house about 10 miles away, and then a bit over 16 miles of mountain fat bike riding, both rigs are on the charger. I am riding again tomorrow so I just charge the ebike in place. There is something about charging both at once I find oddly satisfying.

The bike is a Surly Wednesday, with a BBSHD mid drive motor conversion, using a 52 VDC 17 AH battery. Installation and mods were done by me, LUNA CYCLES is the go to place for all things ebike, they are first and foremost enthusiasts, and also have the best prices, and don't sell junk! There are a lot of ebike ripoffs, buyer beware, like any newer activity. This bike, with it's Rohloff hub, is a real performer, trails too steep to walk, it will climb. I pedal also.

 

I took a 270 mile drive last weekend through some of Idaho's biggest mountain ranges, and of course took my fat ebike with me! I slept in it one night, at 8600', with mid 30's outside temps, (the pic shows my camp site, right across the valley from the Lemhi Range) and it sure was nice to just bump the temp up to 70 degrees first thing in the morning, and also have the sat radio playing. I left the car ON for the entire period, as I have done before on these mini vacations. It was rare to see a passenger car in this back country, any other vehicle actually, but the very few i saw were pickups or SUV types.

I really like the cruise control working down to about 25 MPH, anyone else notice this? I use it at those speeds anyway, when the scenery is this good and I'm not in a hurry.

I only had one problem, my cheap inverter quit working, which I need to charge my ebike's battery. Since it was a Harbor Freight POS, this was no surprise, and I managed to steal a quick charge at a closed port of entry (I owe the state for 1/2 a KW, about 3.5 cents) so this didn't impact my over 40 miles of remote, mostly uphill, riding. But I did decide to buy a top quality, name brand (MorningStar, long a big player in charge controllers in the solar world) pure sine wave inverter this time, even though my bike charger works fine on the cheap HF modified sine wave output. MorningStar's 300 watt (continuous, 600 watt surge) is plenty big enough for my needs, and it will be the last inverter I ever need for this purpose, assuming it's up to their usual high standard of quality. So, tonight I hooked it up, after turning the PIP on of course, and to my surprise, the low voltage buzzer went off. My digital volt meter shows 12.54 VDC at the acc battery, with the car off, and with the car on and the inverter trying to boot up, it shows 14.44 VDC. But then I tried the new inverter on another car, and it works fine. So, I'm guessing my 2013 original acc Prius battery is shot, despite the seemingly OK volt readings. I never use the inverter with the car off, and i guess I'm a little surprised the car's traction battery 12 VDC converter didn't "fill the gap."

But, I had a similar issue recently, kinda similar anyway. My 30 ton National crane on a Mack chassis, (my day job) started showing an error code when the load computer would boot up after starting the engine. The book showed the code indicated LOW VOLTAGE. The Mack started fine always, and again the volt meter didn't show any glaring issues, BUT two new batteries made me realize the truck had been cranking a bit slow, but since it started almost instantly it was not an issue. More important my load computer error code went away, and based on that experience, I'd bet the cost of a new acc Prius battery that the inverter will work fine, though I am still a bit puzzled by the volt meter readings, I do know a batteries performance can be somewhat masked by seemingly good volt readings. I would hate to fine the problem is in my traction battery converter, but I doubt that. I deal with a large local battery wholesaler for all my equipment, I guess he can get me the right battery for the car also. Comments appreciated.

 

My battery place had a Optima YellowTop in stock, $183.00 inc. sales tax. In about 30 minutes I swapped it out for the original Yauesa (?) battery, now 7 years + old. I went for a short drive then tried the inverter again, STILL no joy!

Then, way belatedly, I checked the inline 30 amp blade fuse......in my defense I didn't earlier because I figured it had not blown as I had ascertained I was getting power through the heavy duty marine 12 VDC receptacle, as in voltage anyway. What didn't occur to me was that one leg of the unblown fuse, showed signs of heat, plus the plastic around it was semi melted. I was running a max of 24 amps through this, using a very short (10") length of 10 gauge stranded wire, or at least I thought it was, now I'm thinking it may be 12 gauge, which is only good for 20 amps continuous, 10 is good for 30. The wire showed NO signs of over heating, just the one leg of the blade fuse. The good news is there is nothing wrong with my HV battery voltage converter, the thing that keeps the acc battery topped off. The other good thing is I have a new battery, and will put the old one to use in my riding lawn mower.

I have a very good quality blade fuse holder that I will wire in tomorrow, as a quick and dirty fix, while I await the arrival of one of these:

I've long used these on my ebikes, and some small off grid solar systems, available in amp ratings up to 100, mechanically and electrically robust, with nice big 1/4" threaded studs for solid attachment of a ring terminal. Cheap also. Plus they function quite nicely as a switch, so I will hard wire the new inverter in, no more 12 VDC plug in, handy as the inverter will suck a bit of power whenever it is "hot", what's called a standby load, and that I do not want. So rather then plug and unplug it, I will just throw a switch, much better. And all the wiring will be 10 gauge for sure, though this problem arose with a poor contact in the inline fuse holder causing the heat buildup, but without blowing the fuse.

I can set the inverter and the breaker, semi permanent, in that little nook on the rear deck, right above the battery, so no infringement on the main cargo deck. Live and learn, I take half the blame, the other half was the poor blade fuse connection.

Here's a pic of the inside without the front seat. The floor isn't flat, but nearly so, and I use an old quilt to protect the pass seat wiring and to look better. For a solo Prius camper, it is a big win/win, it really frees up a lot of extra room.

 

5 minutes max. 4 bolts, two wire harness unplugged, that's it. The extra room will amaze you, and is a huge part of what make my PIP the best ever road trip vehicle I have ever owned!

 

I would suggest finding a custom car audio installation shop in your area. If you walk in their door with a couple key components (ones they will not have on hand most likely) and a clear description of what you need, they can knock it out in a couple hours.

1. This pure sine wave inverter is made by a long time maker of off grid solar equipment, and like everything else they sell is top quality, and safe. You get what you pay for in small inverters, and this thing is worth the dough:Morningstar SureSine 300 Watt Inverter - International - SI-300-220V

2. This DC breaker can also act as a switch, as you DO NOT want the inverter in standby 100% of the time, as it could possibly deplete the battery, even though it draws very little power, you want it disconnected: 50 Amp Manual-Reset DC Circuit Breaker BPC | Buyers Products | Brands | www.surpluscenter.com

3. Some sort of small LED 12 VDC light, that will serve to alert you that the inverter is switched on, a clearance light from any auto parts store would work, just something other then the small and somewhat hard to see light recessed into the inverter. You want to make it idiot proof as possible, and also just get in the habit of only turning the inverter on when using the charger, and also turning it off when done charging.

4. A regular duplex receptacle, what you plug the charger into. I simply taped it to the top of the inverter, you could also buy an external weather proof box for it (like a home uses outside) but I didn't see the need. The AC output wires of the inverter will connect to it, required as this inverter DOES NOT have built in receptacles like most, as it is meant for "hard wiring", like most dedicated off grid home style inverters.

The other small parts any audio shop will have, ring terminals, heavy gauge stranded cable, etc. My setup is directly over the battery (2013 PIP), so nice short wire runs plus out of the main cargo area in somewhat dead space. I used 2 screws to secure it to the lift off cover, short of rolling the car over it isn't going anywhere, not sliding around anyway. A 3/4" hole was drilled in the side cover to allow easy access for the wiring from the battery to the breaker. When and if I sell the car, I'll leave it all in place, or simply plug the holes, no biggie. To save money and a bit of hassle, you could also get a cheaper mod sine wave inverter, with built in receptacles, myself I prefer the more reliable and familiar quality of the Morningstar.

 

There is something very satisfying to be rolling along, at over 50 mpg, while also charging the bike. Synchronicity at it's finest! Also pretty neat, is, if on a road trip, to be in eating lunch or whatever, and knowing your bike is charging, without any risk to the 12 v battery.