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Has Extensive Trailering Reconditioned My HV Battery

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by ydpplqbd, Aug 7, 2022.

  1. ydpplqbd

    ydpplqbd Active Member

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    I have been moving from old house to new house for the past 1.5 months. My trailer has been hitched up for the whole 1.5 months until last week. On average i have been trailering two or three times per week from old house to new house with trailer loaded weighing about 1500 or 1600 pounds. Most of the trip is interstate but there are couple of long severe grades on the interstate where the HV batterry gets down to two bars and when my GEN2 descends the mountain charges the HV battery to seven bars ( green).

    Last week, i unhitched the trailer, filled up with fuel and reset the MFDmpg gauge and then drove for about 100 miles (70 miles interstate and 30 miles around town). The high water mark on MFDmpg was 59.2mpg (MFDmpg at trip end was 58.1 mpg). My MFDmpg is typically six to eight percent under actual (based on 80k miles of detailed records). Based on this one 100 mile trip, the HV battery (w/o trailer attached) goes into green more often, stays in green longer, stays in EV mode longer and is hitting best gas mileage ever.

    Question: has trailering reconditioned my HV battery to peak performance?

    PS when i trailer, i typically travel at 59mph on interstate and use no AC.

    PPS When did the recent trip w/o trailer and received 59.2 MFDmpg i did not use AC.
     
    #1 ydpplqbd, Aug 7, 2022
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2022
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    I say screw all those numbers on the MFD I get all that going on how much gas are you putting in when you fill the vehicle up like is it on fumes and how many miles have you gone and how many gallons have you put in at the end of the day or whatever it is I'm putting in 10.2 gallons and going 530 540 mi That's about all the car does ever it doesn't matter if the air conditioning's on or any of that other stuff this is a general rule of thumb with my '09 now my 13 is a completely different story.
     
  3. ydpplqbd

    ydpplqbd Active Member

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    Unfortunately, i could not continue testing gas mileage without the trailer. As i needed to hitch the trailer to haul more stuff. Thus. I was unable to runout a whole tank. As a result, i am using the MFDmpg numbers for now. I will report back when the move is over.
     
  4. mr_guy_mann

    mr_guy_mann Senior Member

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    I have found that the mpg estimator can read high (or low) for a while depending on what the temperatures and use are when it's reset. Reset on a cold winter morning? - crazy low. Reset on a warm spring day (after the ICE is hot but no A/C use)? Get a high reading.

    Short form is it appears that the longer you let the mpg reading go, the less influence any short term fluctuations have.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  5. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    I trailer all the time with the plastic floe 8 56 5x8 trailer. And I mean all the time it's in pictures all over the web this trailer on my Prius all the time even when it's empty I just might have it on there just because I might pick up something I can drag this trailer around all day with almost miniscule amount of stuff on it and I don't even know it's on the car it is a big help in my work. I did go through the Virginia mountains to pick up a zero turn Cub cadet around 500 lb lawn mower on this 300 lb trailer 330 lb I think. And I definitely knew it was behind me going up and down the mountains empty and full or with and without the mower. So I'm not one to be wanting to tow and move around the mountains I'm in Central North Carolina where it's predominantly flat running through the mountains with the trailer loaded or unloaded was not a lot of fun now the same trailer connected to my V6 Tacoma or sienna van I can run 80 miles an hour in the mountains with it but the Prius not so much. But with the Prius I'm getting close to 50 miles to the gallon no matter the speed and ice cold air conditioning so there's generally no hurry
     
    ydpplqbd likes this.
  6. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    I submit that your computer settings for hauling the trailer were still at play when you unhitched and drove without it. To confirm, try unplugging your 12v for a few minutes, which will clear all the current settings and see if your car returns to previous MPG.

    Of course keep in mind that once you're up into the 50mpg range sometimes the tiniest variable like air temp or gas quality or type of road can create significant changes in total MPG, so don't spend too much time on this.
     
    ydpplqbd likes this.