English Teacher Twists OEM Stiffening Plate w/ Bare Hands, Installs BT Stiffening Plate...

After reading all the arguments in this forum I decided to try installing the BT Stiffening Plate, since it seemed logical that a truly stiff member of the car's body (so to speak... B) ) would improve handling.

I've only got 1200 miles on my Prius, but after a week of wrestling with the car in crosswinds as I drove up I-5 I decided it would be worth a shot.

Anyhow, I jacked up the car this morning and unbolted the old one. Just for jollies, I tried twisting it with my hands. Now, I'm not the strongest guy, but I could definitely torque it back and forth enough to see a visible twist. It wasn't much, but if I could twist it that much with my hands, I wondered how much use it would be going around a fast corner or coming down our potholed hills around here. Not much, it seemed to me.

I didn't even try doing that with the BT plate. Are you kidding? I just bolted in on and torqued it to the right amount.

After doing this little experiment, it seemed immediately obvious that a really rigid plate would be a huge improvement over the OEM one. I can't imagine why people even argue about it.

I'll report back after the next day of crosswinds though to say how it worked in real driving.

P

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qbee42 @ Apr 21 2007, 08:31 PM) [snapback]427598[/snapback]</div>

That sounds logical. I'm surprised that this is the first time I've read this particular analysis after reading a number of posts. It might have made me reconsider. It makes me wonder what kind of forces would pull the center channel apart - it makes the body sound kind of flimsy!

I'm also curious about the number of people who report significant improvement in cross-wind handling and on cornering after installing the BT plate - what other kinds of forces could account for it?

Could there be a front-to-back shifting stress (the two sides moving forward or backward in relationship to each other) under the stress of cornering or dealing with side-winds that might account for the reported benefits of it? Or an up-and-down one? Perhaps it's not just torsional stress that's a problem, and the heavier BT plate lessens it, even if Toyota thought that they only needed to be concerned about expansion or contraction of the center channel.

I suppose what's needed is some objective performance data, rather than the static tests and theory-based discussions we've been having in the forum.

Anyone have some connections at Car and Driver who could get them to do a before-and-after skidpad test to see if the "g" number changes? Or would even that be an appropriate or objective test?

I'll see how my cross-wind commute is affected, since that's the main test that matters to me!

The debate continues...
P