Pikes peak climb

Yes. There are other posts about it if you want to search. The Prius did fine.

Tom

 

Monitor your battery temp, esp. coming down.

 

I've seen some posts about regen full-charge and concerns about hot brakes on the way down. My concern would be unnecessary ware on any car driving up and down those steep grades.

 

I climbed it on foot. Being from an altitude of around 700 feet and not at all acclimated to 14,000 feet I barely made it up the last thousand or so feet. The lack of sufficient oxygen turned my lips blue. The friend who was with me (she was from the Springs and thus adjusted fairly well) hurriedly got us into a car with a family going back down so that I could recover.

Knowing what Pike's Peak did to me as an 18-year in pretty good condition, if it was my car, I'd stick with the train, or put MYSELF through the paces again (after acclimating to altitude) and hike up!

 

The main thing to watch our for is to not run off the road.
People have driven Ford Model Ts up Pikes Peak. It's just another car, enjoy your trip. Do use "B" coming down so you don't toast your brakes.

 

Not Pikes peak!
But Glacier Nat. Park & Rocky Mt. Nat. Park, No Problems Just use B mode when coming back down the Mt.

 

I hit all three, and many more, on the same trip in my 2010.

Prevailing downhill traffic was too slow to adequately wind up the B-mode compression braking, and passing was not possible, so I had no choice but to ride the friction brakes. So I took several brake cooling stops. But at the mandatory brake checkpoint, the attendant was quite happy with my rotor temperatures. An F-250 with Florida plates was not so fortunate, and was directed into the 30-minute cooling off zone. His hot brake aroma stunk up the entire rest/gift-shop area.

 

Rented a 2011 Prius 3 last week. Drove it over several mountain passes with 8% downhill grades. No problems. Had plenty of power going up, and with it in "B" mode did very well goind down. ( except that it handled worse than a truck on the curves, go slow!)

 

Try opening the windows to degrade the aerodynamics (perhaps sticking something like a sheet of stiff cardboard out to further degrade the aerodynamics) and/or running the A/C full cold to add load.

 

use "B" mode and regulate it with a bit of pressure on the go pedal.

 

When B mode isn't providing enough braking effect, pressure on the go pedal makes it worse, not better

 

maybe didn't understand the situation, but I found that in some downhill scenarios the grade varies enough that "B" mode provides a bit too much braking and "D" mode provides not enough. In this case I found that I could modulate the "B" mode as necesary to intermittently reduce engine braking briefly on short "flat" stretches of the downhill road.

On re-reading several times the previous post the comments didn't really make sense to me; if "B" mode is not winding up the engine enough to provide braking... I assumed he was in "D" mode and heating up the brakes.

 

Yes, there are many downgrades where this applies. But in the thin atmosphere of 13,000 feet, on a 10% downgrade, when the traffic ahead is moving only 15-20 mph and cannot be passed, B mode is simply not strong enough.

 

Cardboard out the windows? Really? Have you done this yourself?

 

I read that Wayne Gerdes did that once.

 

I just returned from a road trip to Colorado on my Prius Plug-in and was very satisfied with how it performed. I had done the trip in a Gen II in the past and knew the car would have no trouble going up. What I didn't expect was how little trouble the car had going up. My gen II Prius had reached the summit with only two bars left and it was up to the gas engine to get the car up to the summit. The Plug in also used its engine to provide most of the power, but it barely used the battery. I only lost about .5 of a mile in EV range by the time I got the summit. I did notice the cooling fans running at low speed when I got the summit. I left the car running for about fifteen minutes to let the fans cool the inverter unit. The inverter got really hot on the way to the top. I didn't use the A/C and had the windows open all the way to the top which was at 54 degrees Fahrenheit. The one thing I noticed aside from the fact that the battery range didn't decrease much, was the fact that the battery itself was running very cold. The battery's cooling fans were barely noticeable and the plastic in the little storage area was cold to the touch. Here in Texas that little compartment can get really hot when I run the car in EV mode only. I got to the top with a 9.5 mile EV range, I did go up in HV mode rather than EV mode. Coming down the mountain I used B mode to reduce the use of the brakes. The battery went from 9.5 to 13.6 miles in about a mile of driving. Once the battery reached 13.6 miles the gas engine kicked in at a very high rpm rate. It was very loud, I had experienced this type of situation in my Gen II coming down the steep slopes of I-70. I knew this was normal and didn't give it a second though. I did notice that the car would shut down the engine if the speed reached 10mph or less and the battery charge would fall below 13.6 miles. Then as soon as it regenerated back to 13.6 it would kick in. This caused a not so smooth transitions during a few curves when the car would shut the engine then turn around and started again immediately.

My tips for when you go up pikes peak are as follows:

1) Charge the battery and don't use it until you are about five miles from the summit. I found the car to be much smoother than when I climbed with a low battery on my Gen II Prius. However, you do want to discharge the battery as you approached the summit. You will need all of that real estate in your battery for the energy you will regenerate during the decent in B mode. I regenerated 4 miles of EV range in approximately 1 to 1.5 miles of driving down the mountain in EV mode. I had 9.6 miles of range at the summit so my battery was charged up just a few minutes after I started to drive down. This caused my gas engine to kick in for the rest of the decent. Had I had my battery depleted, my gas engine would have kicked in closer to the bottom.

2) Use ECO mode when going up the mountain. The car was much smoother going the mountain in ECO mode than in any of the other 3 modes. This was especially true when dealing with the very sharp turns near the summit.

3) Turn off the A/C and engage your seat heaters! It was 84 degrees at the base of the mountain and 54 degrees at the summit. We did not engage the heater at any point, if you keep your windows closed, the sun's heat along with the seat heaters will provide a very comfortable climb to the top.

4) Weight is your enemy so don't fill up your tank before going up. There is a big sign that advises you to have at least a half tank of gas before going up. I am here to tell you that doesn't apply to the Prius. With my Gen II and III I had three bars of fuel when going up the hill. That was more than enough to get to the summit and back. With the Gen III Plug In I had two bars of fuel left when we got back to the bottom. So save some weight and don't fill up. Remember, each gallon of fuel is approximately 6.1756 lb per gallon @ 60 F degrees (weight varies according to temp and amount of added additives). You want to go up with the least amount of weight possible.
5) Last but not least - just ignore any and all of the advises you get. Point the car in the right direction and it will take you there. Is that easy!! Just make sure you use B mode on the way down. You will avoid the mandatory 30 minute wait at the gift shop if your brake s are too hot when you get to the Brake temp check point. The four cars in front of me were not so lucky and were forced to pull into the gift shop parking lot and wait while I continued my trip down the mountain.