Scangauge II placement on Gen3

Based on other opinions on this forum, I placed mine right above the steering wheel colum right behind the steering wheel. There is a flat shelf there.

This puts the ScanGauge more in your line of sight and you do not have to take your eyes off of the road to read it.

 

I find engine output in Kw, water temp, RPM and Amps most useful for me. The RPM and engine output in KW is helpful to gauge acceleration and cruising power. I use the amps when around town to provide insights regarding battery output to the electric motor and review charging level.

I mounted the unit above the steering column as discussed in the previous post.

 

I've got mine over the HSI display with its velcro attached to a black 3 inch binder metal clip. The binder clip is attach to the HSI display visor.

 

Is this thing really something that one needs? Seems that the readouts that come with the vehicle tell me enough without adding another gauge to the mix.
Don't mis-understand, I'm not putting it down. Just want to know how it helps or I guess how much more the info. in it help to save fuel while driving.
I'm new to all this hyper-mileage stuff and am sincerely interested in learning.

 

No you do not need it. It provides information that the car does not provide like engine RPM and water temperature. I would say it enhances understanding on what is going on with the car during all operation phases. Engine temp gives insight to the warmup cycle and when to turn on the heat. When gliding using the base instrumentation I can't tell if the glide is using the battery much or not. With the guage on amps I can pinpoint a glide with no charging or battery use. For me it makes the "game" of driving this car more enjoyable because more information is available to me.

Your views may vary. You are viewing this site so you are interested in the vehicle beyond just driving it. The gauge enhances that experience. Hope that helps.

Finally the trip information is beneficial in that it keeps track of current trip, today as a whole, yesterday and the overall gas tank.

 

my main reason for getting a scanguage was to monitor the water temp when blocking the grill. an occasional warm day in the winter got my temp up to 200. pulled over and removed some of the blocking

 

There are threads on which four gauges people use that will be enlightening for why people use it (e.g. this one)- I like RPMs (it's not always possible to tell when the engine is stopped), Amps (to tell if there's an unexpected large power drain), coolant temp (to know when I'm at Stage 4), and battery SoC (when it drops below 58%, the engine starts working harder - over 62%, it tends to drain the battery more. Both of these are well within "bar #6", so the MFD isn't enough.).

Does it help me save fuel? Maybe. Probably not much, if it does. But it helps me understand the car better.

 

.80 to 1.20 (GPH) is the ICE sweet point aka 1.5
kilowatt-hour power level - when you are geting the
most fuel efficient gas engine output. On the HSI display
it equates to somewhere on the right side of the ECO bar
between the middle to the far leftside but not touching
the power bar. Stay in this range and drive atleast
until the engine coolant temperature (FWT)
climbs over 168 F and the Prius can get 50 mpg easy.


Somewhere between .38 to .45 SoC is where the Prius
ICE will automatically activated to recharge the HV battery
back to .50 - if it starts up the Prius loses +5 mpg.
Which is why many hypermiler will tell you not to
depend on the electric motor & battery too much.


If the engine coolant temperature (FWT) drops too
low in the winter time, the Prius ICE will automatic
reactive to raise the coolant temperature - if it does
Prius can give up 10 mpg or more for that trip. This happen to
me when I got stuck in a snow storm traffic jam last
winter. FWT can tell you what stage your ICE is running.
In Stage 1 and 2, the Prius does not benefit fully
from a Pulse & Glide and EV mode is limited.

hope this helps

Walter Lee