Week of December 25 to December 31 2017 - Merry Christmas grinders

Happy holidays to everyone

 

Good idea, Gord.

Season's greetings to everyone.

 

Merry Christmas all!! Hope you all have a blessed and safe holiday.

 

Picked up mom and brought her home for Christmas, took her home this evening. We got our white Christmas but winter came with it. -26*F ( -42*F with wind chill) this evening and my block heater timer shut off early. Had heater on but not much heat on this evenings trip, good thing it was short. Mom was good sport about it though.
32.8 - 10.7 mi. total for 4 trips.

 

Yikes! I guess I shouldn't complain about our current 20F dropping to zeroF for the next few days. We got a white Christmas, though, with about 4-5". The weakness of the gen1 Plug-in Prius is showing as the engine kicked on with only about 1/2 EV throttle requested. Battery's too cold I guess. I didn't need heat. I'm going to stick a small heater in the car at night on a timer for the next few days to preheat the cabin. The Prius Prime's heater is nice!... runs fine without the engine coming on and it doesn't eat into the battery pack much. I've also finally bothered to do some cabin preheat on the Prime through the Entune app. The PiP does not have that feature.

 

I have an electric cabin heater as well. The heater in my Echo is pretty much useless with my short trips so I really need it. It plugs in with my block heater, through a switch, and normally works well. Electric heat is a real bonus in the Prius. Your battery pack is under the trunk, right? Will the cabin heater still be able to warm it up?

 

Hi Kevin, yes, the battery's under the rear load floor. The 2017 Prime has the electric heat. The 2012 Plug-in Prius does not. There are vents in the back seat area but I don't expect much air flow to occur without the fans in the battery pack running. Hopefully, minimal conducted heat will help. I'll look into removing any carpeting in the rear.

Nice!

 

Today , around zero deg F when I went to health club. Up to about 5 F by the time I got home. 8.0 miles , one long stop , 31 MPG.
Tank is still right around 60 , because not much driving since last Thursday to drag it down.

 

Well, on 12/23 I got to meet two people on the road I could have done without.
First: SUV from Georgia came flying up behind me as I was passing a truck on I40 West bound around Russelville AR. I was going about 70 to 71 MPH (PSL is 70MPH) so I was passing the truck slowly, about 15 - 20 seconds as they were running up a slight incline. They flash their lights at me as they approach at about 80 MPH. (When did behavior become the new, GET OUT OF THE WAY, I'M MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU ON THE ROAD.) They park themselves a few feet off the bumper and ride me to move over. I move over once I have passed and IS SAFE to move the other lane WITHOUT cutting the truck off. They zoom off again at 80MPH or more, I return their light flashing with a longer flash of my highbeams, but I'm not sure if the light was able to catch them as they zoomed off. JERKS!!!!

On the way home form MIL's house I met the Grinch on I40 east bound on Mile marker 19 outside of Fort Smith, a Black Toyota RAV4 with TX plates HYL 9715 (Maybe, as that is what we gave the Highway Patrol), approaches at mach 5 (ok maybe 80 MPH again). I had noticed they were back a ways when I started to pass a Prius that was doing about 1-2 MPH below me so it was going to take a mile or so pass with CC on. Out comes the flashing of the high beams as they approach. I'm already doing the PSL or just a little over (wife likes to get places and not drag things along so we normally go the PSL or just a little under if I can get away with it). So, I don't want to speed up just for this twit as there is no one behind him for a about 9-10 car lengths and they are not gaining that fast. So, this idiot gets on my bumper and stays there and flashes again (that makes me really not want to do anything now, I thought about slowing down now, but I didn't). I get to front of the Prius and he is ready for me to cut over and cut off the Prius so he can get back to super sonic flight. I stay the course and when it is SAFE to pass I SLOWWWWLLLLLLYYYY pull to the right lane. He decides I'm not going fast enough (mean while, I have the whole family in the car. Wife, Son, Daughter). Wife is starting to pay attention now. He now starts to get as close as he can to the side of the car and then in my lane and honking his horn in disgust I assume. I oblige with a Thank you Honk of my own as he cut my off in the right line (while we are doing 70 MPH). He goes about 2 car lengths in front of me and I see the brake lights come on, so I touch my brakes to prepare. I think "Ok he is going to brake check me and then zoom off". Nope, since his heart is 3 sizes to small, he is holding his brakes on and we are approaching a crash very shortly. Prius is behind me, another Pickup is now to the left and a car behind him. With some quick thinking from me, I knew I was not going to stop in time if he stayed on his brakes and the left lane was out, I pointed the car to the shoulder and gave it some gas and passed him on the right and got back in the right lane. Wife is now freaking out. The Pickup and other cars have pulled back, (i'm surprised that the Prius didn't wreck with this idiot). Next thing I know, this guys is passing me on the shoulder and nearly takes of the right front quarter panel as he cuts us off again as he comes in to the right light. I'm telling the wife the license plate and make and model as I follow him (she was not getting a clear picture), doing about 80 MPH. I fall back to PSL as he breaks the sounds barrier once again into the night. There is no direct number to call the Highway troopers in AR so after a call to 911 she is patched through to the local troop in Fort Smith. We give the description and they say yes we have had calls about that (I guess the other called it in as well) and that they would be looking for the vehicle (not sure anything was ever done). But needless to say I keep and eye out for those head lights all the way to Conway in case they got off and back on the highway. That is just stupid to endanger 5 vehicles and all the lives in them just because you can't go 10+ MPH over the PSL when others are obeying the laws. No holiday cheer from that person.
The family was a little shaken up to say the least over being in a near wreck twice within 10 seconds.

This all done in the Sonta which handled the emergency maneuver with grace and poise.
Still working on my tank in the FIT from July.

 

Wow, major road rage. Anger has no rational and usually doesn't care who it hurts. He was probably angry long before you got in his way. You were just the unfortunate recipient. Glad you are all okay.

Cold snap continues here but not as bad as Christmas. Temp. -6 to -8*F today, 7-12 mph wind (-25*F windchill) Cold is taking its toll on my mileage this week, especially when the family's with me and I need heat. I'm thinking now that my improved mileage this winter might be due more to the mild winter we've had until now than my driving. Half day at work today. 38.3 - 4 mi. to work. 49.5 - 4.7 mi. home.
44.5 - 1.6 mi. to dentist with my son. Car was plugged in all day to this point. 33.2 - 1.4 mi. home.
36.7 - 7.9 mi. with family to see Star Wars. 36.4 - 5.5 mi home.
I guess I shouldn't complain though. We aren't getting dumped on like the east coast.

 

I read about Erie, PA and 60 inches of lake effect snow since Christmas. That's amazing!

 

Jason , that sucks. Sorry your family had to be terrorized like that. Today , 15 deg F around noon when I was driving. Wind ? Dunno. 24.6miles , 57.19 MPG.
The Prius does NOT like cold weather. I have experienced some very odd behavior these last few days. In those 24.6 miles , the engine almost never shut off , despite
coolant temp being 170-180 F. Since I couldn't get a glide , I just relied on pulse + DWL ( no glide ) to keep instant fcd between 40-80. And the other day when it was around zero ,
I had even more bizarre behavior. Down to 32 deg , it's not horrible and remains predictable. Below 20 F , bad things happen. I did use the heat on and off to keep windows clear , but
usually only when pulsing uphill. I'm not happy at all with HSD in challenging conditions like this. I almost want to get a non-hybrid car and just run the heater full-blast like
the rest of the morons do. Okay , rant over , as you were.

 

I did fill up today. My usual Shell 87 E10 was $2.799. 533.4 miles/9.156 gallons = 58.26 MPG. Friday , driving about 80 miles to
go to 350 Brewing and back. Saturday , picking up Janet in Lake Zurich and going to city for rock concert. Hopefully I can stay at her place afterwards ,
cuz it's a long drive home ! Looking at around 120 miles for the day if I drive home.

 

I don't think any car likes the cold, especially not efficient ones with small engines. The first bit in the Echo feels like driving with the brakes dragging in this cold (they're not).

39.3 - 4 mi. to work this morning. -22*F (-40* windchill)
51.3 - 4.8 mi. home. -5*F (-22*F windchill) Pulled the car in the shop after work so it had a chance to warm up a little. Installed some led lights in the dash.

 

Thursday I drove 450 miles in temperatures ranging from low 30s to 20°F near the end---the coldest weather in which I've ever driven the Prius. No peculiar behavior observed, although gas mileage was unimpressive, about 56.5 actual mpg.

Edwin, do you have your grill partially blocked now? Even with mine about half blocked at temperatures around 40°F, I find it's hard to get the engine fully warmed up in local low-speed 7-mile trips. On the long downgrades of I-40 yesterday, it dropped to 170° or less.

If you "just run the heater full-blast like the rest of the morons do," you'll still burn far less fuel than most of them do, although you might not beat 57 mpg in cold weather.

 

I have to confess : no grille blocking yet. With our single-digit F temps recently , it's been difficult to get 50MPG trips. Not short trips either , mostly at least 20 miles.
Also , sometimes the engine will NOT shut off , even though the coolant is at 170-180 F. The next tank will be much closer to 50 than 60.