Just wanted to intro myself. Been looking at suv's lately since we have mom in law living with us now. Wasn't looking for a hybrid but when I came across it on eBay, the price seemed reasonable so I bid up 100 dollar and bam there it is.
I owned a Prius before and loved it. So far it it seems to running like it is sapose too. Got about 16 mpg towing our Elantra back over 500 miles. Anyway just wanted to say hi and can't wait to learn All I can about the rig. I am technician by trade and want learn more about this technology

 

Having a Prius you probably already know that there is no alternator and that the High voltage battery starts the engine.


you towed with it already?

 

I was actually wondering how and what started the engine.
Towing our car back seemed to be the most economical way to get the Tahoe and return home after the purchase. After driving it now at home I think it might need some new shocks, it rode better towing the car. Also it doesn't seem to want to stay in electric mode, about 20 mph is best I can squeeze out unless going down hill then it get up 30 before ice kicks on.
Judging by condition of vehicle I think it had been sitting a little while hopefully driving it around more will get the hv battery built up.

 

Please be aware that if the 12 volt battery found under the hood goes dead, the engine will not start. On mine, I have noticed that if I happen to leave interior lights on to long due to multiple delayed opening and closing of the doors, the 12v battery volts regardless of it's age and overall condition depletes itself voltage wise rather quickly enough that I've had to put a charger on the battery to get the engine started again in a reasonable time frame.

Using a multimeter connected to the battery, I have watched a few times over the years of ownership the volts tends to drop pretty quickly with just the interior lights on.. Plus just the other day while talking with our GM Service Tech, he also mentioned that during his testing of the vehicle system, he noticed that the batteries voltage dropped pretty quickly so he recommended a new battery which I installed on 6/2/16 but again with the interior lights on, the volts start to drop off in no time even on the new battery.
So you may want to be cautious with how long and how many times the lights stay on for the duration set by the interior lights internally programmed timer settings vs how many times each door is open and closed within each time frame of the lights being on.

 

Yes Fun Times a 12V battery below 11V can give you trouble.