Belly pan for trucks

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by d0sitmatr

what engine is in your truck ?
Im sort of surprised that my ranger gets better mpg ?
I havent taken the time to do a full figure, but at the moment I just got 280miles from my last tank, all in town driving. I believe I have an 18g tank but not entirely sure (will find out and repost) but 280 miles all in town is my personal best at this time by using hyper-miling techniques.

Im hoping to make a couple of hwy trips here soon to see how far I can push a tank on the hwy, my best so far is 320, Im hoping to be able to reach 350 by just hyper-miling.

My T-100 has a 3.4L V6 engine in it with an automatic transmission. I have a 24 gallon fuel tank. It weighs about 2 tons after I load my gear/tools in the truck.

I can usually git about 300 miles with just in town driving before I see the low fuel light come on. I'll probably unload the back of the truck of my tools and gear to keep the weight down during the winter.

[d0sitmatr]

unloading made a HUGE difference for me, I easily gained 20-30 mpt by taking out the random junk that gathered in the back. I actually had 5 large sized boxes of tile that I had forgotten about, that was sitting under a tarp I had thrown in the back without folding. they have probably been in the back for close to 4 mos....

[JasonG]

BZP, did you attach the skirts to the body lip or just to the side supports and let it float top and bottom?

Nice build thread.

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by JasonG

BZP, did you attach the skirts to the body lip or just to the side supports and let it float top and bottom?

Nice build thread.

Which skirts are you referring to? The side skirts have their own support beam and are only attached to the cross members. The top edge just rests against the body lip (fer now). I was thinking about taping it later to see what it would do.

The rear skirts (front edge) "were" attached to the frame via a zip tie and screwed to a 2x4 piece that was
screwed to my rear hitch frame. I'm in the process of reworking a better support setup on the front edge of the rear skirts as soon as I trace out the pattern to make new ones.

The rear skirts won't float up and down but will wiggle side to side. The diffuser/rear pan does move (a little) up and down as the rear axle goes up and down.

[hat_man]

Very cool pan BZP! I would love something like that for my Ranger. Do you have any problems with engine temps with the engine bay so sealed? Ireally need to check out your build links next.

Hey d0sitmatr. What year Ranger do you have? I am averaging 30mpg (80% highway). No real mods yet other than an upper grill block and moving my front license plate up to cover some of the lower opening. Just went to synth. trans. fluid and diff. fluid so I'll have to see if that gives me any improvements.

[d0sitmatr]

Hi HM
I have a 99 XLT, that has the 3.0L Vulcan engine.
Im averaging about 25hwy, and am trying to push that up to 30hwy.
I have a proposed mod thread here that might give you some ideas:
going for 30+mpg 3.0L ranger
look for posts by the user cons, he has an 04 with a 2.0L 4 cyl he is claiming to get over 40mpg with. he has heavily aero-modded his truck though.

[slowmover]

I've enjoyed reading all your threads, BamZipPow, wherever found. Nice work, nicely done! Did you find that Democrat or Republican coroplast gave as good results as Libertarian? I was also wondering about loading the truck to GVWR (and/or rear GAWR) to see about road clearance issues.

Same for certified scale results: how heavy is the truck in normal use, and what is remaining factory payload? There comes a point where the FF/RR rake changes to "nose high" [relatively] -- even with the RM overloads. Call it questions about truck utility if you want. So I hope to see more as you learn more, and I know I'm not alone in following your experiments.

Interstate 45 is easy money for fuel mileage between Dallas/Houston . . nothing like the pain of I-35 from SA to Dallas!!

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by slowmover

I've enjoyed reading all your threads, BamZipPow, wherever found. Nice work, nicely done! Did you find that Democrat or Republican coroplast gave as good results as Libertarian? I was also wondering about loading the truck to GVWR (and/or rear GAWR) to see about road clearance issues.

Same for certified scale results: how heavy is the truck in normal use, and what is remaining factory payload? There comes a point where the FF/RR rake changes to "nose high" [relatively] -- even with the RM overloads. Call it questions about truck utility if you want. So I hope to see more as you learn more, and I know I'm not alone in following your experiments.

Interstate 45 is easy money for fuel mileage between Dallas/Houston . . nothing like the pain of I-35 from SA to Dallas!!

Didn't make a note of which party gave me a better performance.

I didn't have any road clearance issues with standard driveway slopes. It's the extreme ones that I avoid.

I just took out everything from the bed of the truck...including the topper. It raised the back end about 3"...so the clearance on the rear skirts went from 5" to 8". This removal of the topper is in preparation fer working on a simple aero cap. I lowered the diffuser to bring the angle back close to 4°.

I wonder if the belly pan and diffuser will have any effect on the tailgate being up or down now. Guess I'll have to experiment to find out.

[BamZipPow]

Headed up I-45 fer a bedliner so I'll be able to test the tailgate down combined with the belly pan and rear diffuser. I know it's only one run but it will be interesting...

[BamZipPow]

Going up North I got just under 23mpg with the tailgate down and the "ducktail" on the roof. Got 25.53mpg coming back with the tailgate up. This is just as good if not better than with the camper top on.