Commercially produced aerodynamic pickup bed cap

[bondo]

Originally Posted by fishaholic

Any news on when this will go to production?

Hopefully by summer of 2010. One of the U.S. Senators from my home State is working on getting a "tax credit" passed into law for the owner of a pickup truck who purchases an aerodynamic truck cap.

This will make the aero cap much more affordable and be a great enticement for a major manufacturer of truck caps to produce the aerodynamic caps.

Bondo

[Christ]

That's Great! I'd love to see them produced en masse, and the tax credits that go for useless vehicles (like the Hummer... ) would be better applied to the aerocap!

[GoodOak]

So Bondo, does that mean you/they will be offering caps for other models of trucks in the "near future" as well?!?

[bondo]

Originally Posted by GoodOak

So Bondo, does that mean you/they will be offering caps for other models of trucks in the "near future" as well?!?

Yes sir.

[Randy_the_Hack]

... has anyone compared the following to determine which is best aerodynamically:

• Nothing on the bed - "stock"
• Tonneau cover on the bed
• Cab height camper cap on the bed

Seems I've read something about this somewhere... but I can't find it and don't remember the results. I know Bondo's aero cap would out-perform any of the above... but barring that, which one would beat the other?

I'm asking 'cause right now I'm running without anything, though I have a tonneau cover which I've pulled off 'cause I was planning on picking up my ATV last week - didn't happen - and my wife's been talking up getting a cab height camper cap and getting rid of the tonneau cover. The tonneau cover is a Lund Genesis tri-fold tonneau cover... heavy material, not rigid.

Thoughts on which would be best from an aero perspective?

[bluetwo]

Randy: I think the thing to understand aerodynamically is that a gentle slope or MOST ideally - a tear drop shape, is the best thing for preventing turbulance and drag.

So a regular truck bed with the tailgate up isn't as bad as one might think. A tonneau cover is pretty good but a cab height camper might actually be a little bit worse and yes, the aerobed idea is the best even though it still has a sharp drop off which can create some turbulance.

Anybody stop me if I'm wrong but I think that about covers it.

[MetroMPG]

Randy: the answer can be truck-specific. But generally tonneau beats cap and empty bed. See this thread for more discussion: Does a traditional square pickup camper shell topper help or hurt drag & mileage?

[MetroMPG]

Found it:

[95badbird]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Found it:

sweet...so it looks like my camper is best on the list...

[95badbird]

speaking of which....I still need to take some good pics!