Experiment: smooth wheel discs tested A-B-A - 4.6% mpg improvement @ 65 mph

[brucey]

For anyone worried about overheating their brakes while the wheels are covered up, I can say that mine have been fine so far. I recently towed a 1000lb trailer (with no trailer brakes) 50 miles through WV mountains and had no brake fade at all on cheap pads and cheaper rotors. It was a fine set up except for the bed on the roof.



And I still beat the EPA estimate looking like that!

[bike4miles]

Impressive! I still can't get past the appearance but it would be well worth throwing some on for a long drive.

[dmac257]

Originally Posted by Bror Jace

Power to you, Concrete, but that sounds a bit too complicated.

I am seriously considering buying these instead:

Full Moon Racing Disc Hubcaps, Stylish Look, Great Prices, AutoAmenity.com

Can you put hub caps on stock aluminumn alloy rims? I am about to try some mods to my quad cab and those disc hubcaps look nice.

Don

[MetroMPG]

They won't simply snap on, if that's what you're wondering.

You'd need to fabricate a custom solution based on your wheel design, or drill/tap screw holes.

[brucey]

Well, 4 months and nearly 20,000 miles later I have a small nick in one of the covers. It is not visible from more than 5 feet away. I put a piece of tape over it and gave it a quick coat of more plasti-dip. No other maintenance of any kind has been done to the wheels. Rain, mud, 5 foot grass, and dirt roads don't touch them.

Looks brand new again. This mod will be staying on for the foreseeable future. I also have yet to have a problem with wheel balancing with as little as the tape weighs. The only problem I see right now is convincing a shop to balance the wheels when they do eventually need re-balanced.

[brucey]

Took them off after almost 30K and no sign of problems. I'm super impressed for tape and spray paint. Got some different steel wheels for snow season/tires.

Considering putting on pizza pans since I still have them sitting around somewhere. Other than cutting, did anyone find a way to install them over top wheel weights on the outside of the rim? The steel wheels I have seem to be much better suited for the single bolt method.

[Weather Spotter]

I have pizza pans on my steel wheels, I used three bolts. They have stayed on since September, 4000 + miles

Look for my build thread in the smooth wheel cover section:
Car MPG Efficiency Modifications Main - EcoModder

[brucey]

Did you just install them over top the wheel weights, or did you cut the pan?

[ccrider]

i have pizza pans on my truck for about a year and probably 20,000 miles. i have them installed with one bolt in the center and i cut the pans with tin snips around the wheel weights. the notches stop the pans from spinning. the only annoying thing about the pans is they rattle when i hit bumps. [IMG][/IMG]

[Weather Spotter]

Mine do not come out to the edge (.75" gap) so I did not have to notch them at all. But the notch is a great idea if you only have one bolt.

Mine rattle when I hit bumps too. I tried some plastic tubing over the outer edge and it worked, till the tubing came off (broke epoxy).

So I am just living with the rattle.