A new product that every driver needs

[skyl4rk]

I have an idea for a product that should make financial sense for every driver. The product is designed for small sedans at this point (I am working on fitting it to a Nissan Versa, but it should work on similar sized sedans). It should work for most passenger vehicles with some additional design and testing. The product will improve fuel efficiency by 5% to 15%. For small sedans, it will lengthen the vehicle to about 20 feet long. It requires a trailer hitch receiver. It provides additional storage area, although only light materials should be transported in the product.

At $4 per gallon, and 30mpg EPA, this product should pay for itself in under 20,000 miles. That is assuming a price of $250 which seems like it should be feasible from a production point of view. I would hope the product would last for the life of the vehicle, although that remains to be seen. If it lasted for 200,000 miles, it would have saved over $2,500 in fuel savings over the life of the vehicle.

You can probably guess what this product is. It is a cargo box that fits onto the trailer hitch receiver, that is shaped in an aerodynamic way. There is more to it, lights, license plate holder, watertight seal, locks. But that is the concept. I think it could be built and sold for $250.

I have not built a version 2 product yet so I need to verify all of this. But based on the first version, I think that the above description is correct and even conservative, there may be a bigger FE benefit.

[kir_kenix]

Got any pictures of version one?

[skyl4rk]

Proof of concept





Nissan Versa Base 1.6

[InsightfulRay]

Originally Posted by skyl4rk

I have an idea for a product that should make financial sense for every driver.

Good luck with your product. Looks funky but fun! If you can get solid FE improvement data that would go a long way toward winning customers. Hope it works out for you!

[cfg83]

skyl4rk -

Excellent idea of re-purposing the trailer hitch. I would guess it needs to be specialized for each car/model/body, so you would need to target a "bread and butter" car for your first release. I am thinking a Civic/Corolla/Sentra but there's nothing wrong with using what you have, the Versa.

Or maybe the trick is making it up/down/forward/backward articulatable such that you can adjust the cargo carrier to sit in the aero "sweet spot" for the set of cars you want to target. A jack of all trades will have a lower aero-benefit, but you will have a larger customer base.

CarloSW2

[kir_kenix]

I think it looks really cool. Is the trunk still accessable or do you rely on the built in storage of the boat tail for grocery hauling?

[myrefugeisintheLord]

I don't have a car, but I think this looks great! In time it will look more and more stylish as your budget for this will increase. And as you work on different projects you will get more ideas and find ways to improve upon your already good idea. Do it, do it, DO IT!!! I know a few inventors but they don't DO what they need to, to make it happen. Toyota started out with 20 cars their first year. Look where they are today! Sure, some may think it looks silly, but that's because we're not used to seeing a car like that on the road. At $250, or even $500, I would consider getting one for my car (if I had one)!! : )

[skyl4rk]

The prototype is very different than what the product will be. The first try was just a coroplast sculpture that lasted quite a while but eventually was ripped off the car (while going faster than 80mph).

Here is a comparable product built with no consideration of improving FE:



The cargo box should open from the front and hinged on the rear so that when the box is open, the trunk can also be opened.

How close should the box be to the car? I think it should be about 4" away from the car, but there could be a foam gasket (pipe insulation) between the car and box.

The box should fit entirely behind the vehicle, there should be no part that extends past the vehicle to the sides.

Car taillights would be visible from the sides but probably not the back, so additional LED taillights are needed on the box.

The license plate needs to be moved from the car to the box when the box is in use.

I think a box of about 4 feet in length would be a good start. I would still want the car to fit in a normal parking space.

If you look at a lot of the small sedans, they have very similar designs and sizes. I think that a standard box could be sized so that it would provide good aero benefit to many different small sedans. It might not fit exactly, but just having a smooth solid body boattail behind the back of the car will improve FE, even if it did not perfectly match the profile of the vehicle.

I don't really have time to start a business, although it would probably be more financially rewarding than what I do now. I live pretty close to northern Indiana where they do a lot of this kind of fiberglass work so I could probably contract it out. But I don't really know how to start a business.

I do plan to build prototype 2 this summer out of plywood and epoxy. i have another job starting up in the fall and it is an hour commute so FE at commuting speeds is important. With the Versa, which is EPA 30mpg, I can hypermile into the mid 40's mpg (without any EOC). With the cargo box, I could probably get tanks in the low 50's with the same driving techniques, and could approach 60 with EOC. This is based on experience with the previous tail.

The reason that hypermiling works so well with a tail is that the tail makes it easy to coast long distances, and hypermiling is all about coasting as far as you can. Engine Off Coasting becomes a huge fuel saver when you have an aerodynamic body that can coast long distances.

[Weather Spotter]

Looks like a boat tail, if you can make it cheaply then great!

[camopaint0707]

How does adding weight help mpg's?