Silverado aerocap build thread

[Fubeca]

One more:

[dwestmodesto]

Looks good.

[Christ]

Be careful about it blocking the 3rd brake light.... that might cause a legal issue in some areas.

If you want to fill the gap, just use some auto body masking tape and black plastic for now. In fact, that could be a 2 minute addition to test if the gap is really hurting you at all!

How do you intend to test your design?

[Fubeca]

Well - it was a terrible day to do any real testing but it was the only time I'll have for a while.

I warmed the truck up and drove back and forth on a 1.5 mile stretch of straight rural highway.

I ended up doing a B-A-B-A test. Each leg was 4 sets of out and back.

B: avg mpg 19.6
A: avg mpg 18.8
B: avg mpg 19.4
A: avg mpg 18.8

So it looks like a lackluster improvement of ~.7 mpg or ~4%

The ambient temp was 10* and there was a NW wind at 10-15 mph. The road was East to West.

So I don't think the test is really all that valuable. I'll be interested to see how my mileage looks over time.

I'll take some more pics and maybe you all can let me know if you see any areas that may need improvement. I was really hoping to get 10 - 20% improvement.

(EDIT: testing speed of 55 mph)

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Fubeca

Well - it was a terrible day to do any real testing but it was the only time I'll have for a while.

I warmed the truck up and drove back and forth on a 1.5 mile stretch of straight rural highway.

I ended up doing a B-A-B-A test. Each leg was 4 sets of out and back.

B: avg mpg 19.6
A: avg mpg 18.8
B: avg mpg 19.4
A: avg mpg 18.8

So it looks like a lackluster improvement of ~.7 mpg or ~4%

The ambient temp was 10* and there was a NW wind at 10-15 mph. The road was East to West.

So I don't think the test is really all that valuable. I'll be interested to see how my mileage looks over time.

I'll take some more pics and maybe you all can let me know if you see any areas that may need improvement. I was really hoping to get 10 - 20% improvement.

I suspect that if you had immediately yanked the cover and did the same runs "naked",that you would not have seen your 17.58mpg baseline.
I've been looking back over the logbook on my truck and it will lose almost 9 % mpg between winter and summer.
I really think that 10-degree temp is slamming your numbers,that's why I posted the general temp/mpg chart.Your 19.6 might become a 21.364 mpg in August.
It takes 22-miles of continuous driving at 50-mph just to bring a vehicle up to it's equilibrium temperature for any given ambient condition.Any parking time between runs,even a stoplight can cost you in heat transfer.
I like your cap a lot.Please spend some time with it and see that,when things warm up again,she doesn't go even further between gas pumps.
I tore my hair out the winter of '05/06 hoping to see my bellypan show up on the radar.It wasn't until spring that the numbers emerged.

[Fubeca]

The "B" numbers above are with the topper and the "A" numbers are without. I'm not concerned about the overall numbers, as the cold does really effect it. I was just hoping to see a little more differentiation between the numbers with the topper and the numbers without.

I'm happy to see any improvement though and it keeps the snow out of the bed

[mcrews]

WOWOW!!!!!!
The black is shrink plastic???
There is some really lite foam in the marketplace that would fill the gap and not scratch the cab or be attached to the cab.

[Fubeca]

It isn't really meant to be a shrink plastic - but it works. It is just standard construction film. The stuff they use around here to provide a vapor barrier between the insulation and the living space in a house.

I was looking for something cheap and easy to cover the topper with and thought about boat shrink wrap (the stuff they use to protect boats in the off-season). It was kind of hard to come by at cheap prices so I tested this stuff since it was made of basically the same plastic. I picked it up at the local hardware store in a big roll.

Up close you can see a lot of imperfections - but it looks great from a distance and it was cheap and easy. I just wrapped the whole thing, stapled it to the underside and shrunk it up with my heat gun.

I'll try and pull another picture off my camera tonight that shows it a little better.

[Fubeca]

It is hard to get the images to show detail - the snow/light kind of washes it out.

[mcrews]

very impressive...... very clean.......

Maybe Darrin should think about this stuff for his bumble bee tail......