T-100 side skirts and belly pan...

[Tesla]

Originally Posted by BamZipPow

The side skirts keep the air between the belly pan and the bottom of the truck from bleeding out. My belly pan is a dropped belly pan method. There is about a 5" gap between the bottom of the truck and the top of the belly pan.

When you say 5" dropped, is this across the board, then being a 5" x width increase in frontal area?

or

Is it just that there is a 5" drop between body and lowest crossmember and that's the level you had to set the belly pan at?

and

Did you notice any identifiable improvements with the completion of the belly pan?

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by Tesla

When you say 5" dropped, is this across the board, then being a 5" x width increase in frontal area?

or

Is it just that there is a 5" drop between body and lowest crossmember and that's the level you had to set the belly pan at?

and

Did you notice any identifiable improvements with the completion of the belly pan?

The front air dam is dropped about 6" lower than stock so that the dropped belly pan won't add anything significant to the frontal area. Here's my dropped air dam build...
T-100 dropped air dam

The main belly pan is dropped approximately 5" based on my spacers. I think it's about 4" on the front cross beam and about 5" on the rear cross beam. The transmission/exhaust/drive train is lower than the actual bottom of the truck floor pan. I not sure if I measured the clearance from the bottom of the belly pan to the ground but currently it might be about 7" on the front cross beam and about 8" on the rear cross beam. The belly pan is approximately 2" thick based on the metal wall stud framework. I used to have a top skin to the belly pan but I pulled it to lose some weight as it made it rather difficult to hold the belly pan in place and bolt it down.

This is where I started to build the crossbeam concept fer my belly pan...
Belly pan build-page 3. You should be able to see what I did...

I think my MPGs are more consistent with the belly pan than without. My first generation did okay...but it was more about learning than actually performing.

I think my measurements are:
Bottom of the air dam front edge = ~8"
Bottom of front crossbeam = ~7"
Bottom of rear crossbeam = ~8"
Bottom of differential crossbeam = ~7"
Bottom of rear diffuser rear beam = ~11"

My belly pan is divided up into 4 sections:
1. Air dam belly pan/engine bay belly pan
2. Main belly pan
3. Rear belly pan (after the rear crossbeam and before the rear axle) - hinged to the rear crossbeam
4. Rear diffuser - hinged to the rear belly pan and hinged to the rear support (trailer hitch)

The hinges allows the articulation/flexing of the rear belly pan and rear diffuser as the rear axle moves up/down.

Rear diffuser is set to 4°. The bottom of the rear crossbeam will decrease as the bed is loaded down.

[Tesla]

Thanks, had a look,
so overall there might be a 1-2" drop at the lowest members around the axles.

The view under mine is considerably flatter looking, I have coil springs and the lowest points are the axles which when fully loaded are close to level with the rest of the underside, there are still some cavities that could do with smoothing over, but looking at it, I am feeling that mine could be one of those that could swing either way with a belly pan.

[BamZipPow]

It's been a few years since I last worked on the rear side skirts. The road and debris had really worked the rear side skirts over. I had to reinforce them with some extra Coroplast so they would be smooth again.

Took a major hit on the extended rear diffuser after I backed up into some heavy brush. The FRP didn't take kindly and snapped off. Needless to say, I've since replaced it with some 18"x24" Coroplast signs. Perfect fit with two of them.

I've been running around over a year with a partial side skirt setup. I reinstalled full side skirts but only with a 2" drop below the belly pan instead of the 4" or so I originally had it. We'll see how it performs on the upcoming road trip.

Piccies will be posted tomorrow...

[whatmaycome14]

Looking good!

[BamZipPow]

Piccies as promised...

New left side skirt



New right side skirt



Repaired rear skirts



Installed a top fence on the rear skirts to see if the dirt being deposited on the rear window can be minimized.

[BamZipPow]

Just so it's understood...the side skirts are attached to a frame which is only attached at the crossbeams. I can't attach them to the rear wheel skirts as any flex in the truck frame will rip the fasteners out. The rear part of the side skirts "float" on top of the rear wheel skirts. At least it makes it very easy to remove the side skirts.

[BamZipPow]

After checking out the carnage to the rear wheel spats (looked like a shotgun hit the Coroplast I used fer making the spats), I've decided to pull them and see what happens with the current setup.

[aerohead]

Bam,
my single brain cell finally fired and I realized what you were asking about when youi mentioned the 'yellow' car and trailer.
It's Alan Cocconi's Tzero,of AC Propulsion.
I cut and pasted his rig to create a gap-filled,full-boat-tailed EV range extender

[rumdog]

Ha! Wow nice job there aerohead, that thing looks great in moon disks. You even got the reflection in the fairing, sheesh!
It was worth getting to the end of this informative thread...
Bam a big thanks for sharing your passion with the rest of us out here. I dig your bellypan and skirts. Great photos and documentation.