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But clearly,the aeroshell design appears to be the undisputed heavyweight champion for low drag in pickups.
There is nothing published in the public domain to suggest an architecture which exists,that will do more for reducing drag in a pickup.
And there is nothing in Fluid Dynamics which suggests an architecture which could.
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Don't get me wrong: the purpose of this thread wasn't to suggest the camper style top could be superior to a properly designed tapered aero cap.
I was just very surprised to read from several sources that it was possible a conventional topper could improve fuel economy compared to an open bed. It seemed counter intuitive to me...
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Originally Posted by aerohead
Back when pickup Cds were on the order of 0.50,adding a traditional topper would cut the drag of a pickup to that of a station wagon or Carry-all,Suburban,etc.,at around Cd 0.45.With this you might expect a 5% mpg improvement( HWY).
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... but we seem to be collecting a fair amount of anecdotal and imperfect test evidence that it may be true.