Thread: New belly pan
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Old 08-19-2011, 02:39 AM   #13 (permalink)
puddleglum
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Thought I would give a long term update on this project. The pan made it through a Canadian winter in fairly good shape. I almost took out the front pan on a large lump of ice in a parking lot, but it was repairable without too much trouble. My front corner pans and front air dam are getting a little beat up. My wife has run them into the parking lot curbs several times now, and they haven't like it. I think that road noise has increased a little since I installed them as well.

As for mileage improvement, I am quite certain that the project was a success. I don't do a lot of driving on the highway, but when I do, mileage is consistently better than before. This summer is the first time I have done GPS corrections for speed and distance and found I have to reduce the mileage numbers by 1.8%. Even so, Scanguage has been showing 33mpg at 65mph on calm days and up to 35mph at 55mph. That's a good 2mpg better than what it was without it. I did build a rear pan as well before our vacation trip last week. It may have helped a little, but not enough to notice. I removed it when we got home though. I made it in a hurry and not very well but I still may revise it and try it again.
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Almost all my driving is done 1-5 miles at a time.
Best short trip: 2.4 l/100 km, 3.9 km
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