Quote:
Originally Posted by FastDemise
Any updates?? I'm in need of more ideas for my Cherokee. I have the SPAL fan controller hooked up to a taurus fan but right now I just have it running full power until I can get the sensor to allow proper throttling. It's just good to see that a Cherokee can achieve descent MPG results even after offroad modifications are added. ;-) Love the ARB bumper
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Well I'm definately jealous, but would say to you get that sensor put in place so you aren't constantly using that fan at max, it pulls a LOT of power from your electrical system. Until you get that squared away, it is probably hurting your FE more than helping it.
I guess I'm far overdue for an update although I what I've got to share isn't very current. At this time I'm overseas again, this time in Afghanistan so no driving the Jeep (obviously).
To be honest, I didn't even want to mention this next part last summer so I wouldn't be chastized by the "aero purists" here on the forum, but perhaps someone else that wants good FE and off-road ability will benefit from it. This took place only about a month after I added the aeroskid to the front end.
The mod I'm refering to is not aero as I had to remove the aeroskid and modified the suspension and lifted the chasis about 6.5 inches above stock height. After I finally got things worked out and aligned I took it for a test drive. OUCH... mind you this is with my aeroskid removed still....15.8 MPG at 65 MPH. I was even asking myself, "WHAT HAVE I DONE! Is this even the same vehicle I started with?" With that being said, the next day I was down at the hardware store to source longer brackets for my aeroskid. Needless to say it was easily worth the $12 I spent, because after some adjustments and trimming the next day I was back up to 22+ MPG on the freeway at 65 MPH. I was so happy that I didn't lose much MPG if at all I took a snapshot of my scangauge with my phone.
I think that while I don't particularly run the road of hyper-efficiency for a Jeep Cherokee like what FastPlastic has done wish his (30+ MPG in a 4x4 box is outstanding in my book), but rather getting my vehicle to do what it is that I want while tweaking the product to net gains that at the least nullify the losses, if not still make some improvement over stock. Actually thinking retrospectively my vehicle has gone the wrong way on most things (armor adding weight, not-so aero friendly front bumper/lights, more suspension, etc) and I spend my efforts negating those affects. Luckily with this car there is plenty of room for improvements.
Will I ever run a full belly pan? Probably not likely. I've been thinking about how to make that possible and it's not unfeasable except when I'm not on pavement there is a high probability that it will not survive so it would need to be somewhat easily removable for those instances.