[capturedbyrobots]

First off, I love this forum. It's amazing what you guys accomplish with minimal materials and raw brainpower!

I'm new, but have been reading as much as I can take in. Forgive me if I'm not quite studied in all this aerodynamic fun.

I tour the country with a rock band of robots I made, and have been using this 19ft class c for the last 8 years. Due to VERY annoying local laws, I'm forced to put it in my short 16.9 ft driveway, and since the body is falling apart anyways, I figure now would be a great time to make this brick less of a brick.
Last tour I spent $8000 on gas, so if I can get even a 10-20% improvement, that's quite a bit. I don't figure its going to cost me too much, as I'm quite the scrapper. I find free/cheap materials often in bulk.

I know this 1972 class c isn't a great platform to start with, but if the Cd is really that bad it shouldn't be too hard to get a lot better with a totally new body, right?
I do have a gear vendors installed though. I love that lil guy....

In order to fit the robots most efficiently in the camper, I have to have it approx 8 ft wide. If I load lengthwise in a more narrow van, I have no room to live while on the road.

The plan so far is to remove the entire rv body, leaving the van front. I'll redo the very warped subfloor and beef up the side frame supports. Then make the roof slope up from the van front following the windshield angle, and then do a slight taper over the entire length of the roof to the rear.

I plan on feathering the body wider from the front doors rather than the flat wall extensions it has now. What were they thinking?

Overall, the plans include a lot of great stuff I've found here so far:
Side skirts, wheel fairings front and back, air dam, and Im going to make a hinged foldable tail to be out when freeway driving, but when parking I can fold and latch it out of the way to fit in smaller spaces (very important as many parking spaces I can just squeeze into now.

My questions will be many but I've got a few to start.
To keep it as light as possible, should I use metal studs for the framing, or should I use 2x4? I weld as well, so I could do square tubing, or whatever.
My plan was to skin it with galvanized sheet metal, and on the top edges having at least a 2in radius. I've seen the ideal aerodynamic template, and I'll try to adhere to the concepts, though the main ones being a constant taper inward slightly??? I'm going to Photoshop some body ideas to run them by you before I start chopping as I'm gathering materials.

I'll get a pict up soon....

Btw, does anyone know of a more aerodynamic roof vent? They really help cool off my camper in hot weather.