Quote:
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?
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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.