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aerohead-
Yeah dude- verrry cool. I've followed links all over the internet about your work and your truck.
My dilemma- great with science; bad with tools and fabrication.Worse, I suffer w/ OCD. Lots of stuff I can't compete due to lack of skill and frustration.
On retrospect, I'm considering a belly pan may actually HELP moderate vehicle temps, especially an aluminum one. I figure up to about 75ºC convection would be the main for of heat loss. Past that I'm thinking radiation would dominate. A large Al belly pan would disperse the concentrated heat energy over a larger potentially improving convection. Additionally, the emissivity of weathered Al approaches 0.95, so I doubt you could expect a worse case of even a 5% temp increase.
BUT-- I would also stand to reason that you would get to operating temps much quicker in the above case. IOW, I wouldn't be freezing for the first 10 miles, only 5.
Then the 2 questions that tempt me are:
1.) after the belly pan, did you notice any change in how fast your truck warmed up, and
2.) if you ever consider bolting or TIG'ing some Al U-channel lengthwise along the bottom (not that you would or need)- I'd love to know if there were any changes.
Me? I'm thinking of one of the aftermarket steel pans just so I don't knock my underside off. Pretty sure anything I try to fabricate would be tore to shreds. I was looking at some 1/8th X 8" rubber for the dam and skirts, but I'd need a way to unbolt them easily where the highway ends, cause I still got that 60 mile each way highway to deal with.
And thanks for the input. Like your rig a lot and appreciate y'alls work in the area of saving me money (also the Aerocap guy, and the guy with the little chevy truck that did the spoiler, chin, and dam). And almost forgot the red F-350 getting 27mpg!
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