[freeside]

Folks,
I'm currently fabricating a full undertray / belly pan for my 2011 Ford Ranger extended cab, 2.3L pickup truck. I already have the front end piece completely shaped and am working on the finishing the bolted connection details. The first piece goes from the front fender to about 5-1/2" behind the lower front control arms and is 41" long. The truck has an overall length of 16'-11.6", so there's still a lot of work to do. I'm using 3mm Alupanel as the prototype material but am considering moving to Versitex as the final version. Versitex is a thermoplastic composite material with MUCH higher strength and impact resistance, in addition to being lighter and potentially easier to machine, although Alupanel is incredibly easy to machine.

My point in starting this thread, is to start gathering information on how to perform credible A-B-A testing on something so complicated to install/uninstall.
In the next week or so I'll be working up a written test protocol in combination with a QC checklist as a start. This will be my first A-B-A test and I want to remove as much error as possible by writing it all down and having a step by step process so I don't have a brain-fart halfway through the process and miss something. On that note, is there not an archive of test forms, written test protocols etc, shared somewhere on this site? I'm used to having a server full of documents, forms, templates etc at my fingertips at work, but it seems that this is a major component missing from forums...

Current issues:
1. Between A and B tests, it will take me approximately 45 minutes to 75 minutes to install the entire belly pan. Should I leave the truck running in order to maintain temperatures and cruise control set point?
2. Uninstall between B and final A test. Same issue although I'll need less time to pull it off than I did to install it.
3. I don't know about course length yet, but I figured 15-20 miles each way for 30-40 roundtrip miles for each section of the test. Say 45min to 1hr for each roundtrip test, 1 hour for install, and 1 hour for removal, I'm looking at a total test period of 5 hours. This doesn't include time for taking all the measurements before each segment of the test, or time to drive back to my house to do the install/uninstall. Now I'm looking at 8 hours total if things go without a hitch. It seems like weather, traffic and temperature variations are going to be too drastic across this long of a time period for reliable test data. Suggestions?

I'm shooting for final development/vetting of test protocol and the completion of the full belly pan around 1 month from now.

In the next couple of weeks, I'll have a blog up to host documents, photos etc and will try to keep this thread updated.
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
-Stephen