Quote:
Originally Posted by spacemanspif
Cool little project. Have you thought about taking some sheet metal down the slide of the bed to close up the ends of all those 4x4s? Looks like each one could be grabbing a lot of air with how exposed they are. With a rig like that I feel like a belly pan is almost impossible but might be worth considering too.
|
I plan to do something to the sides once I get everything underneath squared away.
I serviced the rear differential (long overdue apparently as the bottom sludge was very thick) and transmission this morning. I used mobile one 0-30 in both and will await the results on that upgrade. I expect it to help some given the thickness of the sludge that came out of the differential. The trans already had nice synthetic, so I'd be suprised to see anything there. 0.5-1mpg would be nice.
I do plan on doing a belly pan to the differential and maybe putting fairing on that if I can figure out an elegant way to do it.
The biggest thing I miss switching trucks is the space for tools in the cab. I have it in mind to mount a hitch in front of the bumper and make a hitch mouted tool box on a cargo carrier. Does anyone know of any restrictions that would make that idea problematic? I was thinking to try to mount the hitch at about 6'' from the ground to create and air dam while giving enough clearance for driveways. I'm thinking the whole thing with all the tools will ad around 150lbs. Ideally I would cover it with a skin mounted in hinges that would allow for easy access and improved aero. I've yet to see an example of what I'm thinking. Here is a picture of where the hitch would go.
Long term I'd like to make an aerocap with a 4ft extended tail on a hitch mounted carrier that could be easily removed/replaced for trips. I'm working on sourcing the materials cheap for it. I have the lumber and windows already. I'm still trying to decide what to use for the skin. Coroplast doesn't hold up in the sun over time as well as I'd like, but I don't really want to mess with fiberglass either. I'm thinking of trying to follow redneck's boat tail contruction style with modifications for truck shape obviously.