Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
Looking at aerohead's drawing, it would obtain only if the body width is twice the height because you get a similar taper on both sides as well. With a square body the side tapers will meet in half the distance. Generally, for your purposes a Trailer-Tail™ type folding box cavity would serve well...
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The first sentence of that completely evaded me. My overall height is about 90" and width is about 80". I agree about the tail but that's not at all what I'm working on at present, just the air dam and side-skirts for now. I know most of the potential for gain is in the tail but I drive 90% in the city where aero gains aren't very large to start with and where a tail adds complexity with most any mod (parking in parking garages, at my apartment, etc) whereas an air dam and skirts can be largely forgotten in every day driving.
Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
...In case it doesn't show, those deflectors are splayed out the width of the tire...
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I don't think they are. I'm pretty familiar with that body and its wedge shape (both vertical and horizontal) is likely just meeting up with a straight "deflector" by virtue of it narrowing aft of the rear wheel. I get what your saying though. Wouldn't splaying the skirts out like that increase the vehicle's wake?
Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
...aerocivic uses two side skirts making a tunnel between the front and rear tire...
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Nice but impractical unless your vehicle is suited to that design. My long axle beams (reach from wheel to opposite frame rail), solid rear axle, nearly identical track widths front and rear, and large underhanging frame rails, crossmembers, etc prevent such a tunnel.
Passenger's side^ Driver's Side \/
Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
...This allows for front and rear departure angles. Notice the center angles to allow for high-centering...
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My very minimal front overhang should make approach angles quite good and my departure angle is already quite terrible but I'll certainly keep those realistic. As for high-centering, I plan to drive over the biggest speed bump in my area and give it an inch or so of clearance to the bottom of the skirts. The landscape edging is of course used as a wearable edge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
...A good opportunity would be to ad a fillet from the top of the windshield to the front edge of the pop-top.
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Plans include adding a roof-rack type cross bar at the fore-most edge of the rain gutters and affixing a
wind deflector there. Crossbar and deflector would of course be far more streamlined than that tongue-in-cheek example. Solar panels are in the works (for cold drinks whilst camping, not vehicle propulsion) and must be sorted before other roof mods.