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Old 06-02-2015, 09:57 PM   #12 (permalink)
aardvarcus
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Evensville, TN
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Deep Blue - '94 GMC Suburban K2500 SLE
90 day: 23.75 mpg (US)

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Freebeard,

The very front of the Tacoma has fairly minimal overhang and one side on the back has the exhaust pipe to contend with. I can increase the angle some though. You are right, my posted design is more of a open box, obviously far from ideal and much less sophisticated than the design on the AST or on the solar cars Aerohead posted. The back piece is only acting like a boat tail in one dimension, not two since the bottom is open. Given the open bottom allowing boat tailing in only one dimension, does the upward angle on the back fairing matter much? I could see the benefit to the upward angle on the back much easier if it had a closed bottom.

I could get much closer to the tire with the open end of the fairing, however since I have two sets of tires (on-road and off-road) of different sizes the fit really can't be perfect on the 31.7” on-road tires or the 33.4” off-road tires won't fit. The reasons I designed the closed faces next to the tires on the back fairings was to allow a small radius at that transition, to keep from creating a parachute when I turn the wheels, to make it easier to strike objects with the fairing without hanging up while going forward, and to allow the rear fairings to act as a functional mud-flap.
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