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The bed of my truck is 8.2' I think the issue of the way the truck sits is causing me the most trouble.
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From an article linked in
aerohead's Model A in a wind tunnel thread:
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Test 9: Attitude:Most hot rods like to run a little forward rake because they look cooler that way. Again, this was something that had not been considered on the roadster. Peter, however, immediately picked up that more rake means more frontal area and therefore more drag, so it was time for an attitude change. We began by dropping the front 111/42 inches from our baseline and that resulted in a staggering 10hp increase in drag and an increase in front lift of 42 pounds. The more rake we put into the car, the more we increased the drag. Consequently, we put the front back to baseline and lowered the rear of the car 11/42 inch. Eureka! A reduction in drag of 10 hp and a slight reduction in lift in both front (4 pounds) and rear (2 pounds).
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Ignoring the bogus numbers, level is better. Self-leveling would be best.
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If it does make it back to 16+ degrees, isn't that a bad thing for the aerodynamic effects when it comes into calculation for reduction? I thought 12 degrees or about was optimal, or is my understand all wrong?
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The degrees-of-angle-at-each-station way of defining things
is confusing. It's really a parabolic curve that's defined by a quadratic equation. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabo...an_coordinates. Most of us aren't up for that. If you draw a circular arc, you'll see that the curve relaxes as it proceeds to the rear. So the curve is greatest at the beginning, but accumulating angle at each successive station makes it look like the curve is greater, not less.
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If it terminates early, will it have a negative impact on reducing drag and increasing MPG?
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Ending at the tailgate
is terminating early. Probably 6-8ft early.
The problem here is the 2" gap should be sealed and you lose the early start to the taper.
The suggestion to turn this around is a good one. There is precedent, aerohead did a half-tonneau that followed the template, but it's not in his Pickup Images album. Maybe he can point to it.
A half-tonneau is 2nd best and less work. The lack of plan taper below the beltline is problematic. Thee Template is half-circular in section.