1996 Silverado K1500 Fresh Meat

[vteco]

Yup, thanks.

[aerohead]

Just to muddy the waters even more, we'll have to consider these two additional forms of 'drag' in the mix.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* 'Curve Resistance' is something investigated by General Motors Corporation during the golden years of MPG research, considering :
- Velocity
- Radius of road curve
- Superelevation of curve
- and Weight of vehicle
( with a 76,000-lb semi, on a 108-ft radius, at 20-mph, the total additional retarding force due to the curve was greater than the total retarding force on a straightaway at the same speed )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* 'Grade Resistance' was researched by Chrysler Corporation, as a tool they used to win ( cheat ) the Mobil Economy Run, three years in a row, by pre-determining an optimum speed for ascending grades of different magnitude, based on a hidden inclinometer.
( if you lift 550-pounds, one foot, in one second, your accomplishing 1-horsepower worth of work ). On an uphill grade, you're lifting the vehicle's weight some distance ( in feet ) per second, which is converted into a horsepower penalty the engine must absorb. If the Silverado were a hybrid, on the 'downhill', 81.1% of deceleration kinetic energy could be pumped back into the battery.

[vteco]

Well aerohead, we'll start with the simpler and most do-able mods first!

I just got the truck back with a new fuel tank, and filled it up, ready to start checking MPG. Drove around a fair amount today with the new bluetooth to phone/Torque app, and did my usual routes up and down mountain, some shopping, and some 65 mph highway driving, all in mid 30's temps, and a fair amount of gusty wind.

This is obviously a poorly tested baseline, but Torque was saying that the total today added up to 17.9 mpg avg. Which surprised me, since I thought it would be lower. Obviously more extensive and rigorous testing might change that.

I did change the oil and filter before driving. Went with Penzoil 5W-20 Platinum High Mileage synthetic. Before that it had whatever the oil change place put into it @ 5W-30. Probably not synthetic.

I think I was getting 16-1/2 mpg avg before.

Well anyway, apologies...I'm straying out of the Aerodynamics topic here again.

Looking forward to deleting that sun shade above the windshield and running the same routes. And after that a partial tonneau.

[freebeard]

Don't throw it away. Once you've done all that, reattach it on the back as a 'simple wing' and see what that does.

[vteco]

Thanks freebeard, but I'm planning something better than that for an aft extension.

The sunshade is hollow and slotted if you look at the pix btw, and would make a nice parachute with reversed airflow.