Go Back   EcoModder Forum > EcoModding > Aerodynamics
Register Now
 Register Now
 

Reply  Post New Thread
 
Submit Tools LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 02-28-2010, 02:34 PM   #1 (permalink)
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: bayshore ny
Posts: 7
Thanks: 6
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
magnetic covers for rear wheel skirts

Hi everyone. I am a new member. I am aeromodding my '87 Celica, 375K miles. So far, I have

1. smaller sideview mirrors (these are legally required-- I am using bicycle handlebar-plug type).
2. closed-off front high air intake
3. turbulator strips in front of my windshield wipers
4. Full vortex generators at the rear of the roof and sides of rear fenders-- I will not be crafting a Le Mans tail
5. 40 psi tires (down from 47 as I had developed a high spot in the passenger rear.

The Celica on its last tank got 28.5 mpg. I have achieved 39 mpg on a highway trip.

I have read many posts on the rear wheel covers that ecomodders have made, and considered how to do this. My question is-- has anyone tried magnetic covers? They would be easy to remove, and there are such coverings for signs that stay attached at highway speeds. I looked online yesterday and found that a 10 foot by 24 inch, .030 gage red would run about 50 bucks. Worth a try?

John
BTW I am an environmental science teacher and my students are into this idea!

  Reply With Quote
Alt Today
Popular topics

Other popular topics in this forum...

   
Old 02-28-2010, 09:04 PM   #2 (permalink)
ecomonkey
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: middleburg fl
Posts: 240

silver clown - '02 toyota echo 2 door base
90 day: 47.16 mpg (US)

white ghost - '05 prius base
90 day: 47.53 mpg (US)

white pearl - '12 toyota prius base
Last 3: 45.69 mpg (US)
Thanks: 33
Thanked 30 Times in 21 Posts
do you mean rear wheel skirts?
  Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to moonmonkey For This Useful Post:
motiheal (03-01-2010)
Old 02-28-2010, 09:36 PM   #3 (permalink)
Master EcoModder
 
orange4boy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: The Wet Coast, Kanuckistan.
Posts: 1,275

The Golden Egg - '93 Toyota Previa DX
90 day: 31.91 mpg (US)

Chewie - '03 Toyota Prius
90 day: 57 mpg (US)

The Spaceship - '00 Honda Insight
Thanks: 100
Thanked 306 Times in 178 Posts
Those magnetic signs are also famous for flying off at high speed, so I've heard. I'd stick down the leading edge with something.
  Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to orange4boy For This Useful Post:
motiheal (03-01-2010)
Old 02-28-2010, 11:13 PM   #4 (permalink)
Pokémoderator
 
cfg83's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Southern California
Posts: 5,864

1999 Saturn SW2 - '99 Saturn SW2 Wagon
Team Saturn
90 day: 40.49 mpg (US)
Thanks: 439
Thanked 530 Times in 356 Posts
John -

Quote:
Originally Posted by motiheal View Post
Hi everyone. I am a new member. I am aeromodding my '87 Celica, 375K miles. So far, I have

1. smaller sideview mirrors (these are legally required-- I am using bicycle handlebar-plug type).
2. closed-off front high air intake
3. turbulator strips in front of my windshield wipers
4. Full vortex generators at the rear of the roof and sides of rear fenders-- I will not be crafting a Le Mans tail
5. 40 psi tires (down from 47 as I had developed a high spot in the passenger rear.

The Celica on its last tank got 28.5 mpg. I have achieved 39 mpg on a highway trip.

I have read many posts on the rear wheel covers that ecomodders have made, and considered how to do this. My question is-- has anyone tried magnetic covers? They would be easy to remove, and there are such coverings for signs that stay attached at highway speeds. I looked online yesterday and found that a 10 foot by 24 inch, .030 gage red would run about 50 bucks. Worth a try?

John
BTW I am an environmental science teacher and my students are into this idea!
blackjackel used magnets to hold the framework of rear wheel skirts. They held for awhile, but eventually came off.

If I were trying to go with magnets, I would try to make it so that the wind wouldn't have a chance of getting in and pulling off the skirt. I think this is what orange4boy is talking about.

Do you know how it's hard to pull magnets apart, but it's easy to slide them apart? Because of that, I would look to do something like this :



The leading lip would protect the skirt from the wind getting in.

CarloSW2
__________________

What's your EPA MPG? Go Here and find out!
American Solar Energy Society
  Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to cfg83 For This Useful Post:
motiheal (03-01-2010)
Old 03-01-2010, 06:23 PM   #5 (permalink)
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: bayshore ny
Posts: 7
Thanks: 6
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
i was thinking in terms of a large overlap to the rear fender, both in front and behind the wheel opening. i agree that the leading edge could have some kind of extra attachment method so the wind wouldn't get under it, but not sure what this would be. i really want to be able to get to my wheel easily.

i read a website for a company selling magnetic signs that mentioned rounding the corners to prevent high speed falling off.

my other choice at the moment is 7 L-type brackets, to the inner lip of the wheel well, and then a coroplast cutout cover with short screws to this.

i'm not giving up on the magnet idea yet-- it would be the easiest on-off.

i am trying to attach a pic but not sure if it will let me yet....


Click image for larger version

Name:	celica.jpg
Views:	52
Size:	4.2 KB
ID:	5696
  Reply With Quote
Old 03-01-2010, 08:14 PM   #6 (permalink)
Pokémoderator
 
cfg83's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Southern California
Posts: 5,864

1999 Saturn SW2 - '99 Saturn SW2 Wagon
Team Saturn
90 day: 40.49 mpg (US)
Thanks: 439
Thanked 530 Times in 356 Posts
motiheal -

Someone else was working on a hinged solution where the cover opens like a door. The hinge is forward of the rear wheel, so it is the "strongest" connection.

I have a version 2.0 of this in the works :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-pan-4472.html

I plan to implement the drain pan as a "base" for mounting wheel skirt covers. You just have to mount the cover on a uniform "flat" surface. This is where I am going :



The skirts will be attached with plastic pop rivets. You will have full access to the tire and you could more easily try different wheel skirt designs. The picture above is an example. Extending to the diameter of the wheel is too much. The actual "cover lip" will be about 1.5" wide.

This would allow for a multitude of cover designs. Here is one example outline :



CarloSW2
__________________

What's your EPA MPG? Go Here and find out!
American Solar Energy Society
  Reply With Quote
Old 03-01-2010, 08:30 PM   #7 (permalink)
Pokémoderator
 
cfg83's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Southern California
Posts: 5,864

1999 Saturn SW2 - '99 Saturn SW2 Wagon
Team Saturn
90 day: 40.49 mpg (US)
Thanks: 439
Thanked 530 Times in 356 Posts
motiheal -

PS - I have a tendency to over-engineer to reduce the possibility of failure. A compromise to my idea would be to use plastic pop-rivets in the forward hole or holes and magnets for the rest of the connections. That would make the forward part strong and reduce the number of pop-rivets you would have to pop out (maybe 1 or 2 per wheel. I am going to use 5 per wheel in my v2.0). When I say pop-rivet, I mean those plastic fasteners that are used on cars to attach plastic parts to cars.

CarloSW2
__________________

What's your EPA MPG? Go Here and find out!
American Solar Energy Society
  Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to cfg83 For This Useful Post:
motiheal (03-02-2010)
Old 03-06-2010, 02:17 PM   #8 (permalink)
Mechanical engineer
 
Vekke's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Kitee (Finland)
Posts: 1,244

Siitin - '98 Seat Cordoba Vario
90 day: 58.56 mpg (US)

VW Lupo 3L --> 2L - '00 VolksWagen Lupo 3L
Diesel
90 day: 104.94 mpg (US)

A8 luxury fuel sipper - '97 Audi A8 1.2 TDI 6 speed manual
90 day: 64.64 mpg (US)

Audi A4B6 Avant Niistäjä - '02 Audi A4b6 1.9tdi 96kW 3L
90 day: 54.57 mpg (US)

Tourekki - '04 VW Touareg 2.5TDI R5 6 speed manual
90 day: 32.98 mpg (US)

A2 1.4TDI - '03 Audi A2 1.4 TDI
90 day: 45.68 mpg (US)

A2 1.4 LPG - '02 Audi A2 1.4 (75hp)
90 day: 24.67 mpg (US)
Thanks: 259
Thanked 803 Times in 391 Posts
For magnetic solutions: DealExtreme: $2.89 Super Strong Rare-Earth RE Magnets (20-Pack 12mm x 1mm) those are qive quite good grip. there even bigger ones if you want to play safe... Prices are low and ordering works fine even to Finland .
  Reply With Quote
Old 03-06-2010, 02:44 PM   #9 (permalink)
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: bayshore ny
Posts: 7
Thanks: 6
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
thanks-- i am currently looking further into the magnet thing, but may rethink this a la cfg83's solutions.

by the way, if any of you are hypermile drivers and having stress with handling any driver situations, i could offer my blog, Best Driver In The World. it is the number one hit for Yahoo and Google when you type that in.

john
  Reply With Quote
Old 03-06-2010, 02:44 PM   #10 (permalink)
Master EcoModder
 
aerohead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Sanger,Texas,U.S.A.
Posts: 15,861
Thanks: 23,922
Thanked 7,207 Times in 4,640 Posts
magnets

Driving in the desert south west,I've encountered hurricane remnant crosswinds strong enough to shred some of my work.I've aborted trips on account of this.
From a pure safety standpoint,I would encourage you to do a lanyard or something ( as is done with snow skies,boogie-boards,surf-boards ) to protect other motorists driving near you,should something 'blow' off the car.

  Reply With Quote
Reply  Post New Thread


Thread Tools


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
DIY: plastic rear wheel skirts (Geo Metro) MetroMPG DIY / How-to 57 06-12-2014 09:16 AM
Front Wheel Skirts; 1950 Nash Ambassador Rokeby Aerodynamics 18 04-06-2014 12:14 PM
OEM Near-Aero Wheel Covers Rokeby Aerodynamics 15 10-21-2009 11:37 AM
2000 Mazda Protege Rear Wheel skirts Walk Through Blue Bomber Man Aerodynamics 13 08-29-2009 02:12 AM
Wheel skirts slowing me down? wagonman76 Aerodynamics 11 07-20-2009 12:41 PM



Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.5.2
All content copyright EcoModder.com