nissan kingcab aerocap

[lunarhighway]

I wouldn't put too much hope in the air-dam idea however. Since your truck is so high, it's not really going to do much to prevent air from going underneath without a significant increase in frontal area. I think you would see cleaner airflow with belly-panning.

that said, a lot suv's i see have signifficant airdams at the bottom.. usuallt spit in a wheel dam section and some sort of semi bellypan...

any little improvement is a good think... might not show up on the fuel charts in a big way, but all bits add up

[MechEngVT]

Have you done any tuft testing of the new cap? I would be curious to see what that looks like.

[Big Dave]

Looks good.

Next iteration: A lid.

[sepp]

how do you mean a lid?

i don't think i can do any tuft testing myself, but it's certainly something to look for in the future when i may be doing modifications that are less certain to work compared to all the other more obvious changes.
but today the higway was completely soaked, and i watched the watercloud created at the rear verry carefully. at first point it looks less large than before, and it seems like the water is kicked up, and when it reaches the height of the cap it stops. while before it used to go much higher. i also noticed the cloud seems less turbulent, it sort of keeps the same shape while before it used to be verry unstable. this is all verry promising, and just the smoother feeling you get while driving is great.

another thing i noticed with the watercloud is that it seems to start behind the rear wheel, where it strangely jumps out to the side about half a meter away from the side.

i noticed that the frontally incoming air hits all 4 tires above their centerline, wich means that the top layer (wich i suppose is more dense) gets directed over the tire and has to travel through the well. so i think that making triangular air diverters in front of the tires to lead the air to the sides of the tires will greatly help along with wheel flaps and rim caps.

[tartosuc]

Can you still use the bed cargo space?

[Big Dave]

A lid is a section of the cap that is hinged in front and allows access to the bed for bulkier items.

Your rig has the same problem mine has - carrying anything taller than the height of the tailgate is a real problem. In my case the tail gate height is 24 inches and I cannot easily gey anything bigger than that in it.

What we have is not truly a cap but a static fairing.

[lunarhighway]

[sepp]

haha good pics if one can aeromod a vehicle and make it look cool aswell, it can only help our cause! ill add a red beamlight to the hood, it already talks to me like nightrider when i use a gps

now i understand the lid part, yeah i was thinking of making it lift-able from the rear, but my cap is too heavy for that. and making a self-baring polyester-only cap without all the wood underneath to solidify it, would at least triple the cost.
i know my cap is not ideal, theres lots of things i would have done better if i was rich and had a whole team working for me. but this is the best compromise for me.
you can still put anything in it as long as it's not higher than the tailgate, wich for me is good enough in 98% of the trips i do. we only occasionally carry larger things like tractor tires or seed bags. but the cap can be removed in 2 persons in less than 3 minutes.

[BrianAbington]

I wonder what david hasselhoffs cd is.

[lunarhighway]

he looks sleek enough in the picture but i think frontal area could be significantly reduced with a new haircut.