A Practical Guide to Pickup Truck Aeromods

[Sven7]

Hi, all!

After driving my F-100 across the Midwest with an aero tonneau, I decided to write an article detailing the different approaches available for pickup owners.

Hopefully this can be a useful primer for those looking to learn a bit more, or a reference guide (I provided a LOT of links) for seasoned veterans.

A Practical Guide to a Pickup Truck Aero-mods



Enjoy!

[aerohead]

Well who's the professor now?
Great presentation Tyler!
I suspect that it's gonna gain traction on the web.

[Sven7]

Haha, thanks! It has 55 unique views and one "recommend" so far. Not exactly on fire (yet).

They say that teaching helps you learn, so it definitely was a nice refresher course on the subject.

I'm hoping that interspersing race trucks into the article will help hold the interest of more mainstream car enthusiasts. I like to think of it as using the powers of aerodynamics for good vs. using them for evil (not literally evil!).

[slowmover]

Bookmarked. Nice job!

[kach22i]

A good synopsis of our forum activity and the general topic - Bravo.

Future additions could include:

* Front air dams/chin spoilers.

* Belly Pans

* Lowering the vehicle

* Air Curtains both at front and at rear corners (my roof wing might have a little curtain effect to it FYI). Cab-over racing trucks in Europe would be a front corner example. I did a proposal for my rear cab corners using quarter round PVC tube but never followed through. This might be best categorized as experimental things yet to be validated.

What is nice about the document as it stands is that the modifications covered are fairly pick-up truck specific.

Whereas the additional topics proposed above may cover more vehicle types, both an advantage and disadvantage depending on how concise you like your documents.

[Frank Lee]

Did your fe improve?

What did your tuft testing reveal?

[deejaaa]

I like the truth you spoke about tailgates.

[Sven7]

Thanks, everybody.

Originally Posted by kach22i

A good synopsis of our forum activity and the general topic - Bravo.

Future additions could include:

* Front air dams/chin spoilers.

* Belly Pans

* Lowering the vehicle

* Air Curtains both at front and at rear corners (my roof wing might have a little curtain effect to it FYI). Cab-over racing trucks in Europe would be a front corner example. I did a proposal for my rear cab corners using quarter round PVC tube but never followed through. This might be best categorized as experimental things yet to be validated.

What is nice about the document as it stands is that the modifications covered are fairly pick-up truck specific.

Whereas the additional topics proposed above may cover more vehicle types, both an advantage and disadvantage depending on how concise you like your documents.

I might do a couple more articles in the future, but it will be hard to organize. I think there will have to be separate articles for sedans/notchbacks/coupes and hatch/wagons. Front end mods can be shared among body styles, but the rear ends would be different. Combined, they'd make up an extremely long article.

One thing holding me back is that without the graph of modifications as a guide, it's hard to say how much certain mods would help. If I knew of such a graph, I'd be much more likely to try it.

Look at this- it's an actual scholarly paper about drag reduction, but they start out with a freaking cartoon car! It can be challenging to find trustworthy information. I'll bet Hucho has some good stuff... if I wanted to spend three weeks combing through the book for a single blog post.


Air curtains... yeah, I haven't heard of anyone successfully DIY'ing those onto their car. I only want to present mods which have a measured benefit.

The EM "65+ Efficiency Mods" is a good start, but (no offense, Darin) is really vague and sometimes misleading. For instance, no one removes their door handles for drag reduction, although that is listed with a 1 out of 3 impact on fuel consumption. I personally would not even mention that.

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Did your fe improve?

What did your tuft testing reveal?

My FE was terrible, and one variable was the state of tune. I had some more work done in MN, so it's hard to say if the tonneau worked or not.

Tuft testing just told me that the air is indeed hitting the tonneau. Aerohead surmised that it's seeing some big longitudinal vortexes from the cab.

Originally Posted by deejaaa

I like the truth you spoke about tailgates.

Just trying to spread the Good Word, lol.

[darcane]

This image may make for a good addition to your guide:




Aerohead brought it to my attention in the thread about my Silverado.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post142830

I planned to do the panels under the cab/bed but ended up selling the truck before I had the chance. I always wondered how effective they would be.

[Xist]

Don't some trucks have running boards that pop out when you unlock the doors? Do they stay out until you park the vehicle?

Would they serve any purpose while the truck is in motion?