2019 Silverado air curtains

[Vman455]

Jalopnik posted a video interview with the chief engineer of the new Silverado today.

https://jalopnik.com/all-the-cool-st...evr-1822399931

Most of it is generic, but at 1:20 there's an interesting detail regarding the air curtains. Mr. Herrick mentions that they're good for an 11 count improvement in drag (-.011 Cd). I think this is the first time I've heard a quantitative assessment of the impact of air curtains from an OEM.

[kach22i]

This time of year all I can think of is how funked up with ice and snow that vented slot is going to get.

Nice that they try to educate the public about it so it doesn't become a place to stick used cigarettes and candy wrappers.

The dysfunction of these full sized trucks is phenomenal, clearly something has got to change, something like folding side gates.

https://alumbody.com/dodge/

[Xist]

Yeah, I do not how manly that is, while Jalopnik showed a $500 fishing rod tube.

Gotta impress the ladies... or whatever.

What does impress the ladies? A complete Pokerman collection?

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by kach22i

The dysfunction of these full sized trucks is phenomenal, clearly something has got to change, something like folding side gates.

The front end of the new GM pickups looks like the broad side of a barn. Sure glad the manufacturers successfully lobbied to replace sealed beam bulbs with composite ones to facilitate those low, sloping, aero front ends. Now we get these nice (sarcasm), expensive yellowing plastic P.O.S. instead of inexpensive glass units that retain like-new performance over their entire working lives.

I'm wondering if the driver of said pickup could see a sedan or coupe in front of them? Maybe it's equipped with rear AND forward vision cameras.

"Dysfunction"- Ha Ha, function has little to do with this. It's about cylinder count, high "H-Point", how chicken isht the owner is, and how small the owner's gonads are. They already have the motorized running boards; I'm waiting for them to introduce the ingress/egress integrated escalator.

[roosterk0031]

Penny's rogue has a forward facing camera, turns off over 4-5 mph. It actually has cameras on all 4 sides.

[Frank Lee]

Why look out a window when you can use some gee-whiz technology to do the same thing?

[Vman455]

Back on track, here's another Jalopnik interview with the director of engineering for Ram.

https://jalopnik.com/a-close-look-at...ech-1822465887

Of all the Ram’s changes, Wichman’s favorite improvement is aerodynamics, which is 9 percent better than the outgoing model in terms of drag coefficient—now reaching 0.357.

That improvement, Wichman told me, came through two primary means. The first has to do with changes made in the rear of the truck, namely the "dovetailed" roof, and changes to the bed, whose sides are 1.5-inches higher, and whose tailgate has a little spoiler on top.

The second major enabler for the lower drag coefficient is the active air dam, which deploys at 35 mph to divert oncoming air down and away from the suspension and other underbody components.

The air dam, which you can see below, retracts at 15 mph, and is clutched, meaning it will break free instead of breaking if a driver hits something.



An interesting tidbit that Wichman mentioned was that the engineering team at Fiat Chrysler actually looked at deployable air dams that reached lower towards the ground, but at a certain point, the dam actually became less effective.

It’s worth mentioning that the only vehicles that get the deployable air dam are those with coil spring suspensions. Air suspension trucks make do without the feature, as they’re able to lower the truck’s ride height 0.6-inches to reduce drag at higher vehicle speeds.

[Grant-53]

Despite all the posers there is a market for hard working commercial vehicles off road. Yes, there is a truck culture of More Power, but the farmers, loggers, and construction company owners have a strong economic incentive to reduce operating costs. These are the people pushing for diesel/electric hybrids and better low speed fuel economy.

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by Grant-53

Despite all the posers there is a market for hard working commercial vehicles off road. Yes, there is a truck culture of More Power, but the farmers, loggers, and construction company owners have a strong economic incentive to reduce operating costs. These are the people pushing for diesel/electric hybrids and better low speed fuel economy.

When it comes down to it, people are going to drive trucks, whether that's for work, image, or whatever. I'm just glad to see manufacturers paying attention to aerodynamics on them, since they're so profitable OEMs don't want to stop people buying them, and we certainly can't stop people buying them.

[slowmover]

Thx for post, OP.

I believe there was a post on this subject that air curtains were difficult. As in, not DIY without extensive calculation. Just knowing factors was difficult enough.

.