98 Single Cab Tacoma 2.7L "Smudge"

[aardvarcus]

That's great! You have officially hauled more in one trip than many trucks haul in a year.

[mikeyjd]

Originally Posted by aardvarcus

That's great! You have officially hauled more in one trip than many trucks haul in a year.

Haha maybe

I was able to get 33mpg on the calibrated UG on my 21 mile trip to the storage unit with the 6 appliances on the bed. Must be the moon's

The cold start was rough, but I was getting about 35mpg at 55mph on the highway. Half tank logged at 38.91mpg. I blocked off a little more of the grill and upped the tire PSI to 55lbs.

[mikeyjd]

I got to the scrap yard today and discovered that the truck weighs 2800lbs! Just cracks 3000 with me and tools in it lol...

[mikeyjd]

After only getting 33 on all my running around yesterday, and having a frustrating day with work, I decided to take a spin to see what I could get on the 10 mile route near my house. From start to park I was able to hit 46.2mpg on the UG

[mikeyjd]

Recorded a full tank today at 38.5mpg. I'm pretty happy considering this tank included several trips with multiple appliances on the flat bed.

My mileage actually doesn't decrease if I have either 1 or 2 appliances on the back if I lay them on their side. What I gain in weight I can make up for in aero by laying them on their sides directly behind the cab.

I lose roughly 3mpg with one upright appliance or 6 with 2 upright. After that it's about minus 1mpg for each additional up to a full bed of 6 appliances.

[spacemanspif]

Cool little project. Have you thought about taking some sheet metal down the slide of the bed to close up the ends of all those 4x4s? Looks like each one could be grabbing a lot of air with how exposed they are. With a rig like that I feel like a belly pan is almost impossible but might be worth considering too.

[mikeyjd]

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

Cool little project. Have you thought about taking some sheet metal down the slide of the bed to close up the ends of all those 4x4s? Looks like each one could be grabbing a lot of air with how exposed they are. With a rig like that I feel like a belly pan is almost impossible but might be worth considering too.

I plan to do something to the sides once I get everything underneath squared away.

I serviced the rear differential (long overdue apparently as the bottom sludge was very thick) and transmission this morning. I used mobile one 0-30 in both and will await the results on that upgrade. I expect it to help some given the thickness of the sludge that came out of the differential. The trans already had nice synthetic, so I'd be suprised to see anything there. 0.5-1mpg would be nice.

I do plan on doing a belly pan to the differential and maybe putting fairing on that if I can figure out an elegant way to do it.

The biggest thing I miss switching trucks is the space for tools in the cab. I have it in mind to mount a hitch in front of the bumper and make a hitch mouted tool box on a cargo carrier. Does anyone know of any restrictions that would make that idea problematic? I was thinking to try to mount the hitch at about 6'' from the ground to create and air dam while giving enough clearance for driveways. I'm thinking the whole thing with all the tools will ad around 150lbs. Ideally I would cover it with a skin mounted in hinges that would allow for easy access and improved aero. I've yet to see an example of what I'm thinking. Here is a picture of where the hitch would go.



Long term I'd like to make an aerocap with a 4ft extended tail on a hitch mounted carrier that could be easily removed/replaced for trips. I'm working on sourcing the materials cheap for it. I have the lumber and windows already. I'm still trying to decide what to use for the skin. Coroplast doesn't hold up in the sun over time as well as I'd like, but I don't really want to mess with fiberglass either. I'm thinking of trying to follow redneck's boat tail contruction style with modifications for truck shape obviously.

[aardvarcus]

Before you bolt anything sticking out on the front of your truck, remember that your truck has factory airbags that are sensored off of deceleration. The front of your tacoma includes a crumple zone, which means impacts don't instantaneously decelerate, instead the impact is spread out over time as the front crumples. This translates into less deceleration for the same impact versus having no crumple zone.

Why does this matter? A front hitch would be rigidly mounted straight to the frame with no give, basically "bypassing" the crumple zone for impacts to the hitch. With a steel tool carrier in the rigidly mounted hitch it is possible that a small impact could result in more of a jarring force from the almost instant deceleration and set off the airbags when they are not needed.

If you look at certain steel bumpers marketed as "airbag compatible" for tacomas, like ARB, they actually include special bumper mounts which actually act like crumple zones in an accident to prevent this from happening.

I just wanted to make sure you were informed of this potential issue.

[mikeyjd]

Double post

[mikeyjd]

Originally Posted by aardvarcus

Before you bolt anything sticking out on the front of your truck, remember that your truck has factory airbags that are sensored off of deceleration. The front of your tacoma includes a crumple zone, which means impacts don't instantaneously decelerate, instead the impact is spread out over time as the front crumples. This translates into less deceleration for the same impact versus having no crumple zone.

Why does this matter? A front hitch would be rigidly mounted straight to the frame with no give, basically "bypassing" the crumple zone for impacts to the hitch. With a steel tool carrier in the rigidly mounted hitch it is possible that a small impact could result in more of a jarring force from the almost instant deceleration and set off the airbags when they are not needed.

If you look at certain steel bumpers marketed as "airbag compatible" for tacomas, like ARB, they actually include special bumper mounts which actually act like crumple zones in an accident to prevent this from happening.

I just wanted to make sure you were informed of this potential issue.

Thanks