Aero RV Belly Pan(s)

[orbywan]

A month or so ago I built a boat tail for my 95 Ford E-350 Class C RV. It was a lot of work but it was also a lot of fun. The first and only test run so far, showed a 32% improvement on the easy half of the trip, and an average of 23% improvement for the round trip so I‘m really happy with the results so far. The airflow on the sides and the top are pretty good, but the airflow on the bottom was not.

So, the logical thing to do is finish the overall concept and skin the undercarriage to see it’s full potential and try to improve the flow on the bottom side of the tail, which will probably end up being reconfigured.

I broke the pans down in segments. The first 6 photos are of pan # 1, which goes from the front I-beams forward to the front bumper.

Pan # 2 runs from the I-beams back to the transmission crossmember, those are photos 7 – 11. So I don’t write a book with the first post, I’ll post the photos for Pan # 3 in the next post.

I had a really big piece of cardboard laying around so I used that to make templates for pans 1 and 2, then tested the suspension, made some adjustments and made the coroplast pans from the template.

When time permits I’ll also fabricate some wheel pants or spats for the front and especially the duallies in the rear. There has to be some serious turbulence around there. They will have to be easily removable since we take this vehicle off road occasionally.

[Frank Lee]

I can hardly wait for the results!

[Tygen1]

I'm glad that you are doing this!

[orbywan]

Pan # 3 was made without a template since I was out of cardboard and it has no moving parts in that area. This is as far as I’ve come so far, this is far more time consuming and way less fun than building the boat tail.

Laying on a creeper working overhead with diesel crust falling in your face is a challenge when your neck and back are as beat up as mine. Oh yeah, I forgot, it’s monsoon season so the easy bake oven (my shop) is not only hot but humid. I shouldn’t complain, it’s a great place to release my inner whack job and fabricate strange and wonderful (to me) things. OK, whining is over.

The tricky part will be covering the rear end housing. I’m not sure if that part will be articulated, and move with the rear end housing, or if I’ll just bring the pan as close as I dare in the front and back and leave a gap in the middle. At this point my patience is running thin so I think I’ll leave it alone for a few days. I can’t turn my head so good.

After getting this far I'd like to tip my hat to Three Wheeler Jim. Sir you have the patience of a saint. Seriously.

[Cd]

Oh yeah ! What an improvement !

[skyking]

I'd go with the gap at the axle. you are making such an improvement, no need to knock yourself out and make something that articulates. Nice job!

[Jean-Seb]

Nice work ! And it seems to be paying off so far. Keep at it !

[Impulse]

Great work so far keep it up! Look forward to seeing your progress.

[bikin' Ed]

I'm inpressed and inspired. Great job!!!

[Dean in Milwaukee]

I'm really looking forward to seeing your testing results.