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Old 04-29-2012, 03:49 PM   #1 (permalink)
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Aeromodding a travel trailer

I want to aeromod my camper......Just minor things.....I don't want to do anything major. But I wondered if some creative lawn edging and or other mods could help.....Its not hard to go up from the dismal fuel economy numbers.... I will be towing it with a superduty v-8 with a manual transmission. I plan do do more and more towing with it. I am not so much looking for huge/expensive aeromods. Rather simple ones. I will be aeromodding the truck..I was wondering about edging sideskirts or even a airdam off the front to drop the air below all the junk underneath..... Any how I thought this may be a fun one to discuss and see what the minds here think....


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Old 04-29-2012, 03:52 PM   #2 (permalink)
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heres another shot, im not looking for miracles just some fun to see if i can improve onmy tow mpg numbers from the past

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Last edited by dupree; 04-29-2012 at 03:57 PM..
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Old 04-30-2012, 06:18 PM   #3 (permalink)
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trailer

I'm afraid that you'll have to do really massive pick-and -shovel type mods to get the air cleaned up enough for the smaller mods to have a chance to function.
A friend recently got a 22-ft APEX trailer which he pulls behind a new 4RUNNER.Last weekend he hosted a star party out in New Mexico and returned 12.5 mpg on a 270-mile round trip.About 1/2 solo mpg.
I got a 'free' but very expensive rooftop fairing with side panels off a Peterbilt tractor.We're going to try to chop and channel it to fit the Toyota's roof rack.
Then go after the hard corners on the trailers side leading edges.
I feel like this will be a 'minimum' effort to see any meaningful improvement.
You'll never see a vitamin tablet or suppository which looks like these trailers.And for good reason.
They'd tear you a new one,just like they're doing at the gas pump.
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Old 04-30-2012, 09:33 PM   #4 (permalink)
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If that was my trailer, I'd do the following:

1) Radius the leading edges to about a 4 inch radius. Possible glue 4 inches of foam to the entire front, sand, and epoxy a layer of glass cloth. Then paint something wild on it.

2) Removeable fairings over the awning poles.

3) A removeable fairing over the air conditioner.

4) Foldaway boattail.
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Old 04-30-2012, 11:28 PM   #5 (permalink)
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I know it looks bad, that front edge, but the money is always at the back. Always.
Nothing will do as much as a 6' long folding 3 piece (top and sides) boat tail with straight panels.
Go back and look at all the figures and data, and look at the NASA van with an absolutely flat front. The tail knocked the CD down more than anything, by a huge margin.
It is not that hard to do either, and can be built to fold away for parking or whatever.

Example:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea....html#post9902

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Last edited by skyking; 04-30-2012 at 11:36 PM..
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