Aeromodding the Astro Van

[baldlobo]

hub locks are your friend

[freebeard]

anything will be considered. No boat tails though

There's your challenge, set a barely attainable goal and disallow the one thing that could get you there [on it's own]. 13' doesn't sound that long. My VW Beetle is that long.

My experience averages aerohead's. 30mpg at 55mph in a stock bodied VW panel van.

How to answer the challenge? I would gets chrome exhaust stacks, mid-sized truck parts—maybe 4-6" in diameter. Mounted them at the outer ends of the rear bumper where they thoroughly obscure the stock taillights. Punch a row of louvers [exhausting innies] at about 68° to the centerline. Hook them up to your exhaust system. The big plenum on the end of the exhaust pipe will slow and cool the exhaust and then the small area of the louvers will recompress it so that the Coanda effect pulls the attached flow around the corner to pinch off and detach the low-pressure bubble in the wake.

That and complete bellypan/wheel spats. Extend the front bumper brackets and cut the tips off the bumper. Faired in, it would be just as safe as stock. Most of the bellypans you see here are Coroplast. I like PolyMetal.

OR you could do it *all* in the drivetrain with a 2WD 6-speed turbo-diesel.

[Sven7]

13 feet? My Probe was 18' including the 40" boat tail and I drove it on unmaintained dirt logging roads in Michigan's upper peninsula. It was the ground clearance that was the problem- even the overhangs weren't an issue.

With that van you could do a million things to get a couple MPG or you could build a 5' boat tail and be happy. You could even turn the tail into a storage compartment for extra cargo. Use the trailer hitch to help support the thing.

[elhigh]

Hey Colton,

Looking at your van, looking in particular at the rear doors, I wonder if you could build a couple of extra clamshells that would close on top of them. The idea is that you could open the extra skins and prop them open like a Trailer Tail, wide enough to get the wake to reattach but still tapering in to reduce the overall wake effect. Another panel at the top would close the top of the wake. The bottom would just have to be the hot mess it is, I guess, unless you're very clever and can come up with a good solution for down there as well. Right now I'm at work and can't devote much thought to it. But looking at actual Trailer Tails that trucking companies are paying good money for, you can see that they don't have to be perfect to be effective and economically worth the trouble. And like a Trailer Tail, when it comes time to park you can just fold them up. So you'd be longer on the road but not in the garage, and it would be a matter of seconds to make the transition.

It wouldn't be the complete, ideal tail that would bring your whole wake to a smooth point, but it would be about 2.5' of taper that could reduce your vacuum wake to a lot less than it currently is. Any improvement on this rolling refrigerator box is, well, an improvement.

But that's a big project. Smaller, quicker and much much easier are rear wheel fender skirts, smoothie wheel discs up front, and a belly pan. To answer your earlier question, plain ol' coroplast gets it done for belly pans, but for a quickie proof of concept project you could put something together with cardboard. Use plenty of supports to keep the cardboard from tearing in the wind, and be advised that one puddle = no more bellypan. And with either coroplast or cardboard, beware the exhaust system. Insulate it, provide ventilation, stay the heck away from it, whatever. But with either material, the high heat could prove very problematic.

[botsapper]

The Japanese had a cult following on the GM Astro back in the day, even had an effect in the boxy styling of their Kei-vans.
http://cdn.speedhunters.com/wp-conte...2/02/van25.jpg

...or a kei-'Slade? Styling Effect Consept B :

An 'Murican chop. Astroghini Photo Gallery - Autoblog

[The Other Andy]

Not an aeromod, but near the top of your list with one of these vans should be replacing the belt driven fan with an electric one. The fan from a Ford Taurus is usually the preferred choice.

[Jasen]

Originally Posted by The Other Andy

Not an aeromod, but near the top of your list with one of these vans should be replacing the belt driven fan with an electric one. The fan from a Ford Taurus is usually the preferred choice.

This is a popular one on these van's. Theres a couple good write up's on it over on the astrosafari forum. I'll see if I can find them and pm you the link's.

post's found, link's pm'd

[Frank Lee]

'''''''

[TimRogers]

Originally Posted by The Other Andy

Not an aeromod, but near the top of your list with one of these vans should be replacing the belt driven fan with an electric one. The fan from a Ford Taurus is usually the preferred choice.

A little late to the party here but how much of an increase does this usually provide?

[freebeard]

Within some upper limit it will vary depending on driving habits and conditions. Am I leaving anything out? Oh yeah... the vehicle.