aeromods for trailer?

[aerohead]

I've got four of them and they'd be free to anyone wanting to experiment with 'em.Otherwise I'll have to cut them up to fit the dumpster.

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by justinooo9

So to clarify I did not mean to flat out say im better than most at driving but I drive more cautiously than the majority around me. I have an older brake controller than I have learned my way around for the various goosenecks, 5th wheels, and bumper pull trailers so I feel good enough about its abilities. Sure I could spend an extra $150 for a new controller and wire harness but nah.

As far as tongue weight, tire pressure, balance, all the good and bad about weight distribution of a pickup I have a decent understanding. But A 7.3l v8 will not reach the fuel economy of a straight 6 5.9 cummins without major changes. I barley got 19.5 with a tonneau cover on stock suspension about a 3in rake in the rear with 265/75r16 highway tires.

Now I run a level kit up front with 285/75r16 BFG AT2 tires. I raised my front end up just over 3inches to make the truck level, and added taller/wider/heavier tires. I can get close to 18 empty with the tonneau cover and easy highway driving now and that's really, really working my eco driving skills and only in summer. even with diesel kleen and winter fuel blend I am usually 2mpg less average. plus the snow/road conditions and sometimes needing 4x4 or little aired down tires etc.

Regarding towing. The side by side weighs 1720lbs empty with just gear/and fuel and the trailer weighs a hair under that. My truck on the cat scale with no passengers, just truck close to full tank as I can get and the gear is just under 8klbs. I'll never put the trailer on a scale to get the tongue weight totally perfect... its just not worth all the time. I have been eyeing the position on trailers for years without any negative effects. if I start driving and feel my brake test arnt good enough it takes 5 minutes to unstrap and move the unit a tad bit closer to the front etc. You can plan and plan and plan where to strategically place all the camping gear and food in a 5th wheel and still not be at the most effective pin weight. Im very conservative when towing. I try to almost never exceed the manufacture recommendations for weight limits, I have the over load top spring, front/rear sway bars, 3750 max rated tires very rarely ever needed above 70 of the max 80 psi, a very well maintained front suspension/rear suspension, brakes, steering, ball joints, drag link, track bar, bearings, blah blah. I get it im not an over the road trucker with 10 million miles towing rvs but generally speaking a little side by side and maybe 1500ish lb trailer behind 8k is going to be fine. I check tire pressure, grease bearings, adjust brakes, keep good distance (seems relative to each person these days) and I just plain take care of my equipment. I can only drive as good as I can and hope I can react quick enough to react to my mistake or someone else's.


to get back on the point. Im out of state working for the week but soon as I get pictures. looking for feed back on the trailer set up if any mods would be affordable/worth it on the trailer unit.

Thanks for the length of reply. My comments are for anyone. Care to guess his often I see pickups operated in a sane manner? Whatever their speed?

Was trailer total weight earlier stated? Still, 10-15% TW needed for stability. Not optional.

A pickup is outside of safe handling speed above 55-mph. My test is a stopwatch to drop a gear (man trans) and get below 45-mph. How many feet have I used?. Find that number.

Total stopping distance to a complete stop is above 325’ at 60-mph. What’s that distance in highway stripes? (look it up). That’s the minimum distance to maintain from others. Neither alongside, in front or in back. I spend my days cancelling cruise to let the pack of idiots get way out ahead. Let them dissipate. They will. When it involves passing someone slower than me, I do it alone. If I can use terrain, I will.

Back in the days of the 55, we’d call the lead truck the front door, the last guy the back door, and those in the middle in the rocking chair. That’s what we’re looking for here. Just gliding along on cruise, but subject to slowdowns per traffic.

So, again, find that number: minimum distance for separation.

These are the two operator factors that determine how to use the vehicles rate-of-glide. I want to avoid brake and throttle use, per se, but not to the extent I’m constantly falling back. There’s a balance. (I’ll lay money down that everyone will not use that glide ENOUGH. Not at first).

Count the brake applications for the day. When it’s due to traffic, it’s bad driving skill (meaning room for improvement). You “know” that it’s high priority to screw up the road for everyone else that cars seek always to get ahead of big trucks and anyone towing. Into construction. Near a major exit. Entering. Cases where ROW doesn’t exist for their actions.

So it’s not caution. It’s being able to predict. “Caution” was separation distance. The former is active, the latter, passive. Thus ROW is your court friend. Use it. Insist on it.

If you want those who pass you and then slow to keep moving away, adjust the starboard low beam upwards. Drive always with lights on. You can test it, as I guarantee that lights alone will help this BUT work against you in a pass. First off, cancel headlights. You’ll still have the problem of those matching speed to you unconsciously or pointedly don’t want you in front (dead giveaway if a non-American: cooperation was once the word), just start your pass farther back. I start all of them 350-500’ back. (No ROW in passing lane).

Etc.

For mpg purposes:

1). an engine hour meter plus verified odometer are the most important.

2). Next would TACH + EGT + MAP.

Average MPH against AVERAGE MPG will cut the fuel bill the most once understood.

The latter are for fine-tuning the driving strategy.

6-psi
60-mph
600F

Find the engine rpm on cruise that delivers these most consistently. It won’t be above 60-mph, but it can be a surprise where 2-mph makes a significant difference.

62-64/mph is the Interstate sweet spot. Always on cruise.

As to what you have on the trailer, tarp it. Round the front if you can. Extend tarp to trailer rear. Test by having observer look at it while underway. Build up empty are is portion behind cargo in some fashion.

[freebeard]

Back in the days of the 55, we’d call the lead truck the front door, the last guy the back door, and those in the middle in the rocking chair. That’s what we’re looking for here.

It looks like we've got ourselves a con-voy.

Always on point, but what is ROW?

[slowmover]

Right-of-Way.

The keystone to all other permitted actions.

The genuinely stupid don’t care that — in a slow pass of one big truck by another (slow according to car drivers; I may have had that pass mapped and planned several miles back and am now acting as the opportunity has presented itself) — that passing one in the travel lane and cutting between the two trucks into the passing lane means they’ve accelerated into problems they cannot foresee as those trucks block their vision.

Other traffic may exist. Sometimes does (why I hang back to optimize spacing). It’s black humor funny to watch these cretins move into the pass lane now with NO separation distance from an accelerating big truck behind them and what’s out in front.

When it was Americans operating on the roads, co-operation was in effect. The slower truck would drop off and get the one passing back over.

Today I get these Third Worlders accelerating so that I don’t pass them. Or they brainlessly speed up to match mine. Neither action is legal, strictly-speaking.

It’s in the interest of all to keep passes short. Good luck with that. The cretins line up in the passing lane with the excuse it’s for faster traffic. That interpretation couldn’t be farther from the truth.

It’s the flow of the travel lane that determines how fast one will be going, in general. One isn’t exempt from commercial traffic because one isn’t. It’s the reason for those roads in the first place.

Second, making one’s self an impediment to the flow of others isn’t permitted. One cannot block lane access at any time (except WITHIN the confines of a pass).

I find myself coming up on genuinely slow traffic ahead and start to to signal left, I ain’t asking permission. That’s the literal reason that lane exists. The shocked reactions are pretty damned funny.

Or, those without the brains to accelerate to ABOVE the speed limit with the luxury of a long entrance ramp. Expecting others to make room for them.

Ever entered the Interstate nose-to-ass with another ahead? And maybe more behind? That’s a classic death certificate in hand.

“You” don’t have adequate room to merge onto the roadway if the person in the travel lane has to brake or change lanes. If it’s a big truck, that REQUIRES more than 500’ of space.

No one cares how long “you” have gotten away with it. I don’t. No driver I know does. We all decided many years ago we were going home. And that involves no emergency lane changes or braking. The truck WILL come to a controlled stop, upright, in that lane.

Where the car drivers winds up quit being a concern long ago. Suicide-by-stupidity was guaranteed to increase when a country imports and grows 100-million retarded additions.

Wonder why cars are so expensive?. Eric Peters can be funny as hell on the subject. Its not “the nanny state”. It’s to keep the retarded death rate lower.

These paperwork Americans and illegals are a threat to everyone around them. Incapable of 45-mph speeds and greater. The visuo-spatial skills — time & distance calculations — can’t be trained in those who are congenitally incapable.

But, hey, they’re the replacement population. Can’t expect logical extrapolation either. Which is ROW.

.

[teoman]

Slowmover, please stop being a racist. It takes away from your posts.

[freebeard]

If nothing else, your immigrants go through a screening process and the better ones are selected. ( Unlike ours which get a free pass as long as they vote for a certain party, irrespective of what they were in their own country (rapist, thief, scammer... whatever...)

So stop being a racist an re-earn our respect or we will learn to ignore you!

Maybe it's lost in translation, but you describe our legal immigration process correctly and then say your process is like our illegal immigration.

slowmover does push things a bit lot, but on balance we have poster named litesong on the opposite side.

(Not a US citizen, nor would I want to be one(dealing with your legal system for ones rights is just insane), just a very remote observer)

Not sure about this either. Having those rights is good, if they aren't respected that's a (correctable) failure.

[gone9]

Trailer was finished last night with the final coat of paint on the metal and last coat of stain on the deck drying. The shop is around 70 degrees though so it should be dry enough to at least get plates and reg from dmv. We have easy regs in Idaho compared to some other stuff.

I will post a pic this Saturday with measurements of the trailer loaded/hooked to the truck. I did not weld stake pockets to it yet for the sense of time and me using my dads shop (he put his projects on hold to help me a ton). Looking forward to input and thanks for your guys patience and words of wisdom.

currently unknown trailer weight but I have the access needed to weight truck, trailer seperatley, combined and with weight of side by side etc.

Im gonna post the following measurements: if more is needed let me know:

specs of truck, specs of trailer and specs of trailer/truck with side by side. I'll measure the distance and heights of everything as best as I an too.

[gone9]

sorry for the odd picture and not posting more length/height measurements. My wife hates the red canopy on the green truck more than the average person. I have a 6in memory foam mattress, small camping toilet, and raised platform for camping in the canopy. I will be able to snag a better picture this weekend most likely.

truck weights around 8k lb with gear and me/dog in it.

trailer weighs 1140 empty

side by side weighs 1725 with full tank of fuel, some recovery supplies and no passengers.

Any suggestions for the trailer is more than welcome. I plan on adding two stake pockets to the front, two on each side in front of the fenders and one on each side behind the fenders. I just wanted to finish the trailer so I didn't add them yet. Trailer tows very smooth thankfully.

[freebeard]

My wife hates the red canopy on the green truck more than the average person.

I don't hate the average person at all, so it hard to relate. But that sounds like a job for Plastidip. Camo green on that canopy?

Thanks for the pic. It looks like a tarp that goes as high as the front tires would be a good start. To the windshield header wouldn't gain much aerodynamically, but would offer protection from road debris.

The back is the bigger problem. It looks like it rides toward the back of the deck for balance purposes, so there's not much opportunity for a boat tail.

Maybe a tapered cargo box on the UTV?

[gone9]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I don't hate the average person at all, so it hard to relate. But that sounds like a job for Plastidip. Camo green on that canopy?

Thanks for the pic. It looks like a tarp that goes as high as the front tires would be a good start. To the windshield header wouldn't gain much aerodynamically, but would offer protection from road debris.

The back is the bigger problem. It looks like it rides toward the back of the deck for balance purposes, so there's not much opportunity for a boat tail.

Maybe a tapered cargo box on the UTV?

Appreciate the helpful feedback. Ya the UTV is a mid mount engine so I had to move it forward to balance. I marked where it was yesterday and this weekend ill experiment with even more tongue weight.

Sorry but to clarify, when you say tarp are you saying like a straight up tarp just from the front of the trailer maybe like bungee corded to the tongue and to cover the front tires and may the air go up/over? or more of like adding some stake pockets and putting like a 1-2ft wall in front?

I have a large treasure chest style aluminum tool box I kept in front of the 5th wheel truck in bed or truck I was thinking of mounting on the tongue. vs spending more money and getting those "always too small" triangle shaped tongue tool boxes. It may be 54in wide I think and like 18in tall but its free and has a working lock.

side by side is 10.5ft total length.
trailer deck is 13 ft 8in long and 5ft 8 in wide and a 17ft 8in total length.