The art of the lawn edging air dam

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by jedi_sol

Did you make sure your air dam is only as low as your lowest suspension component?

otherwise, if your airdam is too big, any FE gains would be cancelled out due to having increased frontal area. You'll know for sure if you play with different air dam sizes.

Didn't big dave get good results from a air dam that practically dragged on the ground?
If I remember right he started with something like 1 inch of ground clearance and the road ate his air dam away till it was closer to an inch and a half.

Well the air dam is going to be 3 parts. The completed outer portions are going to give me about 7.5 inches of ground clearance. The front lower control arms give me about 8.5'' of clearance.
The aluminum backing perfectly covers my intercooler piping, it was hanging down real bad.

Another thing I should have added was I want it to encourage more air flow over the intercooler and radiator.

Also you can tell there was no consideration at all for what happens to the air when it goes under the bumper, there is just stuff hanging down all over the place and I haven't made it any better by adding the turbo piping and transmission filter.

I am not sure what I am going to do with the center section of air dam yet. It is going to have to preform 3 functions be part air dam, an intercooler air scoop and an intercooler support/protective structure.
(intercooler has already been damaged slightly by hitting a raccoon).
I mounted my intercooler ATA style (almost parallel to the ground).

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Maybe I should have mentioned I wanted to drop the air dam down 9 inches, leaving me with about 7.5 inches of ground clearance.

Yea, you could of saved a lot of arguments here if you were clear about your intent to build a 2-part (2-tier) chin spoiler. You called the aluminum part "backing" in lieu of the top part of an assembly.

I see that your bumper is very square at the corners, but I'll side with Frank Lee here, too bad you didn't radius it somehow.

To everyone comparing lawn edging on a car 2-3 inches off the ground to a truck 7-8 inches off the ground you have to realize that the truck is being backed into by car bumpers and worst of all other trucks with trailer ball hitches protruding out like a lance. Apples and oranges at best.

[justme1969]

You can delete all that other stuff if you pay shipping I will send you 12" used canvas conveyor material you might need slight reinforcement to conform it at lower points. That should cover most of gap to ground and it is semi ridgid especially when you conform it to the natural angles of the bumper and wrap around.

[Sven7]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

pics

That actually is very similar in concept to the air dam I put on my F-100 for the road trip. Instead of metal, though, I cut a 2x6 board to match the plan view contour. If the lawn edging would not have been so thick, it would have wrapped very nicely. I ended up cutting off the edges and leaving a sort of duckbill. It was bolted to existing holes in the frame. In conjunction with a tonneau it seems to have helped, with the truck netting 17mpg on the freeway.

Each person will build their own version; I am just putting this out there for anyone considering such a project!

click for photo

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by jedi_sol

hey, frank lee made the same mistake

He does that all the time it's his "normal", you however might get held to a higher standard because you are better than that.


I do not recommend garden edging materials for trucks which will be parked on city streets or in student parking lots.

Conveyor belt material is the way to go, which is why the race track guys use it.

[oil pan 4]

How much does the conveyer belt weigh?
Both sides together weigh less than 10 pounds and they are very ridged.
The heat treated 2024-T3 alloy didn't want to bend so I figured I would square the corners off. The air dam is so wide and comes down low enough it removes most of the need for tire spats, it also acts kind of like a forward side skirt since it follows the front of the body to just forward of the rear wheels.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

How much does the conveyer belt weigh?

It's heavy stuff, do you have a store called "Tractor Supply" near you?

Maybe you can get a feel for it at a retail outlet.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by kach22i

He does that all the time it's his "normal", you however might get held to a higher standard because you are better than that.

Ha Ha, I made no mistake; I responded accurately and correctly to the description provided!

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Ha Ha, I made no mistake; I responded accurately and correctly to the description provided!

You are the master of the obvious, and were correct in that aluminum is not lawn edging.

There is a lesson in all of this, but I'm not sure what it is.

[Frank Lee]

The aluminum was supposed to be "backing" and I was all "what purpose does a lawn-edging cladding serve?"