Belly pan for trucks

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

That does look great bamzippow, do you have your own thread about building it here?

Not on here yet but I do at ToyotaNation.com and Gassavers.org.

[d0sitmatr]

if possible, Id be interested in seeing a post with all your mods, Im looking at your profile avatar and am interested to see that front air dam and how you connected it all.

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by d0sitmatr

if possible, Id be interested in seeing a post with all your mods, Im looking at your profile avatar and am interested to see that front air dam and how you connected it all.

My belly pan build...
My modified air dam build...

[d0sitmatr]

awesome, thanks for the links !

reading through your worklog on the air dam, I wonder why you didnt just make the entire thing a continual smooth front section ?
that center area is a bad catchall for air, if smoothed out Im betting you would net a decent percentage gain in mpg. unless there is a reason for it that Im not understanding of ?

liking the bellypan, I really need to get to building one myself, but of course life has something else in mind for me, such as both my son and I being very sick at the moment... just in time to force me to not be able to drive down and spend thanksgiving with my mother and the rest of my family...

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by d0sitmatr

awesome, thanks for the links !

reading through your worklog on the air dam, I wonder why you didnt just make the entire thing a continual smooth front section ?
that center area is a bad catchall for air, if smoothed out Im betting you would net a decent percentage gain in mpg. unless there is a reason for it that Im not understanding of ?

liking the bellypan, I really need to get to building one myself, but of course life has something else in mind for me, such as both my son and I being very sick at the moment... just in time to force me to not be able to drive down and spend thanksgiving with my mother and the rest of my family...

This user did a complete smooth pan but I really wanted to reuse the old air dam as much as possible. At the time, I didn't want to invest a whole lot of money into the project as this was one of my first attempts at a new/different air dam. Also, I installed a transmission cooler that I wanted to git air to and a completely flat one didn't seem like a good choice at the time. Who knows...I might eventually go in that direction but I'm pretty happy with the abuse my current setup can take.

Also...with my current setup, I can experiment with different configurations without a whole lot of new materials or designs.

Sorry to hear about you being sick and not being able to spend time with yer family. Hope you git well soon!!

[d0sitmatr]

have you considered perforated sheet metal ?

when I do both my grill blocks and my airdam I plan on using perforated aluminum that allows a 38% air to surface. this way I'll still be letting in enough air to keep things cool (I hope) while giving most of the advantages of a full block off.
my truck came stock with a trans cooler, which sits right below the grill opening, so taking that into consideration as well. I posted a mockup of what Im planning on my grill to give you an idea of what it will look like. in this post:
grill mockup

[BamZipPow]

Well...this is what the front of my T-100 looked like before I started. I had just finished polishing my headlights. Yers are in need of some polishing, too!


As you can tell...it's not much of a front end to work with. The frame has some extensions that will always notch out the front air dam if you bump into something...as you can see on the left side of the truck. So my first thought were to drop it down so it wouldn't do that...thus my modified air dam started the whole business of my aerodynamic research on my truck. Also, the filler panels can easily be removed to git access behind them. If it was a solid piece...I'd have to remove the whole air dam just to do some work.

I believe my MPG numbers should validate a belly pan fer trucks if yer road use allows you to drop it down some. The big difference was the rear pan/diffuser in the back.

Yer Ford Ranger has more to work with. I would try some sort of inexpensive covering that you can form fit over yer bumper (like aluminum flashing) at first to git a basic form shape and validate some numbers fer you. Start out cheap and then move to the more expensive stuff. Then you can move on to the belly pan...

[JasonG]

WOW, nice build thread on toyotanation, shame they killed your ecomodder.com link.

Can you explain the reason you skinned the top of the belly pan? Where is that air flowing from?

Sorry for missing it but, what was your before and after MPG for the skirts/belly pan?

I am working on a proposal for my boss, our bricks do ~40K miles a year but need to look "normal" so this may go over better than my Kamm back idea.

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by JasonG

WOW, nice build thread on toyotanation, shame they killed your ecomodder.com link.

Can you explain the reason you skinned the top of the belly pan? Where is that air flowing from?

Sorry for missing it but, what was your before and after MPG for the skirts/belly pan?

I am working on a proposal for my boss, our bricks do ~40K miles a year but need to look "normal" so this may go over better than my Kamm back idea.

My fuel log... I think I was just barely breaking 20mpg before I started the aero mods. The first thing was the air dam and then the belly pan/side skirts. I just started with the rear pan/diffuser this past trip.

Reason fer skinning the top of the belly pan was to make sure I had belly pan structural strength and smoother air flow fer between the body and belly pan. I also needed a radiant barrier fer the bottom coroplast skin so skinning the top fit the bill.

The air flow will eventually be tunneled from the front (radiator)/lower grill openings to the rear along the exhaust system. I still have to button up the sides of the frame so the wheels git their own air tunnel.

I might try out a side skirt setup where it's just flush to the bottom of the belly pan. We'll see...

[d0sitmatr]

what engine is in your truck ?
Im sort of surprised that my ranger gets better mpg ?
I havent taken the time to do a full figure, but at the moment I just got 280miles from my last tank, all in town driving. I believe I have an 18g tank but not entirely sure (will find out and repost) but 280 miles all in town is my personal best at this time by using hyper-miling techniques.

Im hoping to make a couple of hwy trips here soon to see how far I can push a tank on the hwy, my best so far is 320, Im hoping to be able to reach 350 by just hyper-miling.