Big front bumper improves MPG
 

Hey all, we have been reading for a long time, and now's the time to share some of our mods. This 1992 ford box van had a 7.3L non turbo motor. We bought a turbo added a innercooler and propane injection, which really improves the performance and mpg. Then we covered the rear wheels and wrapped the van with a 12" rubber skirt. The last step is the big front bumper we made out of fiberglass with a rubber skirt below. The end result we took a van from 10-11 mpg to 14-15mpg going 60-65 mph (where before we could only get 55-60mph max speed).
Thanks to all the great tips that helps us build this van.
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...37854476_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...61482234_n.jpg

I think that was 10-11 *mpg*. ;-)

Either way, congrats! Great job!

yeah, thanks for the correction. Who would ever known trying to get better mpg would be so fun! Any suggestions on how we can improve our mpg more?
LM

Great Job!

I would do something with the front wheels. Looks like alot of drag there. Someone on this site sells covers for truck wheels. That should help some.

That is awesome!

You could try to make the front bumper stick out forward a little more, so the air doesn't hit a flat wall.
Similar to this, but this one is pretty extreme.http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...V1Bzf6oNSK8ltg

Looks very professional ! I had to read your post twice to see what all that was factory and what was fabricated. I love the look of front bumper with its angular cut outs. The look goes well with the design and even the " low and mean " theme. I can tell you have an artists eye for this sort of thing.

He ( LowandMean ) already has attached flow at the front of the vehicle.
The real gains are at the rear of the vehicle.

Looks very nice ! Congrats on those numbers. :thumbup:

Have you considered partially blocking the upper grille, leaving only the inter-cooler exposed ?

Do you have a scangauge or a device that indicates the coolant temperature (other than the gauge on the cluster) ? That way, you could further optimize the grille blocks while maintaining enough cooling.

Just my 2 cents.

A blunt front actually is better -- see the ideal template.

Rounding the front would still be better than flat...template. Perhaps filling in the gaps between the box corners and current fairing. You could add a streamlining box to the rear like over the road semis have started doing. The panels could be made to fold up so you could fold the door down.
Or go extreme, and cut the top off of the box even with the cab roof, and make it extendable with panels which overlap the lower sides of the box, like the old Alaskan campers. Cover the roof with solar panels, put some deep cycle batteries in the bed, run all the truck electrics off them, and delete the alternator. With an inverter you'd have 120 volts to run power tools at the track if thats what you need.
If thats too much, put larger radius's on the upper box corners, and make the box roof slope down starting a few feet behind the front edge, till its a couple feet lower at the rear, and still open like a hatchback to full height.

Very nice looking, goes along with the motto on the side of the van!

Looks good, and congrats on the increase.

Have a look at orbywans work on his Class C motorhome for further inspiration.

LRR tires on that? Eliminated steering slop? Added SAFE STEER? Kenworth and Cummins are both serious about this in White Papers on the subject of mpg.

You can also look up MICROBLUE RACING for fun on lowered drag rear axle gears and wheel bearings.

Can also look at "The Aerodynamic Template" around here in conjunction with DON-BUR trailer shape (thinking roof).

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Looks mean indeed - and slightly Mad Max :)

Love the spikes on the wheels, but I'd expect them to hurt the mileage a bit.

Drive 55-60 again ;)
You're negating a good part of the improvements by using it to drive faster.
Though if time = money in your business, you could run maybe just a few tanks @ 55-60 to see the true effect of the modifications.

Flat front wheel covers.

Put a boattail on the rear using some angled, flat plates.
It's already being done to improve the mpg of semis.

If you ever need to do some work on the fairing over the cab, widen it to the width of the box.

Nice job - with regard to design concepts, looks, and RESULTS!
Congrats!

Really nice job! The greatest potential for improvement is in the rear. A picture from behind wold be useful. If the corners of the cargo box in the back are round like in the front, then you could probably reduce drag by making them sharp and sticking out a bit, on the end of the side and top panels, to promote flow detachment.

Are you including the propane burned when you calculate mileage? What is the percentage of propane in your fuel mix?

It appears that the addition of Aero and PI have made the vehicle capable of a higher overall road speed (which, with weight, means better choices about hill climbs) and lending greater main fuel range. Which should be impossible, right?

A pillar must have an air deflector with vortex generators to improve flow avoiding flat surface drag.
The upper Air drag need more width to ensure flat surface drag is reduced (and reducing flat surfae for a curved air friendly one).
A Boat Tail will help a lot on lowering drag.

Nokian or Continental VancoContact2 tires with c.r.r = 0.0064 if is possible, Michelin Agilis crrr = 0.0071, with the same rubber, and width coefficents of rolling resistance is lower if radius is higher. Linear dependence is showed in european tests for ecolabelling tires.

Congratulations of your mods.

KEEP THE FRONT TIRES!!!!!!!!

any SLIGHT lose in mpg is made up in a HUGE amount of ATTITUDE!!!!

somebody snears at you and you can "BEN HUR" them!!!!

Remove the rear dually wheels put a spacer (that they sell for this) on then one commercial tire a side. Fuel savings may be as high as 2 or 3 mpg.
Remove mirrors add wide angle cameras mounted on a piece of pipe that is bolted to the original mirror mount points.
My guesstimate is the mirrors would save 1 -2 mpg, making possible 4 -5 mpg combined improvement on top of what you have done already,possible you could get 19-20 mpg in your cube van.
*Wow* that would be a cube van miracle that your close to making a reality.
I bet you could sell your Eco mods to other van operators.Great work you have done.

First off, my congrats on the great improvement!

I didn't see the rear, but a bold ecomodder.com decal would be a way to share with the motoring public what it's all about. While you're at it, a reverse image ecomodder.com on the front would be a kickin' addition as well!:D

That's awful interesting because on my truck, once I have a load going aerodynamics make little to no difference, it's all in how I drive, most of the fuel goes to push all the weight down the road...

Like a school bus, I really don't think aerodynamic styling would make much of a difference, a few percent maybe but certainly nowhere near what it would do to a car, mostly because either way it weighs near ten thousand pounds loaded and either way it's like 10 feet tall...

You just can't get away from the weight and height factors, although I will admit that it could be a case by case basis, that it could vary from one vehicle to the next...

Then again I can't wrap mine that low to the ground either, I have to have a fair amount of clearance, now unless you watch it real careful you're likely to tear that skirt right up.

I suppose, other than the show factor, that van is being used for hauling?

A lot is in how you drive, that's for sure.

But once it's rolling, a heavy load doesn't take much HP (relatively speaking) to keep it going on flat ground.
Uphill, it'll require serious HP and fuel, but you can regain some of that downhill.

Aero drag is always going to be an issue at speed.
That's why even on semis, people are tinkering with aerodynamics - from Don-Bur's bulged roof over underside appendages to various boattail designs.

friggin sweet man! i really like how it looks so professional and not a mess of sheet metal and coroplast ;) market that kit, sir, and ppl will buy it.