Commercially produced aerodynamic pickup bed cap

[CFECO]

Ditto, to you too!

[Otto]

Originally Posted by CFECO

For a flat safety glass, I'd look at the old Jeep C J windshields. They should be plentiful and cheap. Found some for $80 at Jeep Windshields.

Try Pick n Pull junkyards, at fixed prices for a given part, regardless of make and model.

[CFECO]

bondo, I understand you, and the rest of us, are wishing to get these produced. Without reading all the posts again, have you looked into building them your self, with some help, and just bypassing the Patent ordeal? I have some friends with a fiberglass production company, mainly water and septic tanks using chopper-gun sprayed over molds. With the current business climate around here, some new products could be of interest to them.

[bondo]

Originally Posted by CFECO

bondo, I understand you, and the rest of us, are wishing to get these produced. Without reading all the posts again, have you looked into building them your self, with some help, and just bypassing the Patent ordeal? I have some friends with a fiberglass production company, mainly water and septic tanks using chopper-gun sprayed over molds. With the current business climate around here, some new products could be of interest to them.

I cannot bypass the Patent process because there are two applications for a Patent on an aerodynamic truck cap which have been filed right after mine with the USPTO (Patent Office). One is just a few months after the date I filed mine. Luckily I am in the drivers seat right now with the earliest filing date and I must maintain it.

I appreciate you referring me to the company you know of that does fiberglass fabrication. If I was to set up production on my own or with another established company without a Patent in force, then if either of the two people who have filed applications after me are granted a Patent, they would then sue me for Patent infringement.

Best of luck to you CFECO with the X-Car. I wish I had the skill set to develop a vehicle like that.

Bondo

[user removed]

bondo, from my experience with a 6 year pursuit of a patent, if you filed your application before the others then yours will be the first issued, assuming it passes the test for "novelty". It's a difficult process to say the least and another threshold to a granted patent is "not obvious to someone educated in the art". Either of those two criteria can really give you headaches in actually having a patent granted.

The applications are processed according to filing date, so if you are the first with an original idea, you could proceed to production using Patent Pending until you actually have a patent number assigned.

regards
Mech

[bondo]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

bondo, from my experience with a 6 year pursuit of a patent, if you filed your application before the others then yours will be the first issued, assuming it passes the test for "novelty". It's a difficult process to say the least and another threshold to a granted patent is "not obvious to someone educated in the art". Either of those two criteria can really give you headaches in actually having a patent granted.

The applications are processed according to filing date, so if you are the first with an original idea, you could proceed to production using Patent Pending until you actually have a patent number assigned.

regards
Mech

Mech you have my respect for having gone though the process. It is the "obviousness" issue I am dealing with. The last Utility patent I filed was granted in a streamline fashion which took three years. It was granted in 1999.

A lot has changed, for the worse in the USPTO since then. From what I have read on the Internet from others who are trying to get patents, they too are running into many hurdles, mainly negative Office Actions. We can hope the new "Patent Reform" bill signed into law two weeks ago will be adventagoeus to us all.

Bondo

[Big Dave]

...and people in the US wonder where the manufacturing went.

[round.boater]

Originally Posted by bondo

Hey round.boater,
Your lifetime average of your truck is 22.21, even counting the time before you got your Aerolid. The math comes out to a 16.9, call it 17% increase in fuel efficiency the Aerolid has afforded you.

Bondo

Don't forget it's a complete log - I'm not cherry picking my fill ups. Some of those tanks have a utility trailer full of rafting gear. (Although not enough of them for how much I wish I were out playing...) Calculating the tanks without a trailer would make my Aerolid average look even better.
I didn't start logging while I still had my mechanical fan, so the first few tanks listed are up a bit from stock thanks to the e-fans and tightening the nut behind the wheel just a tad.

As always, good luck with the process!

[pryan37bb]

Originally Posted by round.boater

Don't forget it's a complete log - I'm not cherry picking my fill ups. Some of those tanks have a utility trailer full of rafting gear. (Although not enough of them for how much I wish I were out playing...) Calculating the tanks without a trailer would make my Aerolid average look even better.
I didn't start logging while I still had my mechanical fan, so the first few tanks listed are up a bit from stock thanks to the e-fans and tightening the nut behind the wheel just a tad.

As always, good luck with the process!

round.boater, you mind if I ask how you calculate FE? Is it a manual calculation or do you have the Scangauge/Ultragauge? I ask because I'm considering buying a gauge and am having trouble choosing between the two.

[round.boater]

Originally Posted by pryan37bb

round.boater, you mind if I ask how you calculate FE? Is it a manual calculation or do you have the Scangauge/Ultragauge? I ask because I'm considering buying a gauge and am having trouble choosing between the two.

For my fuel log, I just write down the miles on the receipt and plug in the entry. Thanks ecomodder! I've been figuring mpg each fill up pretty much since I started driving, now I just have a record viewable by the whole world.
On the road I use a Scanguage. I watch water temp since I've never really all the way trusted the e-fans (although I'm getting there), air temp since it's a close enough proxy for ambient temp unless I'm in traffic, MPG, and something else in the 4th spot. It's been GPH recently. I don't know enough about the Ultraguage to comment between the two. I placed my guage over the old cig lighter and ran the cable through the dash to the port. It's like it was meant to be there (see pic below).

Being able to see my rolling average as well as instantaneous economy has helped my driving habits. Plus it's fun to calculate how many miles past an empty tank I've driven compared with EPA averages. 19mpg x 26 gal = 494 miles, I'm bummed if I fill before 500 miles and I try to leave 4-5 gallons of spare. Based on the calculations I ran when I bought my Aerolid, I think I will have paid it off in fuel savings sometime this winter.