Commercially produced aerodynamic pickup bed cap

[MetroMPG]

Hi Brett -

First, I hear you! We've neglected the home page of the site for years. It's well past overdue for changes & updates. January target.

Second: at what speed did you drive? It's always good to post that along with results, for better context.

Glad to hear the project may finally be headed for production. Congrats on your hard work.

[bondo]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Hi Brett -

First, I hear you! We've neglected the home page of the site for years. It's well past overdue for changes & updates. January target.

Second: at what speed did you drive? It's always good to post that along with results, for better context.

Glad to hear the project may finally be headed for production. Congrats on your hard work.

My bad. I always forget to post speed. I did the speed limit most of the trip, 70 miles per hour. The most amazing thing is that on the return trip in Nashville I hit an hour of traffic jam. You will notice a difference between the mileage there and mileage back of 12 miles. This was me trying to get around the traffic by a different route. I thought the mileage on the trip back would suffer. I was amazed when it worked out to 25.68 mpg!

Thank you again Darin for making ecomodder possible for us all to enjoy.

Bondo

[drmiller100]

I am a bit interested in making the caps.

Are you interested in licensing your idea? Do you have a patent in place, or pending?

[bondo]

Originally Posted by drmiller100

I am a bit interested in making the caps.

Are you interested in licensing your idea? Do you have a patent in place, or pending?

The claims in the final office action have been allowed by the Patent Office. Looking for it to issue this month.

Thank you very much for your interest. Feel free to contact me.

Bondo

[Superdutytd]

Originally Posted by bondo

My bad. I always forget to post speed. I did the speed limit most of the trip, 70 miles per hour. The most amazing thing is that on the return trip in Nashville I hit an hour of traffic jam. You will notice a difference between the mileage there and mileage back of 12 miles. This was me trying to get around the traffic by a different route. I thought the mileage on the trip back would suffer. I was amazed when it worked out to 25.68 mpg!

Thank you again Darin for making ecomodder possible for us all to enjoy.

Bondo

Thats some good mileage for 70 mph!

[Big Dave]

Hurray, Bondo!

Perseverance pays off.

[Sven7]

Originally Posted by bondo

Your construction methodology looks good Sven7. Be sure to build it sound for there are alot of forces exerted on a truck cap going down the freeway at 70 miles per hour.

I am sure you and your father will be able to build a nice aerocap. The best part is getting it out on the road and testing it. I agree with BZP to use materials and methods you are familiar with which from the picture you posted you guys know what you are doing.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Bondo

Thank you and everyone else for a little input. That boat is not ours- just something I found online, though I'm confident I/we could put something together that would stand up to highway speeds (which are low with three on the tree). Look for the F100 aerocap thread- I'll update it when something useful gets accomplished.

I'm really glad to hear your project is moving forward! It's about time something like this comes to fruition and with the way people whine about fuel economy, it should be a strong seller with a little bit of advertising and word-of-mouth. Do you have a logo yet? If not, this designer would be proud to be of service (after this final semester's over, though!)

[mattbatson]

I've enjoyed reading about your aero lid, and am glad that all your hard work is beginning to pay off.
I was wondering if you had done any A-B-A testing?
I understand that you got great mpg's on that road trip...but I would love to see how it compares to no lid in side by side scientific analysis.
Do you have this planned for the future?
thx

[bondo]

Sounds good Sven7. Get through this semester and I might have to ask you to lend your expertise to designing me some nice DLO's for the Aerolid too.

Mattbatson, have not done an A-B-A test yet. I need to. When the temperatures get warmer this Spring I will do one. It will be interesting to see how the A-B-A test data compares to the wind tunnel test data and the CFD simulations we have already done.

Thanks,

Bondo

[mattbatson]

Originally Posted by bondo

Sounds good Sven7. Get through this semester and I might have to ask you to lend your expertise to designing me some nice DLO's for the Aerolid too.

Mattbatson, have not done an A-B-A test yet. I need to. When the temperatures get warmer this Spring I will do one. It will be interesting to see how the A-B-A test data compares to the wind tunnel test data and the CFD simulations we have already done.

Thanks,

Bondo

excellent, I look forward to it