Experiment: smooth wheel discs tested A-B-A - 4.6% mpg improvement @ 65 mph

[MetroMPG]

Agreed on the Mad Max eco look = great!

"Hi" back to Snarf.

[ECONORAM]

Hey, I just found some good tape at Home Depot yesterday. They actually have a clear duct tape! Their p/n is 742366010559. That should let you expose your wheels with a little clear plastic to cover the center sticky part and still stick to the rim...

[NeilBlanchard]

Here's a video of someone on the Illuminati Motors (X-Prize contender) team installing the screw-on type of smooth "moon" wheel covers, with drilled and tapped holes in the bead part of the steel rim:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkGv_bRKxKE

[RobertSmalls]

Spoiler alert: That's just a video of the installation, which does not include the test or the results.

[5speed5]

Nice video!
Just one small correction, however. They do sell snap-on type smoothy hubcaps for 16" wheels as well. Here is one example:
16" Stainless Steel Racing Disc Hubcaps Wheel Covers 4 : eBay Motors (item 170476457402 end time May-22-10 08:25:05 PDT)

FWIW, I've found that searching for "racing hubcaps" returns better results than
something like "smooth hubcaps".

[cfg83]

5speed5 -

Originally Posted by 5speed5

Nice video!
Just one small correction, however. They do sell snap-on type smoothy hubcaps for 16" wheels as well. Here is one example:
16" Stainless Steel Racing Disc Hubcaps Wheel Covers 4 : eBay Motors (item 170476457402 end time May-22-10 08:25:05 PDT)

FWIW, I've found that searching for "racing hubcaps" returns better results than
something like "smooth hubcaps".

Yes, but over time the little metal teeth get bent and don't hold the covers anymore. It cost me a lot of $ when I kept losing them.

CarloSW2

[noxman]

I finally bought plastic wheel cover, because i change car.
Only problem i have with bad fixation on disc. Small hooks are very high-pitched and scratching the disc very hard. Next problem is, that wheel cover hold not good on the disc.
So i thinking about another and better fixing to the disc.
Any idea?

[ECONORAM]

Noxman, I was thinking about putting disks on my truck, but I was planning to use some string or ty wraps around the spokes of my wheels and through small holes (I would drill) in the smooth aero covers. Not ideal, but it would keep me from damaging my alloy wheels.

[4536]

Any body notice a deteriorization in braking performance under stress with the moon covers? I'm planning a trip from CA to FL with a 2000 lb (loaded) trailer pulled by my Subaru WRX wagon and will be experiancing some grades along the way.

[NeilBlanchard]

You should be downshifting to go down grades -- this shuts off the fuel supply completely, so you get "infinite" FE and you save your brakes.