Ford F-150 XLT 4x4 Naked trailer tow test

[aerostealth]

We tested the Ford F-150 4x4 towing Apex with a open bed in the truck. The results were shocking to say the least. At 65 mph the truck pretty much stayed in 5th gear. The results tell me that the mods I have made already to the Aerolid to get it to deflect air to the top of the trailer have paid huge dividends.

We hooked up and left the house at 11:30 AM traveling south on Valley Dr so I could do 55 mph testing. Closer to town where the speed limit is 40 mph I grabbed a number for that speed also. Then we went east on Picacho and topped off the tank at Shalom Colony Rd. The Interstate is only a couple miles from there so we got on I-10 East and then I-25 North to finish the testing at 60 mph and 65 mph.

Conditions were good with temps ranging from the high 80's F to the low 90's F during the test. The wind was light to non existent. we of course tried our best to pull numbers that represented level ground and had to observe the highs and lows to establish the middle ground. I always say my MPG read out is the best inclinometer I have.

40 mph, 14.6 mpg in 4th gear at 1600 rpm.

55 mph, 11.8 mpg in 6th gear at 1400 rpm.

60 mph, 10.4 mpg in 6th gear at 1500 rpm.

65 mph, 9.6 mpg, in 5th gear at 2000 rpm.



The trailer is 105 inches high and 90 inches wide. That amounts to 65 sq ft. the tail gate of the truck is 56 inches on the ground and the truck is 67 inches wide which amounts to 26 sq ft. This means 39 sq ft of the trailer are exposed to the air when towing with over a 4 ft gap. The bed is 6.5 ft long and 11.5 inches of trailer on each side of the bed stick out as measured from the rear view mirrors.

From trip B we registered 37.4 miles using 3.7 gallons of gasoline averaging 10 miles per gallon. In our trip to Roper Lake in June we averaged 11.6 mpg with the aerolid mods. That is nearly a 14% improvement and the truck operated at 65 mph in 6th gear. I like what I am seeing so far. It is so bad any improvements will be dramatic.

[aerohead]

I roughed out some numbers for the comparison using a 12% allowance for the air density,BSFC 0.537,and R-R from the Caterpillar article based upon the test weights and given speed.
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*The naked F-150/Apex combination comes in at Cd 0.600 for the rig,based upon the frontal area of APEX.
* Drag factor of 37.2 sq-ft.
*The EcoBoost behaves as if the F-150 has Cd 1.03.
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*The F-150 Aerolid-RV/APEX combination is Cd 0.506.
*Drag factor of 31.372-sq-ft.
*The EcoBoost behaves as if the F-150 is Cd 0.87.
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*The Aerolid-RV setup provides a 15.6% CdA reduction.
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Going after the vertical edges of APEX,it's gap,rooftop AC unit, tail,and maybe the belly, should line 3-Cherries up for a big jackpot at the gas pump.