Frontier Aerocap build

[bike4miles]

I think I am ready to take the plunge and build an aerocap for my pickup. I am using the design from the Silverado as a guide but making a few changes. I would like some advice on the design before I collect my materials. I plan on using 1/4" plywood and probably some 1/2" plywood I have around for support ribs. I would eventually like to cover that with fiberglass and take out the supports to make a clear line of site for a rear window out of lexan. This Nissan is exactly what I am going for. I am going to make a model on CAD so I can get the dimensions figured out. I have never worked with fiberglass. Any advice?? Material substitutions??

[KamperBob]

Cool! I look forward to your progress.

I sold my fiberglass cab-high topper and tonneau cover and will build something eventually. It will mix design elements already implemented by others with variations I have not seen done yet. Imagine Fuebeca's shape but with blend radius between top and sides increasing more starkly from front to rear. Imagine Bondo's front-hinged lid housing those contours so the sides are mostly flat. Imagine the back crowned and blended smoothly left-to-right and arched cleanly from cab in front to critical angle (22 deg?) in the rear. It will take a lot of time to design, build, test, refine and finish. But isn't that 90% of the fun? I expect mine will be light enough to un/load myself and $100 budget seems reasonable so far.

I'd love to hear more about your design goals with this project. Some of us have different requirements. Discussions seem most helpful with those boundaries are shared.

Cheers
KB

[aerohead]

Have you seen Sepp's Frontier custom cap?

[KamperBob]

Originally Posted by aerohead

Have you seen Sepp's Frontier custom cap?

No. It took a while (dial up painful, went to library for WiFi, just before they closed LOL) but I tracked it down. Both versions actually. Posting convenience links for others.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ocap-6889.html

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ocap-8155.html

Nice but the roof-to-side radius still looks sharp to me. I'm thinking cab match at front (1-2" in my case) increased to 6-9" for back, lower half. Whatever critical angle at the tailgate dictates. That way wind can flow either way with less edge corner impediment.

Cheers
KB

[bike4miles]

Originally Posted by KamperBob

No. It took a while (dial up painful, went to library for WiFi, just before they closed LOL) but I tracked it down. Both versions actually. Posting convenience links for others.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ocap-6889.html

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ocap-8155.html

Nice but the roof-to-side radius still looks sharp to me. I'm thinking cab match at front (1-2" in my case) increased to 6-9" for back, lower half. Whatever critical angle at the tailgate dictates. That way wind can flow either way with less edge corner impediment.

Cheers
KB

Wow, thanks! That helps a ton! I now know that for this truck I don't want to slope all the way down to the tailgate. That's good, it will give me more holding capacity anyway. I was looking at different materials on Mcmaster and found polycarbonate is fairly inexpensive. Don't know if it is flexible enough to form the rear window on the curve though. The fiberglass looks far too labor intensive and it is quite expensive too so I don't think I want to go that rout. Sepp is getting 29 MPG (with lifted suspension!), That is what I am hopping for. With the cap, some front end mods, belly pan, and roll pan in the back to replace the bumper I think I can hit that. Tried out the vacuum gauge today and realized all the mistakes I have been making in my driving.