Frontier pickup belly pan project

[slowmover]

I'm keeping your work as reference for my truck. Might you be so kind as to give truck-to-ground dimensions, as in body height (FF & RR), axle height, etc? A sort of ballpark ground belly-pan height might also be useful. I imagine mine sits higher -- even as a 2WD.

[graydonengineering]

Originally Posted by slowmover

I'm keeping your work as reference for my truck. Might you be so kind as to give truck-to-ground dimensions, as in body height (FF & RR), axle height, etc? A sort of ballpark ground belly-pan height might also be useful. I imagine mine sits higher -- even as a 2WD.

Sure thing, I will take some measurments later on and post them. Bear in mind, this is a 2wd that has been lowered about 2" front and rear and as a result, if your truck has not been lowered, the slope to go from center belly to the underside of the differential will be more pronounced. With 2" lowering blocks to stuff the rear axle futher into the body work, the slope was quite minimal. I lowered the truck for improved handling (faster corner coasing) and reduced drag. I messed around with low profile bump stops for a while and finally just removed the stops all together to get suspension travel that is just shy of stock configuration travel.

I belive I am reeping the benefits of the lower stance much more now with the belly pan in place.

[graydonengineering]

Just a little update, I have not had time to do any major work lately and ran out of chloroplast again but I did delete the wipers over the weekend. I rain-xed the glass which should be good enough for a sprinkle. I scratched a reference line on the wiper and stud so I can put it on in the right position the first try and threw it under the seat for a rainy day. Now if I could just make a cover for the wiper arms indents in the cowl cover it would be about as good as it could get.

After much debate with myself (I'm not talking to myself, I'm on my bluetooth I swear!) I could not settle on any tape or weather stripping I would be willing to use on my paint. I ordered some bulk black vinyl made for outdoor use which I will use for covering the big gap between the bed and the cab and also use it for some lower grill blocking. I could also use a strip on either side of the windshield to smooth the weather stripping transition that is currently about 1/4" x 90 degrees. I can cut it out in any shape I want so I can hopefully make it look more factory that way.

My MPG has been very solid at over 30. As far as I can guess, I am averaging about 31.5 mpg on my current tank! That is certainly better than I could have done before the belly pan and on track to be a new record. I am now getting about 100 more miles per tank than I used to. Yay for mods!

[orbywan]

Originally Posted by graydonengineering

Just a little update, I have not had time to do any major work lately and ran out of chloroplast again but I did delete the wipers over the weekend. I rain-xed the glass which should be good enough for a sprinkle. I scratched a reference line on the wiper and stud so I can put it on in the right position the first try and threw it under the seat for a rainy day. Now if I could just make a cover for the wiper arms indents in the cowl cover it would be about as good as it could get.

After much debate with myself (I'm not talking to myself, I'm on my bluetooth I swear!) I could not settle on any tape or weather stripping I would be willing to use on my paint. I ordered some bulk black vinyl made for outdoor use which I will use for covering the big gap between the bed and the cab and also use it for some lower grill blocking. I could also use a strip on either side of the windshield to smooth the weather stripping transition that is currently about 1/4" x 90 degrees. I can cut it out in any shape I want so I can hopefully make it look more factory that way.

My MPG has been very solid at over 30. As far as I can guess, I am averaging about 31.5 mpg on my current tank! That is certainly better than I could have done before the belly pan and on track to be a new record. I am now getting about 100 more miles per tank than I used to. Yay for mods!

Nice work on the belly pans graydone. I fabbed pans for the entire length of my 25 foot RV and have not seen an increase yet, but I suspect I've got the frontal air restricted too much creating a bigger bow wave maybe. Nice job on covering the differential with the floating coroplast, I'm going to try something similar with the RV. After seeing your photos for boxing off the wheel wells I like that idea and will try that as well.

Since I've got dual rear wheels I'm hoping that fairings on the duallies and up front, along with the rest will show some gains for these mods. I'm going to wait a while for those mods, though, I also live in Tucson and I'm tired of working in this heat.

I have a thought for you. Now that you're seeing good results from this, have you thought about a boat tail? The boat tail on my RV resulted in an average gain so far of 25% +. I'm guessing this vehicle was so horrible aerodynamically you might not see gains that high with the Frontier, but I bet it would be worth your while.

If you added a receiver type hitch, you could build the tail so it mounts via the hitch receiver, so you could remove it easily and quickly. To be the most effective, you'd probably need to add a cab-high shell to your truck, but those are pretty inexpensive. Anyway, just a thought. Keep up the good work.

[graydonengineering]

Originally Posted by orbywan

Nice work on the belly pans graydone. I fabbed pans for the entire length of my 25 foot RV and have not seen an increase yet, but I suspect I've got the frontal air restricted too much creating a bigger bow wave maybe. Nice job on covering the differential with the floating coroplast, I'm going to try something similar with the RV. After seeing your photos for boxing off the wheel wells I like that idea and will try that as well.

Since I've got dual rear wheels I'm hoping that fairings on the duallies and up front, along with the rest will show some gains for these mods. I'm going to wait a while for those mods, though, I also live in Tucson and I'm tired of working in this heat.

I have a thought for you. Now that you're seeing good results from this, have you thought about a boat tail? The boat tail on my RV resulted in an average gain so far of 25% +. I'm guessing this vehicle was so horrible aerodynamically you might not see gains that high with the Frontier, but I bet it would be worth your while.

If you added a receiver type hitch, you could build the tail so it mounts via the hitch receiver, so you could remove it easily and quickly. To be the most effective, you'd probably need to add a cab-high shell to your truck, but those are pretty inexpensive. Anyway, just a thought. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for your compliments! I too am sick of the heat and I am putting off major mod work for now. At least till the highs are well bellow 100. I do have a cap on the truck now that is very smooth and the same height as the cab with windowless sides. I have considered adding a boat tail, maybe a simple one. Maybe something that would work with an open tail gate and open canopy. Right now, I still have more work on my belly dam and some rear wheel skirts. After all that, I will have to see how it goes.

What part of Tucson do you live? I am on the far east in Rita Ranch. If you want to check the truck out in person some time, send me a pm. I work near the airport.

[orbywan]

Originally Posted by graydonengineering

Thanks for your compliments! I too am sick of the heat and I am putting off major mod work for now. At least till the highs are well bellow 100. I do have a cap on the truck now that is very smooth and the same height as the cab with windowless sides. I have considered adding a boat tail, maybe a simple one. Maybe something that would work with an open tail gate and open canopy. Right now, I still have more work on my belly dam and some rear wheel skirts. After all that, I will have to see how it goes.

What part of Tucson do you live? I am on the far east in Rita Ranch. If you want to check the truck out in person some time, send me a pm. I work near the airport.

I'm on the west side around Grant and Oracle. When it cools off I'll send you a PM and maybe we can get together and compare notes. Thanks.

[HighMPG]

Nice!

[JeffD]

This thread may be dead, but I thought I'd give it a try.....
I'm very interested in this because I have a '99 Frontier. I noticed on the first page that the front wheel well fender was blocked off. Isn't that where the air intake is routed to (drivers side)? Is that a problem or have you modified the intake?

[slowmover]

Yeah, the OP hasn't posted in a year. Plenty of good posts/threads and hope he'll contribute again.