Full-boat-tail trailer with gap-fillers for Toyota T-100 pickup

[orbywan]

Originally Posted by aerohead

'been working out details on the mechanisms.
*I've done the 'easy' forward bellypan section for the drivers side.The upper side of the pans will double as the runways for the trailing roller supports of the side-panel frames.
*The pans will require cantilever support.I will use aluminum angle underneath which will appear as a flow fence,although fences would not be necessary.
*I moved the trailer outside to attempt better photos.
The series of images reflect the trailer going through a full jack-knife range of motion.
*The lazy-C frame,to which swing-panel frames are attached is always parallel to the integrator frame on the back of the truck.When you look at the C-frame orientation,it is mimicking the integrator.
* I've left out the 2nd degree of articulation at the C-frame as depicted in the Prius trailer thread.Tongue weight is growing steadily and I'm going to omit any feature which isn't 'mission critical' to aerodynamics.
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*The last series of shots are of the bogey and roller which travel the prismatic face of the trailer.
* When I get the pan on the passenger side I can work out the roller support.
* The passenger side pan will require a trap-door for the landing gear to rotate and fall through when the trailer is de-hitched.
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* The integrator itself will require articulated panels to deal with pitch and roll.
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*This morning I purchased the aluminum for the second forward pan and 5/8ths square tubing for the panel frames,along with some more steel pre-forms.
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* If time avails itself I will race-drill all the frames to add lightness.
*Plenty ahead of me!

Looks like some serious 'angle of dangle' engineering going on there. I can't wait to see it done. I'm working on the belly pan(s) for the RV, wow, I thought the boat tail was involved! Holy Canole. Lot of guess work involved as far as how is the best way to do it. My grandmother would have called that 'by guess and by golly'. Ha. Luckily there's only one articulated part involved. We're root'in for you Phil, go for it!

[orbywan]

Why does this program eliminate indentations and line spaces when you're trying to form a new paragraph?

Makes it look like you learned to type in the third grade.

[orbywan]

Phil, I almost forgot, where did you get your welding blanket? I need one of those. Thanks.

[euromodder]

It looks mightily complicated to go a couple of miles straight & VERY FAST !

Keep up the good work & spirits !

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by orbywan

Phil, I almost forgot, where did you get your welding blanket? I need one of those. Thanks.

Northern Tool had them,'n then I saw them at Harbor for a fraction of the cost.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by euromodder

It looks mightily complicated to go a couple of miles straight & VERY FAST !

Keep up the good work & spirits !

Bonneville will be a walk in the park compared to the 6,000 miles I'll make before I get back home.
Our highway system is in need of major repair so I'm trying to beef everything up enough to survive.
But you're right,it's pretty complicated.If it works out,it could go behind another type of vehicle,with only modification to the side panels.Which would be easy?

[aerohead]

The frosty weather continues and I can take the temps 'til about 2:00 pm.
I've been 'cheating',adding bellypan below,and an inverted splitter/flow corrector to the 'roof' of the trailers boat hull to push the structure forward so as to minimize the top and bottom articulated gap-fillers.
I started out 'lengthy' with the bottom pans,and then have attempted to drive them to destruction.
I've had some success,bending the passenger side pan.
I leave the trailer on the truck,drive as I normally would and if there is any interference from pitch,yaw,or roll it will show up as crunch !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very sophisticated and high-tech.
After trimming,she goes out again for another bout.
Our roads are pitiful and built by pedants with the wrong book,so it's impossible to design to SAE specs and expect anything to survive around here.
It's an adventure every day!

[orbywan]

You have to take your progress anyway you can. It's still 'frosty' here in Tucson also, I get up at 5, work till about 10 or 11 in the shop (or easy bake oven as some people call it) and then do my regular work about 8 or 10 hours. It's slow going but it's going.

Frustrating, I'd love to take a week off and hammer it out. It will be really interesting to see your project finished. Drive, crunch, trim. I think that describes a lot of aero mods. Texas engineering, yehaa!

[aerohead]

*Yesterday I completed the inverted-splitter/flow corrector.
*This morning I removed both lower bellypan sections,cut them back to relieve the interference,got 'em de-burred,and re-installed with new hardware.
*I trimmed off the top of the rubber centerline gap seal to clear underneath the new flow corrector and installed it.
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*I've had the tailgate off the truck and integrator installed,and can look in the rear-view mirror to view the face of the trailer.So I tufted it to see what the flow looked like.
* Without the gap-filler panel on top,there was a perfect downwash with the exception of the outer extreme edges,which did,remarkably, have flow to the rear.
*By extending the face with the flow corrector,some of the downwash is being directed such that more of the flow is directed outwards instead of downwards.
*Since the diffuser needs repair,I'll do that next,go ahead and widen the base to align with the trailers outline and get it re-installed.
* Then I'll re-install the rest of the belly.
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*At this point I'll be in a position to road test the rig without any of the panels,and simulate,perhaps,a best case scenario for an optimized trailer sans gap-fillers.
*I'll have to wait for lower winds.
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* My entry forms and payment for USFRA membership,130 MPH Club,and track preparation fees went out in the mail today.
* I carried the upper gap-filler panel frame with me to town and installed it in the shade of a tree near the post office to look at its alignment on the level.I'll better know now how to proceed with that.
*The bellypan sections will now allow completion of the panel frame end support rollers.
* Soon I'll be able to think about skins for the frames.
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*Also,I'll drag out the NT650 Honda Hawk swing-arm/mono-shock/wheel assembly and see if I can begin to work a miracle in adapting that into the Viking chassis.
*I'll focus on the gross projects first and attend to the fit and finish aesthetics stuff as time permits.
* I think I'm going to call it "Pair o' Grins",a *******ization of perrigrine(falcon),my favorite raptor,who's body shape as influenced the entire project.

[orbywan]

[QUOTE=aerohead;254470]*Yesterday I completed the inverted-splitter/flow corrector.
*This morning I removed both lower bellypan sections,cut them back to relieve the interference,got 'em de-burred,and re-installed with new hardware.
*I trimmed off the top of the rubber centerline gap seal to clear underneath the new flow corrector and installed it.
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QUOTE]

Phil I think I speak for everyone when I say – Photos, Please – we’d love to see some photos. Sounds like it’s coming along pretty well.