Hello All
 

Hello to everyone. I stumbled upon this site while researching and found to my amazement that there were so many like minded people out there. :thumbup: This site is a tremendous source of information and I'm so glad to have found it.

My background is electrical engineering. I drive a 2003 s10 extended cab stepside as a daily driver, I know that I can't expect a ton of mpg from it (4.10 gears aren't helping) but I enjoy trying to get as much as possible. My wife and I have to have a truck around, it seems like we're always hauling something or moving something. I chose a small truck to get the most mpg possible and still have a truckbed. I installed a ScangaugeII last week. I also ride a Yamaha R6 whenever possible. My goal is to get the truck up to 30 mpg by the end of the year (at around 27 mpg as of today) and ride the bike as many miles as possible. Thanks for creating a great site and I look forward to contributing as much as I can.

Hi, Super - that ScanGauge as a first "mod" proves you're serious, so... glad to have you aboard!

Nice to see you've set a goal as well. Always helps to have a target to aim for.

Any ideas where you're going to start (or continue, if you've already started)?

Darin

Thanks for the welcome Darin. I'd really love to do some underpans on the truck. I was under it today changing the oil and noticing how cluttered and unaero my undercarriage was. Today was just a day of general maintenance on the truck. Oil change, flushing the cooling system and replacing my antifreeze and t-stat, cleaning my K&N air filter etc. I will definately replace the mechanical fan this year with a junkyard Taurus electric fan. From everything I have been reading on s10forum (been a member there since 05) and on here that would be a big gain for me right away. Possibly change diameter pullies. I have already lowered the truck 2" in the front and 3" in the back, but saw no real MPG increase in doing this. It was strictly for looks and handling. I have upgraded to 18" wheels and sized my tires to meet the overall diameter of my stock tires. I lost close to one half of a mile per gallon doing this. My 18" tires are 30mm wider each than my stock tires. I may revert to the stock 15" wheels and tires, but I really like my chrome wheels lol. ~Lloyd Lambert

I'm sure underpans would be excellent. I want to do that on my Civic but I gotta take care of the "honeydew" projects list before I can take time to do that!

An aero truck cap would probably help even more but I'm sure that's a much bigger project. Plus it might limit your load carrying ability unless you're very clever about configuring the cap to 'get out of the way' to allow oversize objects.

I'm with you re. the wheel change - -
During my last summer before becoming a committed hypermiler I changed off the 14" wheels on my then-daily driver Volvo wagon and put on 15's, with tires carefully selected to keep the speedometer accurate. Handling improved and mpg went down.
Old size: 195/75-14 New size: 205/65-15
Tires costing what they do, I'm not jumping to change them again soon. The car is semi-retired; I drive it for hauling bulky/heavy stuff and rotten weather trips. Civic for the 60-mile daily commute runs.

Welcome to the site. It sounds like you are off to a good start if you're getting 27 mpg already. An under body panel(s) would definitely be a great idea IMO. As you said, the under body of trucks are horribly aero-dirty. Good luck!