Low budget aero hubcaps (magnet attachment)
 

I bought four steel pizza pans from my local dollar store, and superglued neodymium magnets to them in a location that centers the cap on my wheels.

I first drilled and then reamed a hole to fit the valve stem through. The wheel rims I have have a central ridge with a diameter of about 7 inches that projects flush with the edge of the rim. The pizza pans have a nice stepped rim that stiffens them and gets the rim 'down' below the airflow.

Locating the magnets is easy. Stick them to the ridge on the rim, put a dollop of glue on each magnet, then put the pan over the whole works. You'll have a couple of seconds to center the rim before the glue grabs.

You can also measure a circle about the right diameter and glue the magnets to the pan before attaching it. I did both, to see what would work better, and saw no real difference.

Now to see if they will hold on at highway speeds and over bumps... :eek:


This first step toward aero improvement was inspired by someone's post here about using pizza pans for hubcaps. I didn't have any stock spring-friction fit caps to use, so magnets came to mind. These neodymium magnets are very strong, and I'll find out if they're strong enough.

Total cost- $4.00 US (plus 0.32 tax) and two dead hard drives scavenged for magnets. Total time= about 15 minutes each.

Post of the day! :thumbup:

My pizza pan hubcaps are held on by 3 screws going into drilled and tapped holes in the wheel. I'd be a bit worried by not having a direct physical connection between the hubcap and the wheel, then hitting a bump with that 60psi tire and the jolt sending that hubcap spinning off into traffic.

Hmm- I hadn't really thought of how they might affect other drivers if they flew off. I may have to come up with something better... (Although my tires are at 40psi, and don't thump that hard.)

jim-frank -

That's stunning inventiveness on your part. I used to have the "snap-in" racing disks. Whenever I hit a pot-hole just right, the disk on the front passenger wheel would pop off. Back in 1997 I was driving maybe 65-70 MPH on the freeway at night. I hit a bump and I noticed the lights of the cars behind me "wiggling". I instantly realized that they were avoiding my wheel cover. I went back the next day to find it mangled on the side of the road.

I still like the idea, but it may not work on cars at highway speeds.

CarloSW2

Looks like hard drive magnets! Clever. I hope it stays on for you, and if it does, I hope next time you go to remove them, the glue is stronger than the magnets. :)

Hahahahaha! I had a 1990 Buick with the huge spoked steel hubcaps and the stupid plastic center nut to hold them on. I had one fly off and watched it go across the interstate into on coming traffic and turned a motorhome front grille into shrapnel :o

He kept going and so did I :thumbup:

Has anyone done a before and after MPG gain for Aero Hubcaps of any kind? Is it really a lot?

It's very small (probably too small to notice through tank-to-tank monitoring).

It also falls into the "it depends" (TM) category: Depends on how aerodynamically dirty the previous wheel style was to begin with; also the airflow characteristics past the wheel wells of the vehicle in question.

True, but even if its a small difference like .5 mpg then over the lifetime of the car (Say 150,000 miles) the fuel savings would amount to 75 dollars or so... so for a $5 mod its not a bad idea!