Make your own Zig-Zag Tape
 

It's pretty simple, just get flashing from Home Depot. Extend it out, and then fold it in half. Make your zigzags at close to 60 degree angle as you can. Then break it apart and you'll have two pieces of evenly matched zig-zag tape. I find it works very well under the lip of the front bumper for about a 5 percent gain. I'm still looking for a zig-zag punch like the ones they use in scrapbooking to speed up the process. But so far this method will get you zig-zag tape for your front bumper in less than an hours work. Just be delicate when you go to install it. I try to get it as much into the primary air flow as possible without being seen. Even on an 08 sienna we saw average fuel mileage increase by nearly 1mpg from 20.4 to 21.2 over the course of a tank.

Do you mean aluminum roof flashing? Or aluminum tape used on HVAC ducts?

Did you do any A-B-A tests?

(Welcome to EM!)

Try pinking shears. How thick is your tape? Dimensions? How similar to the tape used on sailplanes as sold by sailplane accessories people? Tried dimple tape?

I'm glad to hear of your improved mileage, but will reserve judgment until the improvement is corroborated by independent study.

Nah, my testing is basically 300 plus miles a week of driving. I did it to my fathers sienna when he wasn't looking and saw the average climb up between tanks on the computer. As for my odyssey, I'm seeing an extra .25 to.5mpg. It seems to have less road noise. Also, this is a pretty simple thing to add or remove. If you want to remove it just pull out a sponge and some vinegar, soak it for a min before taking it off and it will all come right off. I think I'm going to redo my odyssey because when I did it was in the dark which I don't recommend because you can't see it very well and it looks like crap.

As for the Tape, I believe its the same flashing as what they use on HVAC, It's about the same thickness as ducktape. I know that it has a peel back tape on the back so it makes it very easy to roll out fold, cut, and split apart. It's not going to be as strong and thick as the turbulator tape, but I think it will achieve similar results in regards to keeping the air closer to the vehicle.

I'm laughing at the solarcity ad, I work for Solarcity if anyone has questions about going solar with us. I'll be happy to answer them.

Hate to rain on yer parade here but my mileage varies by 10% tank to tank and 20% season to season. So one tank with a 5% change does not by any stretch indicate a positive result. Tabulator tape is in the same boat as Vortex Generators, very unlikely to give you much more than a slight gain under the best of circumstances. Tabulator tape is used on aircraft sometimes with very different laminar flow characteristics. Their ability to improve flow on a non-laminar flow car bumper/underbody is very suspect.

http://i56.tinypic.com/16gewrp.jpg

I'd like to see exactly what you've done with the zigzag tape - it's not clear going by your description.
Any pictures (though you'll need a few more posts to be ableto put them up) or a link if there are pics online ?
(If you leave out the part and maybe some dots , you'll be able to post it.)


The increase in average could be attributed to other factors - fuel consumption tends to vary a fair bit as we don't always drive the same roads under the same circumstances.

Did you try to test it, keeping as many variables constant ?

bump for more info?

I am not following either. What exactly is the purpose behind putting the zigzag stuff on your vehicle?