Mini-skirts, THE only Side Skirt for small SUVs

[cfg83]

Xringer -

Me likey even more for my ground-hugger-moe-bee-lee

CarloSW2

[Tango Charlie]

Oooh. That may be what I need for the Vibe. I'll hafta check it out next time at Lowe's.

I'm not sure we should be calling them mini skirts, though. To me, a mini skirt is a wheel skirt that doesn't cover the entire wheel arch. How about interwheel strakes?

[Xringer]

If you did completely wreck both gutters, you are out of about $5 plus paint cost!

I'm not worried at all, since mine are higher than my exhaust system and it never hits anything.

When I measured the ground clearance, it was 9.5" front, 9.75 middle and 10" in the back. (I think getting rid of that rear wheel drive junk has really lighted up my CRV).

[basslover911]

That would work, i could also just cross brace it since it does look much more flimpsy with something simple like screws running from side to side...

[basslover911]

Oh, and i dont have much to loose i mean its only $5 and that works for both sides...

Then again how good might it work in a really low car as opposed to it being very high from the ground like in a truck??

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by basslover911

That would work, i could also just cross brace it since it does look much more flimpsy with something simple like screws running from side to side...

PVC is far from being flimsy. It's not your granddad's plastic..
I'm pretty dang sure that you won't need any cross-bars to make it
more solid than it already is.

Mine is bolted in with one bolt on each end and it feels rock solid.
There is no way that anything but a 89 MPH crosswind is going to
flex the middle of the skirts more than a 1/4 inch..

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by basslover911

Oh, and i dont have much to loose i mean its only $5 and that works for both sides...

Then again how good might it work in a really low car as opposed to it being very high from the ground like in a truck??

If your car was white, you wouldn't even have to paint them!

I'm not sure the claimed vortex effect that produces the virtual longer side skirt is even real and will actually work. Maybe it's all BS to cheat truckers.

BUT, if it does work as stated (URL above):


"The Mini-Skirt device employs a controlled vortex to generate an upwash field that is captured by the inboard vertical panel of the device. The use of upwash generation and capture technology results in a virtual extension of the device providing greater fuel savings for a given ground clearance, compared to traditional single panel skirts. This technology provides fuel savings up to 6% for ground clearances as large as 20 inches. These savings have been demonstrated in scaled wind tunnel testing and full-scale fuel economy testing under operational conditions."



I would think there is a chance that it would work even with a lower car type ground clearance.

AND, even if it does not work as stated, you still have the Normal side skirt effect that will block out crosswinds..

And it's MHO, that having 2 gutters mounted under your car in such a way that they do not increase your frontal area, will not harm your FE.

Just maybe they will break up the turbulent air and channel it past points of drag (hardware like mufflers, cats etc), aiding in cutting your cd.

Covering the bottom of your car with gutters, might be better than a solid belly pan! Since it would keep air off your tires!!

We got to test out our ideas.. That's why God gave us screwdrivers!

[basjoos]

That's basically the double side skirt setup that I've been running on my car for the past 2 years, except mine has a different placement relative to the tires. I have one skirt parallel with the outside edge of the tire and the second skirt parallel with the inside edge of the tire. Its made of coroplast, which is flexible and non-brittle, so it just flexes out of the way without damage when contacting the road surface. I made it by using a heat gun to make 2 lengthwise 90 degree bends in a piece of coroplast so that it resembles a rain gutter and screwed it onto the underside of the car covering the distance between the front and rear wheels, including the jack points (I just flex the outer skirt out of the way when I need to jack up the car). Mine sticks down about 4" from the bottom of the car. I initially made it 6" deep and then trimmed it back until it rarely dragged when hitting a bump. It improved mileage by about 1mpg, but its largest noticable effect was that it greatly reduced the amount of dirt kicked up when driving down a dirt road.

[Tango Charlie]

The Master has spoken. Lets go get some guttering, boys!

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by Tango Charlie

The Master has spoken. Lets go get some guttering, boys!

Ah, you just want to do because it looks cool under there..
And, it won't be too weird looking.. Meaning no problems from the wife!

It's good to hear that a double wall skirt worked well on the amazing basjoos rocket. Adding one MPG to that rocket means the side skirt is really working.

I've been worried that maybe those Solus guys had stuck a bunch of VTs generators inside the two walls or done some other unseen mod..

All I can tell from their pics, it's a rectangular box with 2 sides..