My aero (hopefully) fiberglass foam truck camper

[skyking]

Thanks so much for the detail pics. I have a leetle projeyct of my own......

yes I fly the thrush. Its one of the first turbine models Ayres made. You fly?

Very nice job you have. Yes, I fly a straight tail 310 (skyking) and used to fly banner tow before 9/11.

You must be back east somewhere, nobody is doing a really cool project within driving range.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by skyking

Kachi, push it on up to the original front height, see what that looks like. Give the guy some headroom in the bunk.

Yea, kind of tight up there in the old bunk. Little kiddies only, no room for adults doing adult things.

[turbothrush]

Originally Posted by kach22i

Big outside and roomy inside.

Bigger than what I would have done, but nice.

Too Complex?
Automobile 2 - Odds and Ends pictures by kach22i - Photobucket

Thanks for the input kach22i . It is easy to see that you have some good ideas. I just need more headroom in the bunk like skyking said. My old camper had 35" bunk to ceiling and that allowed a short person to sit on the edge of the bed and that is good when space is at a premium. I do like the rear pop-up idea to reduce the wake.
Got me thinkin...Thanks

[Frank Lee]

Re: behind the cab radii: I was thinking you'd cut those in, same as you'd do above, rather than add something on that comes ahead of the back of the cab.

[yugomodder]

I'd like to offer some advice. Reading this report http://csus-dspace.calstate.edu/xmlu...pdf?sequence=1 gave me some information I think you might find useful. It's about testing pick up trucks and aerodynamic bed configurations. These are the drag coefficient figures for aerodynamic toppers simply cut at an angle downwards, instead of a suburban like back end or a pick up truck bed.

Baseline 0.3453
Traditional canopy 0.3157
5degrees 0.2957
10degrees 0.2894
12degrees 0.2892
15degrees 0.2987
18.7degrees 0.3091

Now as you can tell the 12 degree slope has the lowest drag coefficient, however it isn't much lower than at 10 degrees or 5 degrees.

This suggests to me that in this case, instead of following the template as you would do on a boat tail, you may want just a slight taper on the top and sides. Even just a few degrees. That way you end up with a fairly significant drag reduction, without impeding the usefulness and spaciousness of the topper.

If it isn't going to be a huge engineering challenge I think the pop up design would be very useful.


Whatever design you do choose I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together.

[turbothrush]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Re: behind the cab radii: I was thinking you'd cut those in, same as you'd do above, rather than add something on that comes ahead of the back of the cab.

Good point. What you suggest makes the most sense rather than dealing with hinges and fairings but i am going to put the jacks in a hollow tube "receiver" in that area so I can remove them easily for travel. The green square in the pic.

[Frank Lee]

Can those front jacks go back 4-5", right behind the radii?

[turbothrush]

Originally Posted by yugomodder

I'd like to offer some advice. Reading this report http://csus-dspace.calstate.edu/xmlu...pdf?sequence=1 gave me some information I think you might find useful. It's about testing pick up trucks and aerodynamic bed configurations. These are the drag coefficient figures for aerodynamic toppers simply cut at an angle downwards, instead of a suburban like back end or a pick up truck bed.

Baseline 0.3453
Traditional canopy 0.3157
5degrees 0.2957
10degrees 0.2894
12degrees 0.2892
15degrees 0.2987
18.7degrees 0.3091

Now as you can tell the 12 degree slope has the lowest drag coefficient, however it isn't much lower than at 10 degrees or 5 degrees.

This suggests to me that in this case, instead of following the template as you would do on a boat tail, you may want just a slight taper on the top and sides. Even just a few degrees. That way you end up with a fairly significant drag reduction, without impeding the usefulness and spaciousness of the topper.

If it isn't going to be a huge engineering challenge I think the pop up design would be very useful.


Whatever design you do choose I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together.

Wow lots of stuff .Was not expecting such good results at 5 degrees.Thanks a lot

[turbothrush]

Originally Posted by skyking

Thanks so much for the detail pics. I have a leetle projeyct of my own......


Very nice job you have. Yes, I fly a straight tail 310 (skyking) and used to fly banner tow before 9/11.

You must be back east somewhere, nobody is doing a really cool project within driving range.

Cool. Never did any banner towing. I'll watch for your areoshell thread. And yep East Coast

[KamperBob]

Excellent project. I can't wait to see more. Rock on!