Partial Bed Cover- '98 Frontier
 

Well, I decided it was time to try something else, and best of all, I got the time to do it...

What better to do on a Sunday morning in 45 degree weather?

I sourced the wood and built a partial bed cover for the truck.

4 - 1x12x4 white pine
1 - 1x10x8 white pine
1 - 2x2x8 pine

My bed is 54.75" wide at the rails
1x12 boards are NOT 12" wide!
1x10 boards are NOT 10" wide!

However, if you place 4 of the 1x12s and 1 of the 1x10s side by side, you get 54.375 (54 3/8) wide...

I have a 6' bed, so 4' long is plenty... and it is currently recessed into the bed about 3/8"

Here it is...

http://riley-music.com/BowsStuff/240...ver/01Side.JPG

http://riley-music.com/BowsStuff/240...ver/02Rear.JPG

http://riley-music.com/BowsStuff/240...3UnderDeck.JPG

The Best part?
The first run to work this morning gained me 3 MPG Avg... 27.1! and in 37 degree weather!!

It cost me about $35 for materials...

Now I'm thinking about a belly pan... :D

3mpg may have been a fluke, but looks good none the less.

Maybe so, I'll find out tomorrow on the way into work...

I do know that the truck doesn't drag from 40-50 MPH like it did before.

How long is the bed?

6'

7%
 

I think GM inferred that a 1/2-tonneau was good for about a 7% mpg improvement at standard conditions.

Thanks Phil!

If nothing else, it is a base for my future aerocap... ;)

Hey, Bow, I think it looks great! Far and away the best bang for the buck you're gonna get. Keep in mind too people, Bow has a big ol carry box back there too, that's gotta count for something, I'd say he has 4/5's of a tonneau.

Wanted to check this out so I made some Flow Illustrators of the build and the results impress me. For fun I put on an areocap too.

Base Nissan Frontier Flow Illus

Nissan Frontier W/ 1/2 Tonneau Flow Illus

AeroCapped Nissan Truck

Thanks Chaz...

I think I need to figure out a Cab extension/wing next... that should be quick and easy... (famous last words... ;) )

Nice work on the 2/3 tonneau cover. A 2/3 cover is not much better than a full tonneau. Took this from Aerohead's photo album:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1265053166
The carry box is probably not helping the FE that much since the weight of it is probably offsetting any aero gain.

wing
 

John Gilkison threw one together for the T-100.
It was a C-shaped plywood base laying flat across the front bed bulkhead,extending 18-inches back along the top of the rails.
The two sides were plywood skinned with hardboard and routed to accept Plexiglass window on passenger side,angled at 7-degrees and tilted in to approximate the tumblehome of the cab roof.
The top was just a simple plywood shelf which extended from below the 3rd brakelight straight back 18-inches.If you laid a straight-edge off the back of the cab roof,down to the top rear edge of the "shelf" that angle was around 12-degrees.Wood gussets provided rigidity.Drywall screws held the whole thing together.House paint kept it alive for years.
No attempt was made to provide a curved skin or any complex shape at all.
Not real pretty but the air was okay with it.
Fuel records indicate that it performed as Texas Tech had reported.

Nope, but it was cheap to make and try out, which is a big plus for me.

My cargo box in the bed might weight 40-50 pounds empty. I carry very little in it. It is mainly there because having a single cab doesn't give me anywhere to carry stuff out of the weather.

Thanks Phil, I'll have to see if I can locate any photos of that.

Straight back off the Cab roof, under the 3rd brake light would be very easy for me, the small structure I mount my antennas on is already located there!

Here's a spoiler & half tonneau Flow Illustrator. The flow off the back does seem smoother.

Nissan Frontier with Partial Tonneau and Kamm Back on Cab

Nice work, Bow.

Added to the project library. EcoModder Project Library - EcoModder.com

what if the spoiler wasnt straight but curved?


would that help the flow more if it was at the correct angle?

http://koorlite.com.au/images/db/koo/1436.jpg

I guess not all "Flukes" are bad...

I averaged 29.24 MPG on the way home... at one point, I had 30.2 on the ScanGauage, until the last 5 miles of my 42 mile trip that was pure stop and go on the freeway (I hate Houston)...

On another note, usually (for the past 9 years I've been driving this truck anyway), I usually travel about 75 miles to go from a Full tank to 3/4 tank level... Today, I was at 89 miles and on the 3/4 mark when I hit the driveway...

I think my $35 investment will be paid off in no time...

Not bad for a 268,000 mile truck on the original clutch... :)

Not bad at all. In fact, it's downright good!

Thanks..

I'm so stoked, I just had to post this pic I snapped on the way home...

I have not seen the average this high since I got my SG a month ago... and I doubt it ever has been this high...

:turtle:

Well, I guess I am into Phase II of the project...

After reading several things on this forum, Mr. Knox's many posts, and seeing Chaz's Flow Dynamics model of how much better the shelf makes the partial bed cover work, I decided to cook up a "Shelf" to mount under my 3rd brake light, as discussed earlier in this thread by Mr Knox.

Understanding that the angle to shoot for off the roofs 12 degrees, I decided to do a little Math (with the help of an on line calculator) to see how far out my "Shelf" would have to go to get 12 degrees off the roof line...

I found this site: RIGHT TRIANGLE CALCULATOR and plugged in my "knowns" to find out how far back my shelf need to come off the roof:

I know the my mount point for this shelf is 2.25" below my roof line.
I know the angle needs to be 12 degrees.

Shelf distance from the cab: 10.5"

So I found a lonely chunk of 6061 T-6 aluminum in the scrap bin at work.. about 0.075" thick.... Perfect

I cut it to the width of my cab at the roof: 48" and made the piece 10.5" wide (as per the on-line Calculator), and cut it to fit around my antenna mounts.

I just mounted it to my Antenna mount rail and it is quite stiff..

I guess we will find out if it helps tomorrow...

I guess the side pieces of the inverted "C" shape will take a bit more planing... ;)

I'll try to get a photo tomorrow in the daylight.

Sniff is better than Smelly. Just sayin'.

Pics? (Can you take pics of how sniff something is?)

Pics in the daylight....

Maybe even scratch and sniff pics for you two!

If it smells like Hickory, I'm in!

Hickory? I'm a cheap dude... You'll get Pine and like it! :D

Fine! But rub some new car scent on it.











mmMMMHhhHMMMMMm.... New Car Scent...

I've never owned a New Car..

My wife's '99.5 Pathfinder SE is the closest to "New" at 67,000 miles...

How about this:

http://sfist.com/attachments/SFist_B...ine%20tree.jpg

?

Eh... that's like adding pine to pine... cheap-o!

I guess if you can find the blue one... that'll be OK. (Blue is new car scent LOL)

When are we gitting together to work on that belly pan of yers? ;)

HAHAH As soon as I get some free time

LOL

Thanks for the offer

I need to pick up some coroplastic

Belly pan sleep over? 0.o

Skip the coroplast...we can work with luan... :D

...and we can see how much of my technology can be applied to yer air dam. ;)

I can stop by during lunchtime, too. :D

Hey Buddy! That will be enough of that!

Unless someone brings beer

Here is the "Cab Extension Wing"

http://riley-music.com/BowsStuff/240...ver/Wing01.JPG

http://riley-music.com/BowsStuff/240...ver/Wing02.JPG

http://riley-music.com/BowsStuff/240...ver/Wing03.JPG

http://riley-music.com/BowsStuff/240...ver/Wing04.JPG


I need to throw an angle finder on it and see if it is actually 12 degrees....

The big question... Does It Work?

Well, I averaged 29.7 MPG on the way into work this morning.... in the rain...

:D

So I have high hopes...

It's also a shady spot to put your drink while you're working, a rain deflector for your split rear window, and a shade for the rear window, as well.

Multi-purpose redneck modding. I like. :thumbup:

Seriously - you'll never have to explain that mod. People will just see it for what it isn't, and move on.

And I'm going to go ahead and say that from the cab roof to the edge of that wing is not 12*... more like 7 or 8, maybe.

still not a bad idea

Well, that shelf probably wouldn't last very long on the back of a truck... commendable, though :P










I keed.

fatigue
 

There is a chance that a "vortex street" can setup around the wing causing cyclic bending.If that occurred,over time she'd develop fatigue fractures around the mounting hardware.
Just something to keep an eye on.Simple bracing can change the frequency of the panel so that's an option down the road if needed.
The aluminum looks good.And you'll always have a means to slice apples and cheese.

50% of truck owners dont haul stuff :thumbup:

84.5% of statistics are made up on the spot, based on the situation. :thumbup:

I meant because it's glass... vibration and such.

Well, when I went looking for a "new to me" vehicle, I have a sports car, the wife drives an SUV.. I figured, might as well have a truck...

It hauls stuff occasionally... stuff I don't want to put in my Sports car or SUV... ;)

And it is my Daily driver...

It is like saying 80% of exotic sports cars owners never actually DRIVE their cars...

Yup, looking at it this morning, it seems that the angle is a bit off from my calculation... probably due to the "rake" of the truck, or the slight "Forward" angle of the mount it is sitting on... but it is aluminum, and the grain is running fore and aft to the truck, so I can always bend it to get the angle without it cracking...

I'll keep an eye on it Phil, thanks for the insight...

Any ideas on the side deflectors for it?

Ever seen a razor back spoiler?

Probably could just pop-rivet some more panels right to the antenna frame you have, then angle all three of them to ~12* into each other from the 2 planes.

I can't imagine that square tube (?) frame wouldn't be able to hold itself up even with a couple rivet holes in it?

Once you've got the top and sides done, you could just bend another piece of aluminum tubing and make a frame for the aft edges of all your new panels, to box them all together.