Pick up truck tailgates

[Sven7]

I read the material as well and will suggest this:

Since the GM patent only used a Chevy short bed and the Texas Tech tested both short and long bed F150's, perhaps the long bed skewed Texas Tech's numbers. Maybe the full tonneau is more suited to a long bed pickup since its length does not obey the 15 degree rule. If the half tonneau was less efficient on the long bed it could pull down the average they used on the graph.

Food for thought?

[bondo]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

OK, thanks.

Found an interesting patent application filed by Ford on May 11, 2009, while searching for prior art on the pickup truck tailgate mount boatail. It seems one of the inventors is a gentleman named Kelly Kohlstrand, a member of the Ford Advanced Product Marketing and Technology Planning Team.

If you want to read the application it is - US 2010/0283280 A1

Title - Vehicle Cargo Management System

You can access it at - United States Patent and Trademark Office

From the text and drawings it can be determined that the cargo bed is covered by a panel for about the last two feet of the bed, just forward of the closed tailgate.

In the Abstract of the patent it reads:

"The systems partially cover the cargo bed and/or tailgate thereby reducing turbulence at the end of the vehicle and improving vehicle fuel efficiency."

I've heard of Ford!

Bondo

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by bondo

Found an interesting patent application filed by Ford on May 11, 2009, while searching for prior art on the pickup truck tailgate mount boatail. It seems one of the inventors is a gentleman named Kelly Kohlstrand, a member of the Ford Advanced Product Marketing and Technology Planning Team.

If you want to read the application it is - US 2010/0283280 A1

Title - Vehicle Cargo Management System

You can access it at - United States Patent and Trademark Office

From the text and drawings it can be determined that the cargo bed is covered by a panel for about the last two feet of the bed, just forward of the closed tailgate.

In the Abstract of the patent it reads:

"The systems partially cover the cargo bed and/or tailgate thereby reducing turbulence at the end of the vehicle and improving vehicle fuel efficiency."

I've heard of Ford!

Bondo

An article appeared in Pop. Sci.in 1981 after the National Plywood Assoc. annual meeting.In the article 'Plywood ups mileage',they mention that Ford recognized fuel savings on their pickup after covering only the first one foot of bed in front of the closed gate.
There is an image of the article in my photo-archive.
I would have to guess that they were expanding on the 1981 discovery.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Sven7

I read the material as well and will suggest this:

Since the GM patent only used a Chevy short bed and the Texas Tech tested both short and long bed F150's, perhaps the long bed skewed Texas Tech's numbers. Maybe the full tonneau is more suited to a long bed pickup since its length does not obey the 15 degree rule. If the half tonneau was less efficient on the long bed it could pull down the average they used on the graph.

Food for thought?

It is food for thought.Is it possible to model open cavities with flow-illustrator,as in the open bed of a pickup,then partial openings? The full tonneau might be straight forward.
The centerline vortex could talk to us.
Texas tech never showed a FLUENT representation of the full cover flow.