Portland to NYC next week with the Redneck Vistaliner

[skyking]

I am moving a friend and her car to NY, and to get enough volume and length for the furniture we built a plug and extension on my short bed truck and plopped the canopy on it. I'll be towing her Subaru on a Uhaul car transporter behind.
I will put a shield in front of her car for dings and weather, 65" wide and 55" above the ground.
The extension over the tailgate is 66" wide and about 66" above the ground.
One thought I had was a box fairing 4' deep from the back edge of that to just over the shield in front of her car, and with shortened sides that would allow for the trailer to pivot underneath it. It would keep the rear boil down.
I'd love to do something up front. It would depend on duct tape or similar, an the difficulty is the width difference. It will be difficult to craft something that a side gust won't rip off, getting under it from the side over the rear door.
One look from this angle and the rig named itself:


I sloped that rear lid for weather runoff, leaving 36" interior height at the back edge for an 8' sofa that set the long dimension.

We crafted it with salvaged form plywood from the 2013~14 SR520 floating bridge project. That stuff has been used and re-used several times. The sides are double wall, wrapped around 2x's in the stake pockets and solid blocking at the top edge. I shot some screws with fender washers through the canopy into those edges, and ratchet strapped it down to the bed tiedowns at all corners.
I have caulked it everywhere and painted the wood with some really old paint that still stirred up.

I do have a 4x8 sheet of coroplast for the rear deflector.
When I get back east I will return the trailer, and tear down the sides and put the canopy where it was designed to go for the drive home.

[skyking]

If I have time Thursday early Friday, I will clean up the front with some duct tape, plywood, and coroplast. I don't know what it would mean aerodynamically, but it is bound to be quieter.

[ECO-AKJ]

Nice, if I were doing this, I would put some kind of taper from the front of the camper shell to the cab, less of a windblock that way

[freebeard]

A ' Redneck Vistaliner' would have a blue tarp for a windbreak.

[aerohead]

wouldn't be surprised if you lost 6-mpg on the way out, and gained 5% on the way back.

[skyking]

My best guess is ~16 MPG out and ~22 MPG back, based on the 5th wheel trailer data. This setup is 2000 pounds lighter and 30" shorter, and 17" narrower up front and at the top. The car trailer fenders hang out there at 8'6" which is a drag, pun intended.

[aerohead]

I wrapped my head in plaster of paris so as not to ruin my hat size!

[skyking]

Originally Posted by aerohead

I wrapped my head in plaster of paris so as not to ruin my hat size!

That was a fine theory before the facts of the load, and steady state performance. Real world? I am getting ~13 MPG on these mountains and also driving considerably faster while doing it. The downhill slide across Nebraska will be far better, and the lower speed limits in Illinois and Ohio will force some economy into the trip.
We had a terrible leave. Not nearly enough of her friends showed up to help and she suffered from too much retail therapy. In the end she had to give away some more stuff and the car and every nook and cranny are stuffed. If I find an easy truck scale I will scale it, but my eyeball has it at about 15,000 CGVW.
The truck performed as expected. I could hold 70 on almost all hills and got caught a handful of times down to 60. I passed a lot of trucks uphill but was passed by far more on the downhills. I never went to 4th gear and just lugged those 60 mph steeps in 5th, direct drive.

Currently we are in Rock Springs WY, @~6400 MSL. The weather has been superb, but windy.

[freebeard]

That was a fine theory before the facts of the load, and steady state performance.

Theory? I'd thought he'd harmed himself again.

[skyking]

It blew or sucked hard, however you want to describe it, for ~1000 miles. It did not settle down till mid-Iowa. I did see the MPG eek up to ~15 in the lower speed limits of Ohio.
The return trip was an education. I got ~21 across much of the eastern portion as far as MO.
Kansas was a constant relentless headwind that kicked our ass down to 17.
I got ~20 from Denver over the 11000 foot pass and all the way through CO and UT. No wind there
Death valley was nice and ~22 with the low speed limit.