Showcase for Wheel Discs

[jjackstone]

Must have missed this thread. I made carbon wheel covers for my Ranger pickup last year. I think I used three layers of 5.8 oz carbon. Vacuumed it down to make it as light as possible. I used the existing hub covers to attach the disks to the wheel. Drilled three 1/4" holes in the cover and put velcro in the middle just to keep the disk from rattling against the hub cover. So three 1/4" bolts to hold the disk on, rubber grommets on the backside along with Nylock nuts so everything would stay together. They have worked out fine over the year. Although I have just lost one. I think I hit a really hard bump and the cover popped off. Might have been my fault. I might not have attached it properly when I reinstalled it recently. Oh well, off to the junk yard.





JJ

[teoman]

Those look very nice!

[19bonestock88]

Originally Posted by Taylor95

Seems like that is a rare occurrence for most people with these covers. I'm still undecided of I want to do this on any of my vehicles. I'm thinking that performance rotors (the ones with holes) might mitigate the extra heat.

Performance rotors help some, but they don’t offset aggressive use/extreme situations. I melted my wheel covers running the tail of the dragon bc my brakes got so hot. Literally smoke pouring out of the wheelwells...

[ptjones]

The wheel covers are a challenge to attach to the wheels. I machined aluminum plugs with 1/4x20 threaded hole in center to go on the inside of the wheels and glued them in with silicon rubber . Then used 1 3/4" 1/4"x 20 thread machine screwed into plug through 1/4" fender washer, 3/16" x 18 1/4" LEXAN Plastic cover and 1/2" Nylon bushing. Also put Nylon 1/4" x 20- 1 1/2" screw about 1 1/2" from edge through LEXAN to keep cover from spinning. Link https://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/topi...ge/4/#comments about halfway down the page.

I gained 2 mpg from adding wheel covers and rear wheel well cover.
Paul

[Tahoe_Hybrid]

Originally Posted by Taylor95

These look really good. Has anyone seen any problems with overheating brakes because of these coverings? Will this cause faster brake pad wear?

Engine braking or regen most of the time

With engine braking i can almost come to a complete stop in about the same time.. (jake brake, aka: DFCO) i have to be careful as it stop very fast but the brake light does come on automatically when jake braking.


or all 3 braking if you want the tailgater behind me to be in my back seat
Friction, Regeneration and Engine braking... i need to remove that Aux muffler this way it can sound like a helicopter when jake braking ...

[ptjones]

I can stick mine into reverse at anytime and keep going.

Paul

[Vekke]

Found newer wheel study on Volvo. Some interesting things there.

http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/...588/255588.pdf

Difference for best and worst design is cd 0,02 which is massive. On general with smooth hubcab you can lower your drag coefficient about 0,01.
Convex mooneye hubcap will lower the drag about 0,027 so to have them convex helps litlle bit more.

I am at the moment thinking about to make my own aerodynamic wheelcover model for steel wheels with traditionel fastening mechanism.

[teoman]

Nice document. Thanks for sharing.

[JacobLeSann]

If this has already been answered lemme know, but has anybody tested brake heat with full covers in winter conditions? Thinking of making a set of full covers for winter and outer edge discs for summer with centre vents.

[freebeard]

The sense of the forum would likely be if you use the brakes your not hypermiling.

Beyond that it would depend on the use case. I found this a while back and haven't had a chance to use it: