From Friday April 10th to Sunday April 12th 2015 I traveled to Monahans Texas from Las Cruces, NM to meet Phil Knox at the Sandhills Park there where we camped. The trip gave me a great opportunity to do mpg testing on the Ford F-150 EcoBoost 4x4 with the aerolid and boat tail.
The outbound trip leg was 287.9 miles using 15.206 gallons of gas for 18.933 mpg average. The return leg was 286.6 miles using 15.105 gallons for a 19.04 mpg average. The combined figures are 575.5 miles using 30.11 gallons for a combined average of 18.986 mpg.
My best run was Fabens to Van Horn outbound 89.2 miles/4.691 gallons at 19.01 mpg. I returned higher numbers on the trip but none at these speeds. I did 15 miles at 75 mph and 74 miles at 80 mph for a combined average of 79.15 mph over the 89 miles. I was traveling WSW and the winds were light at 4 mph out of the NE. This amounts to average air speed of 83 mph. These are actual pumped values.
In testing with Phil Knox recording we could pull 17.2 MPG at 80 MPH without the boat tail mounted using the Aerolid only. The truck naked has a historical data point of 15.1 mpg at 80 mph. This is a 12.2 % improvement of the Truck Naked/Truck + Aerolid. I tested out at 19.2 mpg at 80 mph on the inbound leg on the same road surface with the Boat Tail included. That is a 10.4 % improvement of the Aerolid only. The Truck Naked v Aerolid + Boat Tail is 21.36 improvement.
My highest MPG return at 80 mph with both appliances was 20.1 mpg on level ground which is a 25.25 % improvement over the truck naked. However the test conditions were not comparable. I think we can say with a high degree of confidence that the Aerolid is a 12% improvement and the Boat Tail adds another 8% to that figure for a total 20% improvement. This testing was done at 70 F at 3,950 ft of elevation.
The record return of 20.1 mpg at 80 mph means the truck is using only 48.5 RHP to travel at this speed on level ground. As much a 30 RHP of this is being used to overcome rolling resistance. That leaves only 18.5 RHP being used to overcome aerodynamic forces. Even the 19.2 mpg figure only translates to 2 more RHP meaning only 20.5 RHP is needed to overcome the aerodynamic forces.
The photo above was taken the evening before I left for the trip and shows the truck with the Aerolid and Boat Tail. My son in law Mario is standing beside the truck after helping me mount the Boat Tail.
Addendum I used a trailer level mounted to the passenger door. Used in conjunction with the elevation read out from a GPS unit it is a very accurate way to indicate when you are on level ground. I will post a picture of this new instrumentation later.
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