Utility trailer hack (building an aero enclosure for a 1100 mile highway trip)

[Bicycle Bob]

Coroplast is found on election signs, in season, or at lumberyards for under $20/sheet. However, you can do fine with masonite, too. Just soak the outside of the curve with warm water, and it will soften up fine. For corners, you might screw it onto plastic plumbing pipe.

[KamperBob]

Originally Posted by MadisonMPG

No, never have, and no one I know has either. I guess it has something to do with watching how you drive and good tires?

Doing everything right certainly helps. But bad things still happen to good people.

I had a trailer tire delam once. I wasn't even going fast but the flapping tread mangled strong steel fenders. I also know a number of people on camper forums who have experienced tire failures spanning the gamut from uneventful to catastrophic. At highway speeds tread separation really ventilates a fiberglass trailer. :O

Over the years there have been bad batches of tires from just about every major brand at one time or another. There can be no visible sign whatsoever that a fuse has been lit. Similarly, another recent fiasco was defective valve stems. While cruising a slow leak can bleed off pressure which can escalate temps pronto.

Cheers
KB

[thatguitarguy]

Sign makers use Coroplast all the time. You could call a sign shop and see if they'd sell you some, or better yet ask them where they get their plastic supplies. A sign shop will generally charge you more than a plastics supplier because they are the middle-man. I've seen prices from $10-$25 for a 4x8 sheet. Since it's used as signs all the time, if you can find some store getting rid of their old signs you can probably get it for free. That or check your local recycle center.

[aerohead]

You've already got plenty planned and a couple of weeks will go very fast.
I have purchased some foam knee-pad material from Home Depot and will make a flexible gap seal at the centerline of my trailer to close off the cross-flow between truck and trailer.
Hucho claims this is up to 20-% of the rigs drag and would mean a 10-% mpg improvement.
If you could do something like this quick and dirty it might pay for itself.

[KamperBob]

Originally Posted by aerohead

You've already got plenty planned and a couple of weeks will go very fast.
I have purchased some foam knee-pad material from Home Depot and will make a flexible gap seal at the centerline of my trailer to close off the cross-flow between truck and trailer.
Hucho claims this is up to 20-% of the rigs drag and would mean a 10-% mpg improvement.
If you could do something like this quick and dirty it might pay for itself.

Phil, is this what you mean?


Cheers
KB

[MetroMPG]

Cool project, KB.

Question: how did you do the animation in post #1?

I agree with the others: radius the transition to the roof at the leading edge. We discussed that in this trailer thread as well - concensus was you could just split some PVC (or equivalent) and affix it at the roof line.

Radius & boat tail the remaining exposed fender, and skirt it as well.

Depending on time, you could also construct tapered fairings aft of the tires as well, eg:

[cighon]

will it be strong enough to support highway speeds?

[KamperBob]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Cool project, KB.

Question: how did you do the animation in post #1?

I agree with the others: radius the transition to the roof at the leading edge. We discussed that in this trailer thread as well - concensus was you could just split some PVC (or equivalent) and affix it at the roof line.

Radius & boat tail the remaining exposed fender, and skirt it as well.

Depending on time, you could also construct tapered fairings aft of the tires as well, eg:

Darin, I'm glad you appreciate the project.

I used Google Sketchup to draw the trailer in 3D. I used layers and animation scenes to make the sequence. It can export AVI but I wasn't sure if that would post or be web friendly. I knew animated GIF would (both) so I exported a series of JPG images, imported those into MATLAB to build the image stack, wrote the GIF with looping and frame delay settings, uploaded that to my website, and put the link in my post. Easy as pi! :b

For this project I'm intentionally not rounding the roof. There is method to my madness BION. I want to see how this shape pulls compared to a 16' Scamp which made the same trip several times behind the same truck. My guess is this will pull a little easier even without roof line refinements so I'm looking to confirm or refute. The Scamp is rounded everywhere but underneath yet separation theory suggests most of the rear must detach.

I suspect others approach this topic with a different viewpoint, which is fine. Just to clarify, I'm not really trying reinvent the Airstream BaseCamp.



Someday I'd like to see an aero shootout between all my favorite fiberglass eggs (Scamp et al) plus T@B, BaseCamp and Bambi for example, not to mention the spectrum of truck campers from 4Wheel to BigFoot. I have more ideas in my head that I would like to test out. So an ulterior motive for starting 3D models now is to be one step closer to analyzing them later.

Cheers
KB

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by KamperBob

Phil, is this what you mean?


Cheers
KB

Bob,that's it! It's dirt simple and has the performance close to that of very sophisticated and complicated add-ons.
Nice CFD graphics! Happy fabricating,try and get a shake-down run in before departure so you won't end up on the side of the road like me back in December.

[KamperBob]

Originally Posted by aerohead

Bob,that's it! It's dirt simple and has the performance close to that of very sophisticated and complicated add-ons.
Nice CFD graphics! Happy fabricating,try and get a shake-down run in before departure so you won't end up on the side of the road like me back in December.

Phil, did you happen to notice where I mounted the generator on my Scamp?
http://ecomodder.com/forum/160036-post21.html

Cheers
KB