Wheel covers on the Canyon

[JRMichler]

I added wheel covers to the Canyon last May, and the results are now in. I made the covers from sign vinyl. Sign vinyl makes a lousy wheel cover because it's weak and flimsy, but it's cheap and easily installed. The covers came out slightly below flush with the tire sidewalls.



One problem with stick-on wheel covers is that sand and small gravel gets behind the cover, then centrifugal force throws it outward and tries to pry the cover off the out portion of the rim. They worked well enough for this test, but are coming off soon.

The results:

Before:
Summer 2014 - end of May through mid September
3414.0 miles
89.42 gallons
38.18 MPG

With covers:
Summer 2015 - end of May through mid September
3975.5 miles
103.36 gallons
38.46 MPG

Summer 2015 was slightly warmer than Summer 2014, which could account for 0.1 to 0.2 MPG improvement. It appears that these wheel covers made almost no improvement to my mileage.

[Tulok]

looks good!

I wonder if it would show more of a difference for a vehicle driven at higher speeds. Plus, your truck seems like it has a lot of good improvements, so the gains may not be as evident.

[MkVer]

Your OEM covers look reasonably smooth, as stock covers go. My guess is your large open wheel wells are creating some decent air disturbances and since the stock covers weren't awful, the smooth covers weren't able to do much. Still, the smooth covers looked good and even a small help is better than nothing right?

[deejaaa]

my new flat covers fit inside the wheel lip and have not seen an improvement compared to the moons.
can you explain how you attached "stick-on wheel covers"? any pics of material used?

[JRMichler]

I got my sign vinyl from SignWarehouse - Vinyl Cutters, Large Format Color Printers, Heat Press Vinyl, Engravers, Vinyl Supplies. I think I bought their Enduragloss product. It comes in a roll with paper backing. Cut to size, peel off the backing, and stick it on. It looks and feels a lot like vinyl electrical tape.