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Well, I'm not a math major but the term cost effectiveness comes to mind. As well as point of diminishing returns. Might want to do a little cost/benefit analysis on where the break even point is spending a grand or so to pick up 3 or 4 mpg. 2 or 3 hundred on a cold air intake doesn't sound to bad, but the deeper you get into it, the higher the costs go and the mileage increase get smaller and smaller. Aero might be real effective, bang for the buck. You could probably make a spoiler yourself for not a lot of money.
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Bones heal, chicks dig scars, pain is temporary but GLORY is FOREVER!! Or, the older I get the faster I WAS! -
If you have seen the rig I use to come down for the reunion. 2007 Suburban, 28ft trailer that is CLOSE to 9,000# with the car and gator.
I get whopping 8 mpg. Since I am driving a slug, towing a brick I just shell out the money. The ONLY thing that I can say has worked to HELP the MPG from 7 to 8 is a K&N, that is it. Phelon Motorsports added a wing on the tow vehicle and said it gave then a bigger boost in MPG than ANYTHING they tried.
I drove 37ft Diesel Pusher down with a 3,300 # car in tow and get 11 mpg. I am working on hooking up the car carrier to the coach but almost 68 ft of rig at just this side of 48,000 lbs is the hold up, PLUS the fact I am not the sure of turning that sucker.
In the case of what this thread asked I would try the K&N and then go from there.
IMPORTANT question what RPM are you turning when you are on level ground?
The beast we have is turning 2700 where the coach is turning 1,400.
If you figure out something that REALLY works please post it.
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Ted and george have good points. Do those wings mounted on the roof of the truck divert a large amount of wind. Thats probably the thing that most robs your mileage is the resistance against the wind. The last large trailer I had was a tad under 8000 lbs and the front was kinda rounded, areo I guess you call it, and if I ran 2200 to 2400 rpm I got 10-11 MPG if I kept it about 1800 to 1900 I got 14 to 15 MPG. Thats about 68 MPH the way my truck is geared. I investigated changing the gearing but was told I'd regret it when I wasn't towing. I talked to ford and they went over some figures with me for gearing and the 5 speed auto is dual range with 5 speeds at the lower range. I went to Ocala the first of this year and pulled my Golf cart. I left a little earlier than usual and I set my cruise on 64 and it got 15.5. Thats the most I have ever gotten pulling any kind of trailer. That was the main reason I quit travelling with the UDLMCS. The fuel cost me a fortune and I just couldn't afford it any more. Bob...Comment
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We did an estimate using Streets and Trips to come down to Zhill with the Rig I have now and looking at $586.00 in fuel RT. That is compared to when we took the Motor Home down for UNDER $375.00 in fuel and that was our motel room.Originally posted by flvideo View Post
I am looking into to going Diesel with an Allison if i decide to keep playing with the car. Going up to NC on 8/24 using the rig we have will see if the changes I made to the Chevy help or hurt. Trying a MINI WING not the real tall one that some have. I was also thinking of using a nose wing from a sprinter as the top wing on the Chevy.
It is real hard to justify $285.00 in fuel for 10 to 25 laps of track time BUT that is what it takes with a vintage.
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A good look at the best aero new big rigs of today,shows a lot work done between cab and trailer for smooth air flow,plus tire spats etc.
For smaller trucks disk{moon] hub caps,nose ground spoiler can help.
For those that don't know,air drag over 30mph starts to be your biggist power[MPG] user,your pushing a lot of wind. Think about just walking into the wind blowing at 70 mph,will you get tired out fast or move at all?>>>>>>
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Dana Do those roof wings help a lot. I see them all the time but I have never tried one. Bob...Comment
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They only work some*,then when at the right angle to match trailer,the only way I've seen angle adjusted to work best was a test ribben trailing off center of wing so it showed air stream just jumping over trail front/seen from car running along side at speed.Originally posted by flvideo View Post
*You can see that the best new big rigs have a flaired coweling off cab,not a wing.
When towing with a pickup and inclosed racecar trailer,having a nice shaped closed bed topper and trailer with a front that looks like upside down boat,helps.
Tire racks out side in the air steam are super high air drag,like those we see some have on front of open trailers or in there pickup bed kind of behind cab are very bad.Last edited by Dana Barlow; 08-08-2009, 01:16 PM.Comment
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Yeah people would be surprised at what wind resistance would do. Many many moons ago I raced 12th scale R/C cars and the club I raced with voted to go from formula bodys to nascar bodys. Man you would not believe how much they slowed us down on something that small. They were probably 9 or 10 inches long. after racing the formula bodies you actually had time to think about what you were fixing to do. It seemed almost like slow motion. My wife keps trying to get me to buy a smaller trailer for my golf cart. She thinks I would get better mileage, but I don't know. the trailer I use now is 12 ft x 6 and my cart about 1/2 fills it. I don't think it would make much difference. My cart sticking up in the wind is what makes the drag. Besides the $700 to $1000 the trailer would cost would buy a lot of fuel. Bob...Comment
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