Aerodynamics
Ok, before you start this seems a bit off the wall to me too. I have been reading about mods to trucks involving sealing off the bottom side to improve air flow. Seems like a lot of work to me. But I ...
Forum Discussion
From what my trucker friends have told me the goal is 1 mpg, and almost none have reached it. But one reason the trucks get better mpg is the things they use are engineered for minimum weight. The truck deals are tested in computer models and eventually wind tunnels to be able to document the airflow.
The problems that no matter what they do, they are still cutting a hole in the air 8 feet wide and 13 feet tall.
So are we.
$100 is small enough to play with. You might get 0.1 and you might get 0.5, or you might actually hurt your mpg because of not engineering the airflow correctly.
Aerodynamic improvements are very complicated to develop correctly.
All I can really say is try. At worst it will cost you $100 or so and a few hours work.
Then do some controlled testing - driving the same route under the same conditions with and without the aero mods.
I'd be very interested to hear your results.
My new Flagstaff has a 'straighter' fiberglass front cap than the somewhat rounded front of my Grey Wolf. I haven't seen any real decrease in fuel mileage with a trailer 2,800 lbs heavier and 14 inches higher, but I know there will be some. I guess I haven't pulled it enough to really compare. (I track every mile I tow, fuel usage, speed average, and costs.)
I'm looking at putting a trucker type wind deflector on top of my TV. I have been able to do some measuring of towing with a bare pickup bed, with a bed rail level cover and with a cab level topper. The cab level topper gives me about 0.5 better MPG than the bed level cover and 0.7 better than the bare pickup bed.
But as I mentioned above - I got almost 0.5 mpg improvement going from 64 mpg to 58 mpg as my 'cruise' speed.
My new trailer bottom is almost eight inches higher than my previous trailer. The bottom is fully enclosed and slick. That helps minimize the impact of the additional weight - but I wonder if trailer skirts would help. However a big reason for the trailer skirts is that the bottoms of trucker trailers are not clean - the bottoms of many RVs are very clean aero wise.
I also think the rear end of RVs - all types - are badly engineered to avoid parasitic drag. Just looking at how dirt collects on the back shows you that the airflow is not clean/ efficient.
My prediction is that in 20 years - trailers and MH will look quite different because of trucker developed aerodynamic lessons.
The problems that no matter what they do, they are still cutting a hole in the air 8 feet wide and 13 feet tall.
So are we.
$100 is small enough to play with. You might get 0.1 and you might get 0.5, or you might actually hurt your mpg because of not engineering the airflow correctly.
Aerodynamic improvements are very complicated to develop correctly.
All I can really say is try. At worst it will cost you $100 or so and a few hours work.
Then do some controlled testing - driving the same route under the same conditions with and without the aero mods.
I'd be very interested to hear your results.
My new Flagstaff has a 'straighter' fiberglass front cap than the somewhat rounded front of my Grey Wolf. I haven't seen any real decrease in fuel mileage with a trailer 2,800 lbs heavier and 14 inches higher, but I know there will be some. I guess I haven't pulled it enough to really compare. (I track every mile I tow, fuel usage, speed average, and costs.)
I'm looking at putting a trucker type wind deflector on top of my TV. I have been able to do some measuring of towing with a bare pickup bed, with a bed rail level cover and with a cab level topper. The cab level topper gives me about 0.5 better MPG than the bed level cover and 0.7 better than the bare pickup bed.
But as I mentioned above - I got almost 0.5 mpg improvement going from 64 mpg to 58 mpg as my 'cruise' speed.
My new trailer bottom is almost eight inches higher than my previous trailer. The bottom is fully enclosed and slick. That helps minimize the impact of the additional weight - but I wonder if trailer skirts would help. However a big reason for the trailer skirts is that the bottoms of trucker trailers are not clean - the bottoms of many RVs are very clean aero wise.
I also think the rear end of RVs - all types - are badly engineered to avoid parasitic drag. Just looking at how dirt collects on the back shows you that the airflow is not clean/ efficient.
My prediction is that in 20 years - trailers and MH will look quite different because of trucker developed aerodynamic lessons.
