burningman wrote:
I noticed the front end of my truck gets less floaty at 90-100 mph with an airfoil.
But at 110-120, it tears the camper skin.
For fun I ran some rough numbers. I estimate truck campers to have a drag coefficient of .70, I got this number from the fact that my old Chev. with a 6.5 Turbo Diesel put down 195 hp to rear wheels. That TC combination had a frontal area of 65 sq.ft. and a weight of 3800lbs. The max. speed I could get out of that TC combination was 84 mph. It works out to a drag coefficient of approx. .70.
Making a lot of assumptions of course, based on the info. in your sig. there is no mention of a modified or bigger turbo, so a sustained hp of 375 would be max with the factory hx35 turbo in the 24 valve vp44 powered cummins of that era.
So according to a hp/areo drag calculator at this link, http://www.apexgarage.com/tech/horsepower_calc.shtml . a max. hp of 375, a drag coefficient of .70 a truck and camper weight of 4000lbs. and frontal area of 65sq.ft, the numbers work out to top speed of 107 mph.
It would require 534hp to hit 120 mph and 678hp to hit 130 mph.
