Art Schlangen wrote:
Try this one. ART
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27017146/srt/pa/pging/1/page/1
I just read your post... do the Tabs work, you haven't said yet, have you put many miles on them?. They have been around for a long time... I have never read any reports from Truck camper owners... I would want to know of other truck camper owners successful experiences over time before I spent that kind of money.
I looked at the Air Tabs a long time ago... they were quite expensive at that time... and they appeared to me to creat turbulance... I wanted a laminaire (smooth) air flow. Turbulance creats drag, any drag hurts fuel economy.
Like many before me I decided to try to build my own solution:
I had some wind tunnel experince to help me understand my decisions and tried a solid deflector... it moved the wind away from the area between the TC and the truck's cab but created another unexpected problem... it created a negative pressure area behind the air deflector... dirt and rain water from the road surface was pulled up between the back of the trucks cab and the front of the trucks bed.... it was dirt, oil, water mixed in to a nasty mess... I prefered the bugs and noise that I'd eliminated.
I decided to drill some holes in the solid wind deflectors in order to equalize the air pressure behind the wind deflector...eliminating the the road dirt problem.
I like PVC... easy to work with, light weight, easy to repair or make changes... while looking for more "pvc siding" to use for prototype deflectors I ran across the 5' sections of gutter gard... the holes were already there.
It turns out that the "gutter gard" works much like a macro membrane... the balance between air pushing on the front ao the Airfoil and the small amout that slips through is just about ideal.
How can I tell how well it works... bugs slide out to the side of the camper in the slip stream... none on the bulk head. No noise. And, no more road dirt sucked up into the bulk head area between the TC and the truck.
I wouldn't recommend my Airfoil except that there have been many built and happily used... for the last 10 years. (I'm still using the original prototype)
The cost... less than $20 total... and a bonus, the fact that most truck camper owners seem to be creative, hands on, even skilled people that like to think things through, to understand, and to find the best solutions. I have built more than 30 of my Airfoils for others as they stop by the house... and cheered on or coached hundreds more as they built their own... by pm, email, and phone. (This was the 4th request this week)
Good luck to everyone that builds an Airfoil... and I hope the Air Tabs work out for Art.
Sleepy
