Wheel Skirts... - Fuelly Forums

Click here to see important news regarding the aCar App

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 07-09-2008, 08:58 PM   #1
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 18
Country: United States
Wheel Skirts...

This was my first mod...fender skirts. The sheet metal came from the top of a S10 pick up cab I had sitting in my back yard. I pounded them out with a rubber mallet on a bag of sand. They are attached with two 1/4" rods top and bottom and are held on with one screw and two pins the top rear rod slides into a bracket. They come of relatively easy but take about 15 min to put back on each side. The boosted my mileage 2 mpg. Now to figure out how to do the front wheel wells.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	38c63.jpg
Views:	445
Size:	72.6 KB
ID:	1176   Click image for larger version

Name:	77ad.jpg
Views:	375
Size:	40.2 KB
ID:	1177  
__________________

__________________
Honda...the economical, renewable resource.
justpassntime is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-10-2008, 06:11 AM   #2
Registered Member
 
theholycow's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 6,624
Country: United States
Send a message via ICQ to theholycow Send a message via AIM to theholycow Send a message via MSN to theholycow Send a message via Yahoo to theholycow
I too have my doubts that they really increased mileage by 2mpg, but they're certainly worthwhile -- and they look great! I wish I could make something look so nice.
__________________

__________________
This sig may return, some day.
theholycow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-10-2008, 06:24 AM   #3
Site Team / Moderator
 
Jay2TheRescue's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 4,719
Country: United States
Location: Northern Virginia
I think I'm going to try some wheel skirts for the Beast - I'll fabricate something simple out of corrugated plastic. If it works I'll work on making nice ones.

-Jay
__________________








Jay2TheRescue is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-10-2008, 08:16 AM   #4
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 18
Country: United States
If you don't know don't say anythng..

I realized this gain after computing mpg for many trips to work without them and then with them installed. This is how I know they work. If I didn't see any gains I would say so. They aren't totally finished yet because I didn't know if they would work or not.

They may not work on every car because of the aerodynamic differences. They may even work better. Who knows for sure until you try.
__________________
Honda...the economical, renewable resource.
justpassntime is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-10-2008, 10:53 AM   #5
Registered Member
 
thornburg's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 162
Country: United States
Do I think he got 2MPG _overall_ improvement from wheel skirts? No. Do I think it is feasible that he gained 2MPG @ 65-70MPH? Yes. Each and every car has different aerodynamics, and each implementation is different.

Do you think Basjoos and MetroMPG don't know anything about testing?

http://www.gassavers.org/showthread....Wheel%20Skirts
__________________
thornburg is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-10-2008, 11:56 AM   #6
Registered Member
 
theholycow's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 6,624
Country: United States
Send a message via ICQ to theholycow Send a message via AIM to theholycow Send a message via MSN to theholycow Send a message via Yahoo to theholycow
I don't believe he got 2mpg out of it either, but he sure did a nice job of it. Perhaps the 2mpg came from errors that he did not account for.

justpassntime, when did you do the mod, and when were your readings taken? Could warmer weather, for example, account for it? Longer days resulting in less headlight usage? Different routes? Did you do your headlight mod at the same time?
__________________
This sig may return, some day.
theholycow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-10-2008, 02:05 PM   #7
Registered Member
 
GasSavers_RoadWarrior's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,652
The cars it doesn't seem to have worked on seemed to have had wheelarches that are very close to the back corners of the cars, there's less than 6 inches of bumper behind them. It was theorised that air was actually coming out from under the car through the back of the back wheelarches.

The only scientific statement that anyone can make about things not working, is that it didn't make a difference on X make, Y model and trim, Z year of vehicle. Or "In our sample of 50 different vehicles, no results were more than two sigma from the standard deviation."

Unless of course, they've been making cookie cutter cars since 1950 odd and have been brainwashing us at birth to make us see different ones.
__________________
I remember The RoadWarrior..To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time..the world was powered by the black fuel & the desert sprouted great cities..Gone now, swept away..two mighty warrior tribes went to war & touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without fuel, they were nothing..thundering machines sputtered & stopped..Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice
GasSavers_RoadWarrior is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-10-2008, 02:08 PM   #8
Registered Member
 
imzjustplayin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 720
Country: United States
What is to say his MPG improvement wasn't 2MPG overall if 90% of his driving is on the highway? Obviously this is of no use in city driving but if this guy does most of his driving on the highway, I don't see how it isn't plausibe for it to increase by 2MPG.
imzjustplayin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-10-2008, 02:26 PM   #9
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 446
Country: United States
Location: Charlotte nc
A new guy comes in and shows off a new mod on his ca that he is proud of and I Personally don't care where the increase came from as long as it's there and he's happy with it. As for the OP they look very professional I wish i could make a set for the wagon that look as good. Your milage gain is impressive for such a small mod but I see the wheels you have on the car. I think that the gain from the skirts is plausible. 5 star wheels are not that great for aero, they tend to cause a ton of turbulence, so enclosing them will reduce the rough air they pump out.
Philip1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-10-2008, 04:35 PM   #10
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 21
Country: United States
Quote:
Originally Posted by justpassntime View Post
This was my first mod...fender skirts. The sheet metal came from the top of a S10 pick up cab I had sitting in my back yard. I pounded them out with a rubber mallet on a bag of sand. They are attached with two 1/4" rods top and bottom and are held on with one screw and two pins the top rear rod slides into a bracket. They come of relatively easy but take about 15 min to put back on each side. The boosted my mileage 2 mpg. Now to figure out how to do the front wheel wells.

I think it's dang cool to be recycling sheet metal. And banging out skirts on
a bag of sand with a rubber mallet is cooler yet..

Have you considered installing some kind of Moon Disc wheel cover(hub cap)
on those rear wheels?
__________________

__________________
Cheers, Rich
GasSavers_XRinger is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Optimal shape of wheel deflectors - convex/concave? MetroMPG Aerodynamics 8 01-01-2008 08:29 AM
driving technique confusion bzipitidoo Hypermiling 7 08-29-2007 08:49 AM
Where can I get non-Ethanol gas mpg_maniac General Fuel Topics 33 06-18-2007 09:34 PM
Hello GasSavers GasSavers_rGS Introduce Yourself - New member Welcome 1 06-10-2007 07:47 PM
Dilemma concerning front sway bar on n600 Matt Timion General Maintenance and Repair 3 05-24-2006 09:37 AM

» Fuelly iOS Apps
Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 12:56 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.