Aero mod on a S-10 pick up with canopy
 

I have an electric S-10 short bed pick-up and need to have a conopy or atleast a bed cover. Has this been discussed ? If so where?
If not, any ideas? My preference would be a cab height canopy and some sort of spoiler on it??

I know there are canopies that are straight up and some that are leaned forward (probably the best canopy alternative?)

Undercar spoiler on the rear?

I will probably put a belly pan underneath since there is no exhaust to worry about.

Any help appreciated.

methinks one could improve upon the aerodynamics of that tacoma back cover.

One could fabricate a frame out of a few lengths of conduit and form a nice aerodynamic curve starting straight with the roofline and decreasingly curving down towards the top of the gate (or the bottom if you can live without the gate) and cover it with fabric and dope, or that plastic boat wrap heat shrink stuff.

Have it hinge at the top of the cab and pinned in the rear?

Also

https://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?page...le&storyid=774

I've also seen an article on the web from somebody who was making a more sculpted rear fairing, but I can't find it now. Basically, he made plywood upright sections running from side-to-side with a more rounded shape on top of a piece of plywood at the top of the bed, then covered the upright sections with a rigid but sufficiently flexible material.

That's at https://maxmpg.org/the_cap.html

If you want a 'normal' looking canopy, that would be the one to go with, and keep the cap-canopy gap as small as possible. But nix the spoiler unless you insist on that downdraft on the rear. It might keep the glass a bit cleaner but causes drag. A rear wiper would be better and could be adapted from a S-10 Blazer.
I've even seen a few canopies that are nicely rounded and have a slight taper to them as opposed to the older boxy ones.

Best for mileage would be a 'boattail' canopy though. Not as much storage space but a huge drop in drag.

On my g/f's S-10 Blazer, the factory underbody skid plates (one under the nose, one under the engine and another under the trans) helped the mileage slightly. If you don't already have them, find some. They will provide a great place to attach further underbody streamlining to and especially the front one is nicely shaped to match the vehicle already.

A grille block would be a huge help. If you don't need any cooling for the electric, just block off the whole thing flush with the front of the vehicle.

Huge wheelwells is another big aero penalty you have. Lower it some if you haven't already and look into a fender skirt for the rear. Some kind of gap filler could be used on the front to seal off a bit between the fender lip and the tire. Wheel spoilers to keep airflow off the front side of the tire should gain you some. Also try to seal the underside of the wheelwells as much as possible while still letting the tires move.

Underbody covering would be awesome. I think the big metal siding panels would be ideal for this. You can get the slightly wavy ones that will be a bit more rigid and put the ridges in line with the vehicle. I'd also extend it on the outside of the framerails out to the rocker panels to completley enclose everything beneath the body.

Oh, and if you haven't already - run all season radials. The off-road tread styles that most people run on trucks aren't very good for rolling resistance.

Asuming you are using lead acid batteires, if you were to do Phil Knox's aeromods, you could basically take your range at 60 mph and increase it by 40%.

LRR tires, zeroed alignment, synthetic transmission oil, low friction wheel bearings, and other modifications will all add up too.


Phil's truck could be taken slightly further. Shaved door handles, cameras replacing rearview mirrors, front wheel skirts are all possible, but the first two will have very small effect. The front wheel skirts could give a potentially large effect. Implementing front wheel skirts is not the easiest thing to do, however.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to ask Phil about the truck's stability at speed. From what I recall, he didn't have any issues.

CVINTON, once my vehicle is on the road, if you mod yours, you won't have the only aeromodded EV. I'm saddened that so few EV drivers exploit the large gains that aeromods can provide, for both range and top speed.

Off the top of my head, we also need gearing, a power/torque curve, and shift times to determine acceleration and top speed.

Lesse, with a Crr=.01, a stray force of 100N, peak horsepower at 5,000rpm, at sea level, and that gearing on 195-50-15 tires/rims, the car would need ~119hp to wind out the top gear at ~117mph. So the top speed must be drag limited. Since I don't like cubic polynomials, I just plug the sum of rolling force, stray force, and aero force for that car assuming 100whp into klabplot, and point the cursor to where the Y value equals zero, which is about 107mph. For acceleration, the area under the power curve and shift times help to get an accurate picture.

Ack! Edited! So, with that info, top speed is limited by the transmission at 110mph, and assuming 100whp top speed would still be limited by drag. Assuming 98flywhp, 15% drive train losses, and ~83whp, the top speed is drag limited at ~100mph.