Wagon aero trials - Fuelly Forums

Click here to see important news regarding the aCar App

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 05-05-2008, 09:21 AM   #1
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 16
Country: United States
Wagon aero trials

Update: wool tuft pics and video in the Aero section here:
http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=7519

Long story short, Geo's dead, and I'm driving my Volvo wagon everyday now. And using more gas. I read a thread a couple days ago that had a request for some info on the aero effects of a wagon with the sunroof up vs down. I haven't seen anything pop up yet, so I decided to get started on it. Anyone interested in results can watch my gas logs.

(I'm young here, but not a total noob. My old user name was only synonymous with the Geo which is gone, so I've been reborn so to speak)
__________________

__________________
My 2 bits of geekery: saving gas, and making t-shirts of my favorite movie quotes.
855R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-06-2008, 04:21 AM   #2
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 557
Country: United States
Tilting the sunroof up will aid in reducing the low pressure area just behind the top of the windshield. This can have an effect on reducing the turbulence on top. With roof rails this 'filling in the vacuum' may or may not be a desired result.
Tipping up the sunroof aids in producing air flow inside the cabin which can mean allowing reduction in fan speed.
Leaving any sun shade nearly closed will limit solar gain in summer, reducing air flow 'wind-chill' requirements for occupant comfort.
But when it's hot...close the roof, close the shade, fire up the A/C!

and be glad that the "box-it-came-in" square shape of Volvos went out with the 700 series. My 760 GLE with the odd-fire B28 V6, not the later even-firing B280F, got an average of 20 mpg (with an 11 gallon tank!) Cheap to fill, but the frequency....!
__________________

Lug_Nut is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-06-2008, 04:53 AM   #3
Registered Member
 
GasSavers_RoadWarrior's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,652
Depending on the particular wagon and particular position and angle of the sunroof, there is a possibility that the airflow may take a more curved path over the roof, resulting in less base drag at the rear. What works on one, might not work on a different one.
__________________
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 05-06-2008, 07:14 AM   #4
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 16
Country: United States
Thanks for the input. It feels good to be back in experiment mode. Too bad I don't have someone that can follow me to work and take pictures of wool tufts the whole way. I could do it as a weekend experiment, but burning gas just for the sake of finding out how to burn less gas is completely bass-ackwards to me. My findings will be slow and steady, but maybe I'll have some real data by the time this wagon chalks up another 100k miles.
__________________
My 2 bits of geekery: saving gas, and making t-shirts of my favorite movie quotes.
855R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-06-2008, 07:22 AM   #5
Registered Member
 
GasSavers_RoadWarrior's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,652
Quote:
Originally Posted by 855R View Post
Thanks for the input. It feels good to be back in experiment mode. Too bad I don't have someone that can follow me to work and take pictures of wool tufts the whole way. I could do it as a weekend experiment, but burning gas just for the sake of finding out how to burn less gas is completely bass-ackwards to me. My findings will be slow and steady, but maybe I'll have some real data by the time this wagon chalks up another 100k miles.
Yeah, I find it hard to do testing for the sake of testing. Gotta work it into the necessary trips. However, some of the very cheap digital cameras will do 640x480 video... I have one I could potentially use... and I'm pondering the idea of strapping it to the vehicle somewhere to record tuft behavior...
__________________
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 05-06-2008, 07:47 AM   #6
Registered Member
 
BamZipPow's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 214
Country: United States
Send a message via AIM to BamZipPow
Quote:
Originally Posted by 855R View Post
Long story short
What happened to the Geo? Rust?
__________________
BamZipPow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-07-2008, 07:14 AM   #7
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 16
Country: United States
Road Warrior, I think you're on to something. I actually have a friend who duct taped his camera to the side of his motorcycle to create an on board camera. Although, the camera probably causes aero glitches of it's own, and I don't know how I'd get shots of the rear end. Trailer?

BamZipPow, you're ID basically describes the old Geo. It was more like a Feo though (fake). It was just a Prizm (Corolla), automatic, 1.8L, been in at least 3 wrecks before I got it. Bought it from my boss 2 years ago for $600 and drove it every day for 2 years. That I can't complain about. But I only kept it as an extra car so we'd always have transportation when I was working on one of the other cars. It paid for itself several times over (just having it to drive while I replaced the Volvo's turbo myself saved me $1000.) But as soon as IT needed repairs, the savings were gone. It still runs, in fact I sold it to another guy who was going to fix it and drive the thing. But it only got 27-ish mpg, and all the little glitches were going to cost ~$1200 to fix MYSELF. And even if I did, I'd still have a rattly, rusted Geo in the end. The Volvo's much more fun to drive, more utilitarian, more fun to work on, no rust, and the insurance is less than 2/3 what it was for the Geo. (Not to mention the sleeper quality - it will hang with Mustang GTs of the same year and tops out at 155, which of course is the optimal speed for FE)
__________________
My 2 bits of geekery: saving gas, and making t-shirts of my favorite movie quotes.
855R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-09-2008, 07:26 AM   #8
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 16
Country: United States
Wool tufts are bad for gas mileage! I tufted my rear windows this morning (I'll have pictures up when I get home. Forgot my camera USB cable) and my avg was 2mpg lower than usual. Interesting. It was fun to see the tufts at the top of the window be sucked up out of view. I think a hatch back spoiler back there would work wonders for this vehicle. Also interesting was that with the sunroof up, it seemed to create more lift on the tufts. With it up, the top row of tufts wasn't even in sight. With it down, they'd flutter around where I could see the tips. I got video too that I'll share.
__________________
My 2 bits of geekery: saving gas, and making t-shirts of my favorite movie quotes.
855R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2008, 06:37 AM   #9
Registered Member
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 16
Country: United States
bump (new info)
__________________

__________________
My 2 bits of geekery: saving gas, and making t-shirts of my favorite movie quotes.
855R 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
GreenSwitch GasSavers_DaX General Discussion (Off-Topic) 10 11-30-2007 11:13 AM
Any new teams starting up? DarbyWalters General Fuel Topics 0 11-13-2007 10:43 AM
elg's Project zpiloto General Fuel Topics 2 03-03-2007 06:47 PM
Mk2 "new" Mini to get 40 MPG Spule 4 General Fuel Topics 11 12-22-2006 09:22 AM
Road Trip LxMike General Discussion (Off-Topic) 3 11-26-2006 04:29 PM

» Fuelly iOS Apps
Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 10:01 AM.


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