Aero on a Jeep

[Raccoonjoe]

Hey there, folks...in the time since I was last here, my old Jeep has changed a bit. A new suspension smoothed out the ride quite a bit, but also raised the Jeep up close to 2". Combined with the new (free) tires, I believe I've lost some MPGs. With the new job, and $4.00 per gallon gas...this is a problem.

I was thinking of making some sort of front belly tray....basically just to go from the front airdam to the bottom of the front axle. I'm not really comfortable enough (or have time available) to do a full belly pan.

Will it be better to do this, or to try and extend the front airdam as far as possible? I think that Blazer airdams will fit the old Cherokees pretty well....so we'll be hitting the old junkyard on Friday AM.


Any ideas will be great. I'm now looking at a weekly drive of roughly 400 miles, all freeway. It's much less than my drive used to be....but the rising fuel costs are killing me.

[GasSavers_Smoove]

What kind of Jeep is it?

I have a 96 4.0 ZJ, and I have done minor engine mods, lowered it about 1.5" and run 2" shorter tires and average between 21.5-22.5mpg on a 80k mile truck. I have gotten 24.5mpg on a trip and I also get 16mpg when my wife drives

I have also had a 5.2 and a 5.9l, the best I ever got was 18mpg, driving like a granny with no interior save for the drivers seat.

[theholycow]

Welcome, Smoove. To the left of Raccoonjoe's post, under his username, you can see a periwinkle-colored background with dark blue bold text in it; that's a link to his Garage entry for his Jeep. If you click on it you can see what information he's entered about it.

[Raccoonjoe]

Smoove

Sorry, but I've been out trying to hunt down some laptop gremlins, as well as being out of town on business. Here we go....

My Jeep is a 89 Cherokee...has 242,000 miles on the original motor/tranny so far. 4.0L inline six, 4 speed automatic tranny, NP242 transfer case. There's not a whole lot of body left, but the damn thing just won't die.

Not a whole lot of modifications made to the Jeep so far. A few motor mods, biggest one so far would be the electric fans (removed the stock clutch fan) Had to modify the suspension a bit...added 2 extra leafs to the rear (now have 6 leafs instead of 4), and new springs (plus .5" puck) in the front. I do a lot of towing/hauling/trailering, so I needed the extra capacity. That, combined with the new tires, actually took me from 1" below stock height to 2" above.