Modifying my Brick-On-Wheels

[theholycow]

Rear-only ABS keeps you from fishtailing if you have good front traction but bad rear traction. That doesn't happen often...pretty lame idea.

[Jay2TheRescue]

The point of rear ABS was to enhance stability of empty trucks while braking. Personally, I thougth it was pretty much worthless as I have locked up all 6 wheels on a Ford ambulance with "rear antilock" brakes.

[MTUboi86]

Originally Posted by trollbait

Does the Explorer have 4 wheel or 2 wheel ABS?
The Ranger only had 2 wheel standard on the rear, and the manural tells you to start pumping the brake when you feel the ABS pulse on the pedal. Except for that feed back letting the driver know that they should be pumping the brake, I don't why Ford bothered with it.

That sounds familiar. I think I remember reading that it only has rear anti-lock breaks. I have it in 4wd 75% of the winter, and that's usually when ABS kicks in.
Rear breaks were done 2 years ago (less than 20k mi), and it idles around 650rpm (1k when first started for about a minute or less).

My mom's '02 Oldsmobile van with "VersaTrak" awd stops a lot better if you put it in neutral as well. It's fwd until it detects slipping, then engages the rear wheels (and unfortunately it can't be disabled). Don't know why, but it seems to work.

I was bashing the idea when I first heard it, then I thought 'what if?' and tried it. Seem to stop several feet sooner with it in neutral, at least on those vehicles.

[MTUboi86]

I guess tomorrow (sunday) is the big test for my mods. I'll be departing for the 500-mile, 9.5 hr journey from here (Hancock, MI) to Lansing, MI in the early morning.

Any suggestions?

Also, I don't know if you can tell the angle of my grill-mod thing very well from the pix in my first post, but do you think it'd help at all? Basically it's flatter on the top and steeper on the bottom. I think it actually directs air into my windshield (sounds like it while driving).

I was thinking maybe driving the first half of the trip with it on (55mph for 300 miles), then taking it off when I get gas there. The rest of the trip down I was planning on going 65mph (speed limit 70). Or leave it on until I get down to Lansing and take it off before coming back up, so there'll be a semi-accurate A-B testing?

Oh. forgot. I also lowered my front air dam with garden edging, as suggested in places on this site. Haven't gotten any testing in of that yet, but with my huge front differential thing, I don't think it'll hurt.

Updated Pix:
Front View:


Side View:


Front View with Differential outlined. Looking straight at it, not at an angle:

You can see the diff. in the first pic as well.


The gravel driveway isn't level, that's why the Explorer is angled like that, fyi.

[MTUboi86]

Wish me luck guys (and/or gals)! Leaving for the journey now.

[MTUboi86]

Hello everyone. I updated my gas long to include data from my thanksgiving-week trip. Pretty impressive if you ask me. Top mpg of ~23.3!!! My jaw dropped when I saw that number.

My MPG this trip was about 3mpg above my average hwy mpg (of just over 19mpg).

The 'nose' I duct-taped on the front of the Explorer lasted the entire trip, surprisingly. It wasn't until this morning where snow had soaked it thoroughly, that it fell apart and had to be removed.
When I get the time, I'm just going to put a flat piece of wood or something over the grill to block it, and see what that does in comparison.

Turns out my tire pressure was actually at something like 36.8psi instead of 40psi. I took the reading with a digital gauge before the trip -didn't have time to put more air in. My air pump was set to turn off at 40psi ... so apparently it isn't very accurate.


I can't tell if city mpg was affected at all. I don't believe it was (maybe a 0.5mpg increase?). Once more snow is on the ground and I'm running in 4wd most of the time, I'll know if the mods are working or not -because I know my baseline winter mpg, but not my non-winter mpg.

[trollbait]

For grill blocks I use cardboard treated with Thompson water seal, and spray painted. They are also mounted behind the grill. They seem to be lasting a awhile.

The only issue with Thompson is that you have to wait a week before painting treated surfaces. A month if it's a water based paint.

[BamZipPow]

You might try a few of those swimming noodles and cut them down to size/shape and fasten it to yer grill with some long zipties. That should last longer than the cardboard and tape.

You should check out how I dropped my air dam on my truck...

[MTUboi86]

Well, looks like I'll have to start over from scratch, almost. The only thing still left on the Explorer is the W/HAI. The nose dissolved as I mentioned previously... and yesterday the air dam got broken off by (light) snow that was about a foot deep on the road.

... we've gotten two feet of accumulated snow over the last two and a half days ... and it's still coming down.

So, I'm not sure if lowering the air dam will work for me, at least for city driving. Highway it would be fine. Haven't had time to block the grill yet because of school stuff, but ... right now it's kinda covered in ice

To those of you who live in cool climates that actually get snow ... how do your air dams hold up in winter?

[Jay2TheRescue]

Aero mods don't really work on trucks in city driving anyway... I wouldn't worry about it too much.