Wheel Skirts...

[justpassntime]

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.

[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.

[Jay2TheRescue]

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

[justpassntime]

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.

[thornburg]

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

[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?

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

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.

[imzjustplayin]

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.

[Philip1]

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.

[GasSavers_XRinger]

Originally Posted by justpassntime

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?