http://www.sae.org/technical/papers/2004-01-1146

http://amos.indiana.edu/library/scripts/tailgate.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...39015#continue

5 pages of pickup related aerodynamics links at:

http://tinyurl.com/2uotfb

 

Thanks, Hank. That photo you posted of the red Dodge Ram is the test I remember reading. If the site is no longer available, no wonder I couldn't find it on Google.

 

yes, they did do some aero testing, and thats great,but, not extensively until the last couple years. and i still havent seen anything to tell me i am wrong,the testing is on 08 and 09 trucks.dodge isNOW doing extensive wind tunnel testing now that the price of gas is an issue and all the manufacturers need to raise their average MPG's. i havent seen any links on older trucks because it wasnt as much of an issue because gas wasnt so expensive and the government wasnt all over their backs about mileage like they are now.this has become an issue of a tailgate up or down and i think the gate up works best as what you said in an earlier post, and i agree with that. but the numbers are so small and gas saving that a "hump" or a "bump" here or there is just plain stupid to even worry about for the average daily driver that they would never notice a difference. THAT is why i said it was a waste of time and money. seems to me that maybe doing a few simple, less costly things would make more of a difference than having a "bump" on some body panel, such as putting the wipers under a cowl hood, a one piece headlight assembly without grooves to catch air, catching cool air another way thrusmaller openings in the grill, asmoother fog light area as to not act like a windsock, among other things...(i actually wrote these things before i read the allpar link and i see they did some of the things i mentioned on the newer trucks) i never claimed to be an expert, but i have enough common sense to try making a point and have an opinion, i may be wrong on some things but im not so far off that i look like a fool either. the engineers are not gods, they arehuman and they make mistakes and miss things.the numbers are just too small to even talk about here.

long story short, the 08 estimated MPG is 16 city/20 hwy, which is aboutwhat i get in my 99, so i am guessing dodge hasnt improved to much over all in areodynamics or mileage would be drasticly better. if they have improved, it has been such a small amount that it is barely noticable and the cost of all thistesting has been pushed onto the consumer sothe cost of thetruck itself is more than what anyone will save in gas, so, yes,to me it was a waste of time and money. i would have personally liked to see all that money put into a more fuel efficient engine than the millions it is costing consumers for dodge engineers to do"extensive" wind tunnel testing.so who cares anyway? its a truck, and if someone was soconcerned about all the little numbers and mileage, they would have bought a Prius.

this is a stupid debate, so i am out...

 

do little things mean a lot
aero wise?

one of the best examples of this
is to look at this year's
Scion Xb
small changes
and compare it to previous years
very boxy sharp edged models

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=120544

 

I don't think anyone is trying to argue, just a good debate that has uncovered some great info. Sure 1-2 mpg isn't a stop-the-press finding, but when you add all the little tricks together you can actually boost mileage close to 6-7 mpg which is a big difference for a truck and we wouldn't find out about this stuff if there were no debates. This forum is for debates and information sharing, which has turned me onto many things I didn't know. Keep it up guys.