Hmmmm. Perhaps the big 3 will start to add vortex generators and side skirts as options...LOL!

 

Hank,
I believe if I ever have a serious aerodynamics question, you would be the guy I would ask----and I might--soon

 

So what is the Cd of the current generation trucks?

 

To sort the wheat from the chaff here, the reality is that there is only one way to save fuel with your truck and that is to start like you have an egg under the accelerator that you don't want broken, leaving sloooowwwwwly from every stop. Do not go any faster than you possibly can, and drive as seldom as absolutely necessary, parking as quickly as possible. Always use cruise-control whenever feasible and safe.

As for the aero gobble-de-gook, you are NOT going to be moving fast enough for it to matter--especially if you are genuinely trying to conserve fuel. And, I can speak as a two decade Bonneville Salt Flats racer and driver of three World Record setting cars, that Moon disks are more tradition than anything else. Certainly, at high speeds they may make an iota of difference, but I've seen too many vehicles run with and without them in the 150mph to 250mph range without significant difference. Do you really think they will matter at highway speeds? Duh!

Again, your driving habits will make more difference than anything else you will or can do, other than inflating your tires to max pressure and keeping them there.

All the best.

 

Off topic, and I do like the 2nd Gen truck design that was approved, but I kind of like that original proposition, too. Looks like an oversized Gen 1 Dakota.

 

Looks like a Ford Ranger with a Dakota grill.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...cy-cover_x.htm

Note the comment from Chrylser President Tom LaSorda that they might change the Hemi camshaft specs to improve MPG.

I believe that if the torque peak of the 5.7 Hemi were brought down from the 'dragstrip' rpm level of 4200 rpm to a more 'streetable' 2100 rpm you would see gains of 20-40 ft-lbs in the 1500-2500 rpm range where most daily driving is done. With more torque available in the lower rpm you could decrease the overdrive gear ratio from 0.67 to something lower like the Viper SRT10 ratio of 0.50 or even lower.

Along with some aerodynamics tweaks to the Ram body this engine/drivetrain change could improve the MPG of a Ram truck at a steady 70 mph by at least 3 and maybe as much as 5

For those who want both acceleration and MPG,
switching from 3.55 or 3.73 diff gears
to 4.10, 4.56 or 4.88
could be done at the same time as the top gear overdrive is reduced by even more.

If the new overdrive top gear were 0.48 to go along with a 4.56 differential gearset you would have better acceleration in gears 1, 2, 3 but also improve highway cruise in top gear overdrive.

As the USA Today article says,
these mods could be done almost 'for free.'

It would also be admirable if DC would create an aerodynamic add-on set that would improve the MPG of previous Ram trucks and sell it through the Mopar Performance catalog - but since DC is more interested in getting customers to buy new vehicles. This would only take a small amount of wind tunnel time, and I bet DC could ask for and get volunteers from their engineering ranks, or assign the task to college student interns as a training task.

 

That's why they adopted the MDS for the 2006 model

 

A Business Week magazine article about how the automakers could get 30% better MPG fast using already known and developed technology - not hybrid drive:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...9/b3952051.htm

 

Nice thinking with the gear ratios, but you would have to get the overdrive gear changed to in order to get the efficiency at highway speeds. And how would the 4.56 gears help in mpg if you would ony drive city?
I am asking because i always thought that the higer the gear the more accelertion, but the worst the mileage would be.