I know all trucks in general are like bricks aerodynamically but has anyone done or read of anything that had a significant effect on it?
I read an acticle along time ago about cheap ways to help for cars.
One was putting on a valance or some type of skirting around the bottom of the vehicle.
Has this been done to limit drag for racing or fuel economy? I know all the semis have this for decreasing drag but don't really have any data to measure the gain in mileage or loss of drag.

And no I don't want to drop my 4x4 to the ground to help, it would defeat the purpose of the 4wd.

Lets hear what you've done/heard!!

 

I knife edged my Fm antenna....truck pulls to 200 now!

I am interested what some folks come up with as well.

 

Pulling off or folding in the outside mirrors will help, a very small amount, I would think
not enough to show any real gains at the track though

 

The attached picture looks a little silly but......
Found this link too.
http://www.tprmag.com/issue/13/13_aerodynamics_2.shtml
The second page talks about the wing on the back of the Subaru STI actally slowing 1/4 mile times. And yet the ricers can't seem to get big enough wings????

This was for semis but good onfo also.
http://www.solusinc.com/transport.html

 

Even if this did work, who could stand to be seen with it on your truck??

http://www.freeenergynews.com/Direct...ImplosionWing/

 

Got a god friend with a failry tricked wrx, he won't put a wing on his for this reason.

Wings are for stability. Not speed. Their very concept is to cause down force therefore actually increasing your "gravity". The rally wrx wing even creates side forces through turns.

Ofcourse...that link for that vortex thingy...I don't know anything about that. The pic shows it on a van...LOL...anything on to deter wind I'd imagine would be helpful. LOL

I always wondered about the engine compartment vents. All that air slamming through your radiator and then being forced to go down because of your flat firewall. Venting your fender wells/walls (as so that the air escapes upward) seems to me would be beneficial for two reasons...helping air to stay constant instead of turbulent and removing engine bay heat. Add the operable hood scoop and ta-da. I wonder what if any gains from adding an operable hood scoop would give ya.

 

Check out Race Car Aerodynamics by Joseph Katz. It's incredibly informative even for the beginner, it just may take you a couple times of reading it to get everthing out of it. Unfortunatley our trucks have a huge frontal area, and there's no way around that w/o chopping the top or channeling the the whole truck. An airdam and mirrors are always a good idea.

You can try to streamlining things, but even that's difficult with such a huge frontal area and such an abrupt nose.

You could tape/seal all joints and cracks for track outings. It'll look like poo and might not net you anything, but who knows. Taping off the radiator is something that's repeadily done in circle track for qualifying. I don't see why it would hurt for a 1/4mi burst. You could build a smooth bellypan for the underneath of the truck. I've thought about doing this, but it'd be a pain to remove everytime you wanted to work on it. Venturi's underneath could help create down force too, but at higher speeds. Also there are ways to get the air that goes through the radiator out of the engine compartment, but that will require some cutting! It might be worth it though if you could make it look clean. I'm sure I'll think of more things though as the day goes by.

 

lower your truck as much as possible to decrease the frontal area, then maybe some underbody panels to reduce turbulence underneath if you wanted to get crazy. a hard tonneau cover would probably help some. If you didn't use a cover, leave the tailgate up. It is less efficient to leave it down (as counter-intuitive as that sounds).

 

Put speed holes in it....

 

I've seen cars that run in the 11's pic up as much as 3 mph by putting masking tape across the grill.