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06-04-2019, 08:58 AM
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#41
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2013
Location: ..., New Mexico
Trailer: 2013 Esc19/'14 Silvrado
Posts: 4,193
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So, should I surmise that adding a cap to my Silverado tow bed will work significantly as an air deflector?
__________________
Myron
"A billion here, a billion there...add it all up and before you know it you're talking real money." Everett Dirkson
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06-04-2019, 09:44 AM
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#42
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Trailer: 2017 Escape 5.0 TA
Posts: 15,532
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MyronL
So, should I surmise that adding a cap to my Silverado tow bed will work significantly as an air deflector?
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Possibly if combined with a set of wind surfers on a roof rack.
__________________
2017 Escape 5.0 TA
2015 Ford F150 Lariat 3.5L EcoBoost
2009 Escape 19 (previous)
“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” — Abraham Lincoln
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06-04-2019, 11:08 AM
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#43
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Junior Member
Join Date: May 2019
Location: Comox Valley, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Trailer: 2007 Escape 17A
Posts: 11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MyronL
So, should I surmise that adding a cap to my Silverado tow bed will work significantly as an air deflector?
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there's not much to be done to a TV itself. Even pick-ups don't benefit much from a pick-up bed cover (tonneau cover), and opening or closing the tail-gate does not make much difference either, and sometimes makes it worse. What happens is the air gets in behind the pick-up cab, and rolls around in a circle, and actually creates
a kind of air cushion to push incoming air up and away from the tailgate. Mythbusters tested this but they only tested one truck, which is a very poor sample group. different length beds, cabs all may have different outcomes.
the bottom line is to stop that air from hitting your TV.
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06-04-2019, 11:11 AM
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#44
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Junior Member
Join Date: May 2019
Location: Comox Valley, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Trailer: 2007 Escape 17A
Posts: 11
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https://www.motortrend.com/news/truc...-improvements/
Here's an article that talks about how difficult this is. Look at the picture of the smoke and see how it goes over the tailgate, but would run directly into the TV behind it. this is why semi-trailer tractor units are the same height as the trailer.
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06-04-2019, 04:35 PM
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#45
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Trailer: 2018 Escape 19'er + 2018 Highlander
Posts: 300
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There's no question that the speed of the air through which the "rig" is traveling makes a BIG difference. Recently traveling from Colorado to Kansas on I-70, with probably a 20, maybe 25 mph tail wind, and perhaps the fact that the general trend is slowly downhill, I got 19 mpg with the rig described in my side info. Then more recently going north on I-25 in Wyoming against a 20 mph wind with perhaps a slight uphill trend, I was getting 10.6 mpg! Both times traveling not over 60 mph. Today, returning from Wyoming on I-80 with perhaps a 10 mph tailwind, at 65 mph we were getting 16.6 mpg.
__________________
... Greg
2018 Escape 19'er & 2018 Highlander
Not all who wander are lost
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06-04-2019, 05:08 PM
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#46
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2013
Location: ..., New Mexico
Trailer: 2013 Esc19/'14 Silvrado
Posts: 4,193
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To all you guys, my answer is... I thought so.
__________________
Myron
"A billion here, a billion there...add it all up and before you know it you're talking real money." Everett Dirkson
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06-04-2019, 06:51 PM
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#47
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Trailer: 1979 Boler B1700
Posts: 14,935
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While a tonneau cover over the pickup box is likely useless for towing (aerodynamically), a cap is very different, and might help. A high-rise cap (taller than the cab) would presumably be better than a level cap.
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06-04-2019, 07:03 PM
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#48
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Central, Pennsylvania
Trailer: Escape#5 2022 E19
Posts: 26,268
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I believe the tonneau cover eliminates tailgate lag and while the cap may help with air, you have extra added weight, maybe 200# which will impact gas. On this last trip, 50 hours@ avg speed 60 at 19 mpg over the entire trip out to Chilliwack. Leaving Chilliwack over to Osoyoos, on the return 60 hours @ 50 mph towing speed gave me an average of 15 mpg to home. These numbers are skewed somewhat in that over the mountains my average was as low as 8-10 and with head winds 10-12, once I hit Iowa and east my mileage increase first a little as Iowa gas has that corn additive. Once on the other side of the Big M, I was able to use high-test and mid grade without additives and my mpg slowly increase to 12 and once in Indiana and Ohio up to 13.5 and finally up to 15 over the last 500 miles to home.
__________________
Jim
Sometime life gets in the way of living.......
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06-04-2019, 07:24 PM
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#49
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: Bremerton, Washington
Trailer: 2019 5.0 TA
Posts: 1,141
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I have already noticed that I am pushing less air with my new Tundra / 5.0 TA combination than I did with my Tacoma / 19' combination. I suspect it is because the lower part of the 5.0 sits wrapped around the box and is close enough to the truck, that there is only the truck and the top part of the 5.0 pushing through the air.
Whereas on my 19' with the E2 WDH it was far enough back from the truck that the airflow over the truck was hitting the trailer. So in effect pushing the same air twice as Fatehunter points out. So even though the Tundra is a bigger truck and a V8 vs a V6, I'm getting better MPG with this new combo than I did with the Tacoma. Another factor is that the Tundra doesn't need to downshift as often for the same conditions as the Tacoma since it has the power to pull grades in a lower gear at lower engine RPMs.
Bottom line, going to the rally this year with the new rig I saw a 2 - 3 MPG improvement over the prior combo the previous year. I took the same route over two mountain passes at about the same speed.
__________________
- Arnie & Paula & Kizzy the rat terrier
https://www.arniesea.com
- 2019 5.0 TA, 2017 Tundra Platinum.
- Bremerton, WA
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06-04-2019, 08:30 PM
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#50
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Westcliffe, Colorado
Trailer: 2010 EggCamper (#083); 2017 Escape 21 (#053); 2016 F-150 5.0L FX4
Posts: 1,765
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I'm convinced. Much like ballooning, I'll camp wherever the tailwind takes me (for optimum mileage, of course).
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06-05-2019, 06:07 AM
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#51
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: St. Thomas not BVI., Ontario
Trailer: 2014 Escape 5.0TA / 2016 Ram Eco Diesel 4X4
Posts: 8,035
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fatehunter
there's not much to be done to a TV itself. Even pick-ups don't benefit much from a pick-up bed cover (tonneau cover), and opening or closing the tail-gate does not make much difference either, and sometimes makes it worse. What happens is the air gets in behind the pick-up cab, and rolls around in a circle, and actually creates
a kind of air cushion to push incoming air up and away from the tailgate. Mythbusters tested this but they only tested one truck, which is a very poor sample group. different length beds, cabs all may have different outcomes.
the bottom line is to stop that air from hitting your TV.
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Hi: fatehunter... So "Breaking wind" has a lot to do with it.!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie
__________________
Quote Bugs Bunny..."Don't take life too seriously, none of us get out of it ALIVE"!!!
'16 Ram Eco D. 4X4 Laramie Longhorn CC & '14 Escape 5.0TA
St.Thomas (Not the Virgin Islands) Ontario
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06-05-2019, 08:27 AM
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#52
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Junior Member
Join Date: May 2019
Location: Comox Valley, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Trailer: 2007 Escape 17A
Posts: 11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian B-P
While a tonneau cover over the pickup box is likely useless for towing (aerodynamically), a cap is very different, and might help. A high-rise cap (taller than the cab) would presumably be better than a level cap.
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You are absolutely right. A canopy with a wedge would work very well. I think I misunderstood 'cap' to mean a tonneau cover, but I see it means a canopy. I've never heard the use of 'cap' to mean canopy.
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