Reclaiming MPGs on Lifted Expedition

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creef14

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Hate to tell you that adding 1/2” of rubber to an air dam isn’t going to get you 2mpg and your crazy if you think it is. Probably a difference in driving style and fuel quality for you to get that difference. For comparison, my 16 EL with 35s gets 18 and I removed my air dam completely so...

Oh and I’m running a 93 performance tune also so not too sure what’s going on with your set up

I call ********...you're claiming a 3+ ton vehicle gets 18 mpg on a very aggressive tune and with added weight? I have a 93 perf tune, and it is anything but efficient. if you're gonna lie at least make it believable and claim to be on a perf/tow or econ tune.

I def buy the air dam argument over this nonsense
 
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07navi

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I call ********...you're claiming a 3+ ton vehicle gets 18 mpg on a very aggressive tune and with added weight? I have a 93 perf tune, and it is anything but efficient. if you're gonna lie at least make it believable and claim to be on a perf/tow or econ tune.

I def buy the air dam argument over this nonsense
I doubt if air dams increase MPG's much or if at all otherwise the auto makers would put the biggest ones possible on all vehicles.
 

creef14

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I doubt if air dams increase MPG's much or if at all otherwise the auto makers would put the biggest ones possible on all vehicles.

Ever heard of the law of diminishing returns? Sometimes there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

And almost every auto maker is including air dams on their SUVs and pickup trucks and they have been doing so for at least the last decade. My '03 explorer, my '06 and '17 expedition, my wife's '14 and '17 escapes, her '20 edge ST, my brother's X5 and Silverado all had them as OEM parts. Hell, I think even the mustangs and camaros have them. They're not adding the pieces for fun, especially since most people seem to hate the look of them.

Here's an article explaining the active air dam on the new Ram trucks ...
https://www.plasticsnews.com/articl...ctive-air-dams-boost-aerodynamics-on-ram-1500
 

JExpedition07

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Ever heard of the law of diminishing returns? Sometimes there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

And almost every auto maker is including air dams on their SUVs and pickup trucks and they have been doing so for at least the last decade. My '03 explorer, my '06 and '17 expedition, my wife's '14 and '17 escapes, her '20 edge ST, my brother's X5 and Silverado all had them as OEM parts. Hell, I think even the mustangs and camaros have them. They're not adding the pieces for fun, especially since most people seem to hate the look of them.

Here's an article explaining the active air dam on the new Ram trucks ...
https://www.plasticsnews.com/articl...ctive-air-dams-boost-aerodynamics-on-ram-1500

Air dams suit multiple purposes and while they do save some highway efficiency it’s mostly over many miles and in another turn over thousands of vehicles for the corporate average. My dad took his off the F-250 for his plow frame.....saw a drop of a whopping 0.0 MPG. They help with sound, aerodynamics, etc, they aren’t saving 1 mpg at the pump as claimed here.
 
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07navi

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Ever heard of the law of diminishing returns? Sometimes there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

And almost every auto maker is including air dams on their SUVs and pickup trucks and they have been doing so for at least the last decade. My '03 explorer, my '06 and '17 expedition, my wife's '14 and '17 escapes, her '20 edge ST, my brother's X5 and Silverado all had them as OEM parts. Hell, I think even the mustangs and camaros have them. They're not adding the pieces for fun, especially since most people seem to hate the look of them.

Here's an article explaining the active air dam on the new Ram trucks ...
https://www.plasticsnews.com/articl...ctive-air-dams-boost-aerodynamics-on-ram-1500
There you go...….dams are working. I'm wondering if my 07 Navi ever had one. I just bought it and there are clip holes/mounts at the bottom of the "bumper" for something.
 

Plati

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Air dams suit multiple purposes and while they do save some highway efficiency it’s mostly over many miles and in another turn over thousands of vehicles for the corporate average. My dad took his off the F-250 for his plow frame.....saw a drop of a whopping 0.0 MPG. They help with sound, aerodynamics, etc, they aren’t saving 1 mpg at the pump as claimed here.
It's gonna depend on the average driving speed.
Aerodynamics are a bigger factor as speed increases, adding incrementally.
Negligible effect under 40 mph (wild educated guess).
 

joethefordguy

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In college we had a very good professor. One so good that when the class schedules came out for the next semester you had to quickly run down to the sign up tables and sign up before his classes were full.

He had a plaque on his desk that read, "My mind is made up, so don't try to confuse me with the facts."

I always got a kick out of that, especially considering his knowledge and personality.

Airflow is a very misunderstood thing. Having spent 30 years in a couple of plants that used both fans and positive displacement blowers to convey material for up to several hundred yards into/out of rail cars, bunkers, trucks, bunkers of various sizes/locations I've seen some weird stuff and been told some real stinky BS by supposedly very knowledgeable experts who knew what they were doing/saying - right up to the time you showed them how the real world was treating their "beliefs." Sometimes it was funny to watch them get upset when the real world and their education, or computer models, didn't match up so well. Sometimes it was frustrating as hell to hear them keep repeating over and over that, "That can't happen." Even when they looked at it, they refused to believe it was happening.

I especially hated those somewhat routine inspections by FDA officials or EPA people. Seen some of them do some really stupid stuff that made me wonder what the injury rate is among government employees. I guess they figured that little badge/nametag made them immune from injury when they stuck their heads/hands some place they shouldn't.

I have to agree. FWIW, I spotted a trend between that behavior and employers. Bureaucrats, such as government inspectors, were the ones usually mystified by the real world; unable to do anything beyond throwing and parts or components at the problem until it was fixed. The ones that would dig and dig until they found out what was changing expected behavior usually turned out to be on performance pay - that is, either meet a standard or don't get any money. More often than not, that's be a contractor QC type that was being paid my me, not some obscure finance or contracting office in the sky.

My all time favorite was an HVAC guy who showed us how to reroute our under-floor cable trays so his Air Conditioners could keep our frames within operating temp. Even with a 36" floor, and 4 multi-ton units, we were constantly shutting down for overtemp. He found the problem after a morning of testing, including smoke testing with some fancy doohickey that recorded airflow in real time. Took us the rest of the week to move most of the trays, but it worked the first time. Turned out most of the airflow was just going around the intake vents in the frames. He did tell us he knew that almost as soon as he got there, since the first thing he did was put a hand on an exhaust vent, which of course had almost no air coming out. The rest of the time he was trying to find out where the heck the air was going, and what had to be done to get it to the intakes.
 

joethefordguy

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In college we had a very good professor. One so good that when the class schedules came out for the next semester you had to quickly run down to the sign up tables and sign up before his classes were full.

He had a plaque on his desk that read, "My mind is made up, so don't try to confuse me with the facts."

I always got a kick out of that, especially considering his knowledge and personality.

... .



PS I was an adjunct professor for years. My screensaver was "I didn't say it was your fault. I said I was going to blame you."
 

07navi

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I have to agree. FWIW, I spotted a trend between that behavior and employers. Bureaucrats, such as government inspectors, were the ones usually mystified by the real world; unable to do anything beyond throwing and parts or components at the problem until it was fixed. The ones that would dig and dig until they found out what was changing expected behavior usually turned out to be on performance pay - that is, either meet a standard or don't get any money. More often than not, that's be a contractor QC type that was being paid my me, not some obscure finance or contracting office in the sky.

My all time favorite was an HVAC guy who showed us how to reroute our under-floor cable trays so his Air Conditioners could keep our frames within operating temp. Even with a 36" floor, and 4 multi-ton units, we were constantly shutting down for overtemp. He found the problem after a morning of testing, including smoke testing with some fancy doohickey that recorded airflow in real time. Took us the rest of the week to move most of the trays, but it worked the first time. Turned out most of the airflow was just going around the intake vents in the frames. He did tell us he knew that almost as soon as he got there, since the first thing he did was put a hand on an exhaust vent, which of course had almost no air coming out. The rest of the time he was trying to find out where the heck the air was going, and what had to be done to get it to the intakes.
YeeeeeOK :33:
 

coupe11

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Some of the techs. I worked with over the years were pretty good.

Some of them would try something and if it didn't work they remembered it didn't work and years later would speak up and say, "We tried that, it didn't work." But they couldn't tell you why it didn't work.

The best ones weren't satisfied to "know" something didn't work. They wanted to figure out why it didn't work. They were the best to work with and learn from because they also worked out and understanding of the process and the equipment and how they work together to make product.

I always got a kick out of telling some guy that something wouldn't work that we were doing it anyway. If he didn't believe me go look at the line and see it running what he said it wouldn't run/make.

Maybe I have a screwed up personality. I always enjoyed doing thing people told me couldn't be done.
 
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