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Post by John B on Jan 5, 2022 12:38:51 GMT -5
We bought a Jeep Gladiator in August. It has horrible gas mileage and is a PITA to get in and out of. But it looks cool as shit and can pull a small trailer, so we bought it. Also, Erin lives to drive it. Not so good for me, though.
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Post by epaul on Jan 5, 2022 12:50:38 GMT -5
Aerodynamics are a big deal with new tractors. Back in the 70's and 80's, aerodynamics didn't matter. (it doesn't have a damn thing to do with aerodynamics. It's all about improved visibility for he operator and those foo-foo French designers.) (it has nothing to do with French designers. just another example of how the things we build just keep getting better despite our efforts to screw everything up)
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Post by epaul on Jan 5, 2022 13:05:58 GMT -5
This was a transitional 2000 model that didn't quite get it. (I test drove one. Ran over the sales guy and a hay baler.)
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 5, 2022 13:25:49 GMT -5
Anyone who has been a serious cyclist or bicycle racer knows how incredibly important aerodynamics are relative to the effort required to sustain speed. 99% of effort is overcoming air resistance, road and component friction are negligible. When you are going 20mph on a bike it takes a surprisingly large amount of strength to up it 1mph to 21 but when aero bars came out you automatically got one to two mph free with no extra effort. A huge benefit in time trials and triathlons. An aero helmet helped and the effect of an aerodynamic shell on a recumbent was amazing. That said, the benefit was mainly for maintaining a higher sustained speed and had no effect on acceleration. I would guess that a lot of fuel consumption in automobiles is related to acceleration/deceleration cycles where aerodynamics would have no effect. What would be cool would be to have a reconfigurable body. For sustained highway driving you would push a button and the body would change shape. Probably not feasible but fun to think about. I see more and more aerodynamic modifications to large long haul trucks where maintaining a sustained speed more efficiently would be an optimal application. Apparently it does make a significant difference. www.fleetequipmentmag.com/truck-trailer-aerodynamics-fuel-efficiency/You're right, but in automotive aerodynamics play a very limited role in overall efficiency. There is such thing as an optimum coefficient of drag and in light duty you've been there for a while. It's why every car today is shaped basically like an indistinguishable wet dog turd. But when you get into commercial vehicles there's much less you're capable of doing and still be able to haul 120,000 lbs. Commercial vehicles are all about getting work done and getting paid in a business with notoriously thin margins. That usually means that driver comfort and utility is the first consideration since that's you biggest cost of doing business. Fuel efficiency (fuel costs being your second highest costs) usually comes down to specing the engines and transmissions to operate as much in the speed/load sweet spot of about 1500 rpm as possible. Given that, acceleration is a biggie and frequently you're buying the biggest and baddest to get you to cruise as fast as possible. That gets you where you're going faster and if you can squeeze in another run in a week, that's money in your pocket.
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Post by Marty on Jan 5, 2022 18:59:13 GMT -5
It's an Escape, and I'm pretty sure it's unibody, no frame. 2012 Escape Limited. What year did they change to a unibody Bill?
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Post by billhammond on Jan 5, 2022 19:17:38 GMT -5
It's an Escape, and I'm pretty sure it's unibody, no frame. 2012 Escape Limited. What year did they change to a unibody Bill? My understanding is that from 2001-2012, Escapes were built on the so-called CD2 platform, shared with Mazda, and that it was unibody construction
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 5, 2022 19:52:37 GMT -5
2012 Escape Limited. What year did they change to a unibody Bill? My understanding is that from 2001-2012, Escapes were built on the so-called CD2 platform, shared with Mazda, and that it was unibody construction If I'm not mistaken the entire world of light duty vehicles are unibody and have been for some time.
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,904
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Post by Dub on Jan 5, 2022 19:55:45 GMT -5
My understanding is that from 2001-2012, Escapes were built on the so-called CD2 platform, shared with Mazda, and that it was unibody construction If I'm not mistaken the entire world of light duty vehicles are unibody and have been for some time. 4Runners are still built on a frame.
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 5, 2022 20:16:20 GMT -5
If I'm not mistaken the entire world of light duty vehicles are unibody and have been for some time. 4Runners are still built on a frame. Good. Buy one.
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,904
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Post by Dub on Jan 5, 2022 20:42:10 GMT -5
4Runners are still built on a frame. Good. Buy one. I did. It just turned over 260,000 mi.
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 5, 2022 20:44:53 GMT -5
I did. It just turned over 260,000 mi. Huzzah. Glad to see it work out for you.
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 12, 2022 22:41:11 GMT -5
If a manufacturer needs to raise its truck hood height three inches from the prior year's version to accommodate cooling, then its engineers are lazy or incompetent. But that is not really the case. It is purely a marketing ploy. Tall hoods = sales. Really, there are no 1/2 ton trucks for 2020, 2021, and 2022 that do not have needlessly tall hoods. I like most of the new trucks and understand that they are a great investment, but I hate that the manufacturers are pandering tall hoods to buyers when they could produce lower hoods that would have similar, and perhaps, superior aerodynamics and function. The counter argument to "stupid, scary, too big" trucks. Even Has Some Safety Statistics
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Post by david on Jan 12, 2022 23:05:50 GMT -5
That guy is full of shit. Take his little argument:"The whole argument you can’t see as well is also largely overstated." He doesn't say it is wrong, he just says it is overstated. He's trying to make a point, like some other folks!
Lower the F-ing hood and let me see what is in front of me. I don't want electronic devices that might or might not warn me that they is a 3 foot tall child in front of my 4 foot tall hood. Just lower the F-ing hood. Give me an angle from my eye to the road in front of me that lets me see instead of hiding shit because the manufacturer wants the higher hood to look macho.
As an engineer I suspect you see the ease that this can be achieved. I have no argument against tall trucks - I want one! But I want to see in front of me. Lower the F-ing hood.
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 13, 2022 6:36:51 GMT -5
That guy is full of shit. Take his little argument:"The whole argument you can’t see as well is also largely overstated." He doesn't say it is wrong, he just says it is overstated. He's trying to make a point, like some other folks! Lower the F-ing hood and let me see what is in front of me. I don't want electronic devices that might or might not warn me that they is a 3 foot tall child in front of my 4 foot tall hood. Just lower the F-ing hood. Give me an angle from my eye to the road in front of me that lets me see instead of hiding shit because the manufacturer wants the higher hood to look macho. As an engineer I suspect you see the ease that this can be achieved. I have no argument against tall trucks - I want one! But I want to see in front of me. Lower the F-ing hood. Buy something else. It's still a free country for the most part anyways.
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Post by Marshall on Jan 13, 2022 9:16:51 GMT -5
I see squirrels crossing the road in front of my Civic.
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Post by Marshall on Jan 13, 2022 9:19:13 GMT -5
We bought a Jeep Gladiator in August. It has horrible gas mileage and is a PITA to get in and out of. But it looks cool as shit and can pull a small trailer, so we bought it. Also, Erin lives to drive it. Not so good for me, though. Some how it seems women like the perception of safety in driving a tall mass of steel. Whereas many of them aren't man enough to properly handle the beast.
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 13, 2022 9:29:33 GMT -5
We bought a Jeep Gladiator in August. It has horrible gas mileage and is a PITA to get in and out of. But it looks cool as shit and can pull a small trailer, so we bought it. Also, Erin lives to drive it. Not so good for me, though. Some how it seems women like the perception of safety in driving a tall mass of steel. Whereas many of them aren't man enough to properly handle the beast. It's really tough to find non-power steering and brakes these days. Women do fine with it.
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Post by david on Jan 13, 2022 12:26:39 GMT -5
[/quote]Buy something else. It's still a free country for the most part anyways. [/quote]
That is the problem. All of the new full sized trucks have joined the tall hood competition.
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Post by aquaduct on Jan 13, 2022 12:45:12 GMT -5
Buy something else. It's still a free country for the most part anyways. [/quote] That is the problem. All of the new full sized trucks have joined the tall hood competition. [/quote] There are plenty of smaller, quite capable pickup trucks to choose from. Fuel economy/CO2 regulations have ensured it (more on that tomorrow I'm told. Stay tuned). For now anyways.
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Post by david on Jan 13, 2022 12:54:04 GMT -5
Buy something else. It's still a free country for the most part anyways. That is the problem. All of the new full sized trucks have joined the tall hood competition. [/quote] There are plenty of smaller, quite capable pickup trucks to choose from. Fuel economy/CO2 regulations have ensured it (more on that tomorrow I'm told. Stay tuned). For now anyways.[/quote] I want something large enough to allow me to pull a 12,000 pound trailer. Small pickups don't do that very well, if at all.
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