Wind fairing ideas

Howdy all,

Trying to figure out how to attach a wind fairing solution to get air up over the leading edge of my camper.

Pic attached with the amount of real estate I'm working with.

 

I created this... it bolts through the front face of the camper and houses my solar panel to act as a wind fairing.

 

I saw this on a truck yesterday. I was looking for a similar solution. It's a 3 piece design.

 

Could you track down some Yakima qtowers and run a single bar there, with fairing installed? Tough to find them q117’s but not impossible.

 

If anyone comes across a set I'm really interested in buying them.

 

What are you trying to solve? MPG or whistling?

I'm thinking modify a roof-rack plastic fairing to fit.

 

I wouldn't expect either of these to help in terms of aerodynamic improvement to mpg... There is just too big of a gap between the cab and the stagnation point (leading edge of the fairing, where the flow would split to the high or low pressure side). All the air below that is still running into the flat face of the camper. You'd have to seal that leading edge down to the roof somehow. Soft fairing with magnets?

 

If top pic was slightly lower and/or downfacing instead of up I think the flow attachment of the roof would be minimal and it would work fine

If it's just a whistling issue, just rounding the edges should help quite a bit

 

I had a factory fairing on my Nissan, it was rigid with a piece of soft weatherstripping where it touched the roof. It still rubbed the paint raw after only two years. The only solution I saw was to put a piece of 3M vinyl between weatherstrip and paint. No-contact fairings might help with aerodynamics, but with every roof rack Ive run they don't do much for reducing noise. I had to have mine touching the roof. Campers might be different, I dont know.

 

My point was a little less about flow attachment, and more about where flow separates.

That's not surprising at all. But I was saying that non-contact fairings (as in the examples above) would help less with aero. The air is still running into flat vertical surface the camper in both these cases, so at best they might reduce noise. If you wanted to get aero benefits from the fairings, they need to be sealed to the roof.

 

Well ya but you only have flow separating if it's still attached by the time it gets there

 

Those are both cool ideas. @ME OFF Rd we should keep an eye on this thread, might be able to develop something similar for our new RTTs

 

I have a very similar need. What did you wind up doing?

 

I joined this forum just so I could brag about the deflector I built for my '97 Tacoma micro-camper. It's worth 4-5 mpg.

I'll try posting one pic and if that works, will follow up with more details.

 

I built a mini truck camper for my Tacoma, starting with the tallest contractor canopy I could find. I put a cargo box on top and I knew I'd need some streamlining.

The deflector is 3/8 plywood, 30"x42", covered with contact paper (shelf liner). I put a few coats of urathane on it before the contact paper.

The trailing edge is bolted to a 1"x1" aluminum angle that's bolted to the canopy. I used 3/4" spacers to dial in the height.

The leading edge is attached to (2) 250 lb magnets. The magnets came with studs but I replaced these with eyebolts. System integration was accomplished using zip ties. The critical thing is to have a piece of dense foam between the plywood and the eyebolt. There has to be some cushion, otherwise it vibrates and loosens up.

There's also a piece of foam jammed under the leading edge, to prevent vibration.

 

4 cyl, 5 speed, 2WD.

I just got back from a two week, 3000 mile trip to Utah (I'm in Oregon) and I got 26.3 mpg overall.

Flat terrain, no wind, I got 27.5 mpg. Lots of mountains, lots of wind, 24 mpg. Cruising at 60.

 

New at attaching pics.

 

These pics are crazy big. Am I supposed to click on "thumbnail" not "full image"?

 

They are fine.

 

Might work to make a bracket and mount a couple of old snowboards to create a wind deflector of sorts.