Potential fuel economy mod?

Today I went to the dealership for an oil change on my '15 and got the chance to look at the 3rd generation Tacos and noticed the rubber stripping in between the cab and bed area to create more laminar airflow. After reading more about this it seems that it made a notable difference on the 3rd gens drag coefficient so I figured why not do the same on the 2nd gen. I had some leftover adhesive weather stripping leftover from prepping the house for winter and decided to create a makeshift version of this on my truck to make up for the fuel economy decrease I have seen with my leveling kit and A/T tires. Is this a stupid idea? I am no engineer but merely looking to save a few cents per fill up. If it costs me nothing and doesn't affect the capability or appearance of my truck then why not? Photos attached, but I am not done making it look pretty and evenly measured so don't judge .

 

did they add it on the '16 for fuel economy?

 

Curious to see the results.

 

They did, they did the air dam for non TRD OR models those rubber things along with molding the sheet metal for a lower drag co.

 

My test run today was 10 miles highway after engine was warm, no weather stripping, 60 degrees outside and 40 psi in the tires. Nothing in the truck but me. I will see what I get on the same run tomorrow, according to the scan gauge I got 21.3 mpgs on that 10 mile run including the acceleration from the freeway entrance.

 

hmm im curious now

 

I would say that alone you won't notice any change. It's the overall combination of changes that makes a very small difference. Front air dam, bed to cab stripping, changing body panel aerodynamics, different motor. All combined may provide some increase. Think about it like this, Toyota changed many things on the new tacoma efficiency wise and only gained a realistic 2 mpgs.

It's your truck though, do whatever you like to your hearts content.

 

@moondeath, well if I can get up to 21.8 on the same run thats 469.483568 - 458.715596 = 10.76 gallons a year or about 50 bucks which is enough to take the lady out to a decent dinner. This is assuming 10k miles all highway of course.

 

if you get a consistent .5 mpg increase i will be doing this mod....

 

Will update tomorrow, cruise control was on at 60 mph btw and no traffic so I will try and be as unbiased as possible in run 2.

 

How the heck are you getting 21.8 mpg average?? I wasn't able to achieve that feat even with my truck bone stock.

 

Might help with wind noise to, OP.

 

Great thread. Hard to believe it will work but i hope it does.

How hard was it to put on the stripping? How hard would it be to take it off? Would you be willing to replicate this temporally? (meaning do it with the weather strip, then without, then with, then without... so you can run your stats with a sample greater than n=1)

 

Gotta be able to reproduce those results! Kinda makes ya wonder what the P value is also. Doesn't it, Cadmus.

 

Call me crazy I could swear my 14 has this piece. Maybe a different shape.

 

Take your mudflaps off too like they did on the 16's to achieve better gas mileage. Try holding one of those mudflaps out the window at 70mph and see the amount of drag.

 

Never mind. I see the piece behind the black trim you are talking about.

 

Decent idea. Experiment away.

Will watch.

 

I'd be the last one to call you crazy, jmaack, but my 2015 doesn't have this piece. I also wonder if it wouldn't help to run the weather stripping across the top of the bed, between the bed and the cab.