What's The Deal With Those Low-Hanging Front-Ends?

One of the benefits of a truck versus a sedan is the better ground clearance. You can get up over things and not scrape the ground. Most sedans are built very low to the ground and barely clear a speed bump. Pulling in and out of businesses / gas stations with a sedan, it's like, you so often scrape the front end of the car and I hate that.

But what about trucks that have these low-hanging front-end barriers like a beard that worsens the ground clearance. Like these:







To me, that basically ruins the ground clearance. Now the truck is that much closer to rubbing against the surface of the road / driveway. Why would the companies do that. Those plastic barriers they attach along the bottom front (a beard) is something I'd wanna remove. The Tacomas seem better at this. The front ends don't look as low. So you can go up a curb or down an incline pulling out of a business.

It's a shame spending the higher $$$ dollar on A truck only to have the front end hang down as low as a sedan.

 

Aerodynamics.

And the air dam on a Chevy comes off pretty easy if you're getting into it.

 

All trucks have it. Toyota Tacoma, Ranger, F150, Chevy. All for fuel aerodynamics. All removed super easy.

 

Trucks are for towing and hauling stuff. When he rear is weighed down it lvls the front

 

My God that is one ugly truck.

 

:]

 

Manufacturers do strange things in pursuit of fuel economy.

My Tacoma had one and I took it off.

 

It’s an air dam. It helps keep the air from under the truck/car. That increases fuel mileage and also helps the vehicle stay stuck to the ground when cornering at speed. Air turbulence under a vehicle at speed can cause some serious handling issues. Probably not so much for trucks.

 

My f150 front air dam is like 7" I've scraped it on a few curbs but I can't really complain about it. I'm getting 24+ mpg so...