The Dodge Goes Home! Time for the Electricfly!

On Tuesday, December 22, 2010, at 6 P.M. - the Sample Vehicle for my Aerocap, being a leased vehicle, was returned home to the Dealer, and the final payment was made to complete the exit on the Lease!

Unfortunately - that means the Aerocap Project - will be on hold, but one option is to consider placing the existing Aerocap on a Donor Vehicle owned by someone else and work the project with another person (Yet to be determined)!

Living in an Apartment arrangement - has never been the best working arrangement, and in fact - makes most handy projects anything but handy, with the need to never leave a project in work at the end of the day, and no place to work on it out of the sun, wind, and rain, since you have all seen - my parking lot working zone as I progressed on the Aerocap!

The Good thing about this - is now I can focus more on the things needed to do with my 'Electricfly' Electric Firefly or EV (Electric Vehicle) project, and maybe I can use some of the experience from the Aerocap project on the 'electricfly' for aerodynamic cleanup, in the form of wheel covers or skirts, belly pans, nose and tail work on the hatchback all to clean up the apparent drag! Also - the electricfly blog - NoGas96V - will be able to be updated with activity a bit more often, depending on avaialbel time, weather, and energy to work on it - which hopefully will be more soon, due to the constant interest in the car!

Aerocap Profile Pictures

As I said - more to come - here are a couple pictures of the Aerocap in progress, on the truck, clamped in place for fitting.



The truck has been driven, on both streets (bumpy, potholes, etc.) and on the Highway, at speeds so far up to about 100 Kmh successfully. There has been added internaly (under the parts shown as visible here) additional foam ribs, and I have yet to complete the side contours and over covering with the Pink Foam, but I do have the left side cover foam set up for once I get the contours right.

Click the small pics for large views!

Aerocap Beginnings...

Well, it has been on my mind for some time to set up a blog for my Dodge Dakota Aerocap Design Project, so - here it is!

Using a both Expanded Polystyrene Foam (the White) that I got for the taking free from work, and Extruded Polystyrene Foam (the Pink) that I bought at Home Depot, I am working on setting up a sample shape for one of my Aerocap ideas.

It will be a sample shape - in that - it is planned to become a plug for a mold if it works as imagined, that is to say - there is a noticiable reduction of fuel consumption of at least 3-5% (minimum), with a goal in the end of up to 10%, this with a desired improvement of at least 1 litre per 100 Km less than without the Aerocap on. I use the scangage to keep an eye on the numbers as I drive, but need to update/upgrate it for showing both instantaneous and trip numbers at the same gage display.

The idea is - to make at least two different styles, with two totally unique blends of curvature and trail-off effects, and see if the difference between the two is noticable, and also which one of the two gets the most local raves - as from the pictures - you can pretty much see the shop space I have - outside!

More Shortly!

Robert - AKA Electricman - per my car - electricfly - at
www.myelectricfly.com