Glad to see you have gotten some improvement......It's amazing what a little wind resistance can do to your MPG.

Maybe I aint crazy after all.........or the only person noticing a difference..

[quote]ORIGINAL: Smitty In response to cons on the Ready Lift leveling kit...
The only Con is you might loose 1 MPG beacusethe truck wont be as aerodynamic, but i think it is worth it.
[/quote]

 

Well, I gassed up today, and kept it between 60 and 70 this morning, drove 40 miles from the gas station, no stop and go. It was roughly 5 degrees outside. My needle is JUST touching the first mark by the F, so I think to get 40 miles before touching the first line of the guage is pretty damn good! It will be roughly another 40 to 50 miles home, 75% of that highway, 25% city. I'm not driving any differently then I was before as far as intentionally changing my shift patterns. I want to see if it's really doing anything. I am sure it is now, but I miss the look I had. It just doesn't look ruggid anymore without those lights.

On Saturday night, after I have driving a few hundred more miles, I'm going to lower the front end back to stock, and see if that does anything either.

I have a theory, that perhaps if I move my lightbar back another inch or two, that maybe the wind flow will go over the lights and not hit them directly (that is if I keep it leveled off and not change the height back.

When I first installed the bar without the lights, it was a nightmare. A 2" to 3" flat surface area, overhanging rectangular bar hitting the wind flat at 60 to 70 made the roof feel like it was getting hit by a tornado. I know I mounted it really well, but I was still afraid it was going to come off.

After I made my light brackets and mounted the lights, I guess the lights actually deflected the wind over and under the bar, because the resistance and vibrations literally cut in half. When I get these new roof rail replacements this weekend, I'm going to re-wire the lightbar so that all the wiring is inside (right now it's just taped to the front), buy some 5" lights with metal coiling around the wiring, and make it look more professional. This is all contigent upon how much mileage gain I actually get from not having it on. I wired the horn into the light bar relay I installed so that when I honk the horn, the lights come on. I RARELY use my horn unless someone is being REALLY annoying.

I guess now I realize why those small thin tubular light bars are more popular. I'm hoping just by moving it back an inch or two though may help things. We'll see how secure these new replacement roof rails are.