Good stuff, thanks for the write up! For the mattress, lots of ideas here in the forum but imo the quickest path to comfort is Overland Softgoods 1" topper. I just got mine and it’s a game changer.
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Great write up!. I have the Front Runner wind fairing on my GFC V2/Tacoma TRD. Makes a significant amount of difference in reducing the wind noise (~25db) and an small improvement on MPG. Let me know if you would like the build of materials for the wind fairing.
You fly left or right seat?
Drew
A parts breakdown would be great. An off-the-shelf solution (or one that someone else has proven) is ideal so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
I’m an instructor so I fly in whatever seat my student isn’t in.
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This will take you to the thread with the part list for an out of the box solution. Additionally you will need 4 of GFC 10-32 T-Nuts.
https://forum.gofastcampers.com/t/f-150-raptor-wind-noise/7062/49
what my installation looks like
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Is there a reason you went with this particular one and not one of the wider models?
I had a wider wind fairing initially and the crowning of the roofline resulted in a wider gap at the outer reaches of the fairing and a resulting in a nice whistling noise
Makes sense. So you’ve got the 1165mm one? Do you remember which one whistled? I was thinking the 1345mm would be an ideal fit (at least width-wise), but don’t want create a new problem trying to solve an existing one. Thanks for the info.
I made a quick overnight trip to Delaware State Forest in PA to try out some of my newest gear. I bought an Iceco GO20 fridge, the Dr. Prepare 100 Ah DC power station, a Noco Genius 5amp charger, I made a gear loft out of a cheap harbor freight tarp and bungee balls, and I got a WaterBrick rechargeable faucet.
The hands down best addition was the power station. This thing is simple and has plenty of capacity for what I’ll be using it for. It could run the Iceco fridge for a week if it had to. I can charge my lights, phone, and fan with it. I can even charge my Surface with it for some Netflix under the stars. If I ever needed more capacity I could wire in another battery too. It’s also got a 100w solar charge port so I could add solar eventually. All-in-all it’s a great, simple, multi-use power station that doesn’t break the bank or require an electrical engineering degree to wire into the truck. Plus I can easily take it elsewhere without a hassle.
The Noco charger works off the inverter outlet in my Tacoma bed so it’s always charging while I drive (as long as I remember to hit the switch on the dash) or I can leave my truck running and charge while I’m parked. When I’m not on the road I can charge from any standard house outlet so my battery is always topped off and ready to run the fridge if I needed it during a power outage at home.
The gear loft is just a cheap 6’x8’ canvas tarp I got at harbor freight. I cut it in half, added some extra grommets, and mounted it with some bungee balls to the frame and some tie down points I got off Amazon. Great use of the vertical space for bedding. Keeps everything dry and dust free.
The faucet is a simple usb-rechargeable pump that fits on the WaterBrick containers. Simple push on/off button to dispense water. I need to figure out a better place to mount it, but it works for what I need.
I’ve got a MOLLE panel on order for the front wall of the camper. That’ll give me more options for storing things and will give me more room in the drawer to better organize things. I might even make a v2 of the drawer to better fit my gear and they way I use it. I’ll also mount the charger on the MOLLE panel and clean up my cable layout.
I’m taking 2 months of leave this summer to road trip from the east coast to MT, WA, UT, and back. I’ll put out a call for suggestions to see along the way once I get a better idea of my route, but please let me know if you have any recommendations now or want to meet up for a beer or night of camping.
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Got my MOLLE panel mounted along with my Noco charger and some mesh bags I got off Amazon. I’ll probably keep tools, bike parts, and things I don’t need everyday in them. Using the vertical space like this is definitely a game changer.
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Hi @dakine - thanks for the parts list! I see both 1345mm x 1425mm & 1165mm x 1255mm wind fairing across different posts, and was wondering which one you have? I too have a Tacoma with @jedgar drip rails and would love to know which one fits well to order. Thank you!
For what it’s worth, I went with the 1345mm one. I think it’s ok, but more of a speed brake than anything. The angle is too steep. I’m in the process of designing and making a custom fairing that will fit better, sit at a much lower angle, and hopefully improve the aerodynamics of the GFC. I plan to use the brackets from the Front Runner fairing and probably a sheet of ABS or acrylic or something similar. It’ll be around 18 inches wide instead of the current 7ish inches. Here’s the current setup:
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TRuDy got an upgrade this afternoon.
I cut it out of a 3/16" thick sheet of ABS plastic that started as 53" x 18". I salvaged the rubber edge and all the hardware from my Front Runner fairing. I added a felt strip along the rubber edge as well to abate the squeaking. I’m pretty happy with how it came out. It’s roughly a 25 degree angle now vs the 60ish degrees previously so it should be more aerodynamic. I’ll put some miles on it over the coming months and see if it improves gas mileage and/or noise.
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That looks great on TRuDy. I’m making a fairing now and it will have a gentler angle like yours compared with the 3rd party products. The ideal angle is 20.6 degrees* so fairings should be longer like the one you’ve created. The fairing should be 26 inches to achieve the 20.6 degree angle; I’ll aim for shorter, too because don’t want to go most of the way towards the front of the cab. By my rough calculation (in case you’re interested) yours is 30 deg. (sinx=9/18). Also like the way yours extends all the way to the side edge of the Gofast - I plan to do that, too.
Look forward to hearing about MGP improvement (if any) and noise reduction!
Thanks! I’ve only had it on a couple weeks, but the noise has been reduced a lot. I’ve also seen a little bump in MPG, but it’s been during the spring which usually gives me a little better gas mileage with warmer temps and the switch to summer fuel blends. Hard to say whether the new fairing has had a significant impact, but I’d say it’s definitely not hurting anything. It’s also much nicer to drive with the back window open; the wind around the camper/cab/fairing gives more airflow in through the back window which was mostly lost with just the camper on there. Less noise with the window open too.
It’s a lot of real estate on top of the cab. I’m considering trying to find a small 50-100 watt solar panel to mount on there. I might just go with a briefcase-type one that I can clamp on there when parked into the sun so I’m not always forced to park a certain way with a permanently mounted one though. Future problem.
Exciting possibly reducing noise + better gas mileage.
I would recommend permanently affixing a solar panel - that way it’s charging all the time without the hassle of moving the panel around and hooking up every time. I have 100 watt flexible panels mounted on my GFC top using VHB tape and it works great. Smaller, flexible solar panels (there’s a 26 inch wide one) for atop the cab are offered by Renogy, for example…Amazon.com: Renogy Solar
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Update on the fairing after a 9500 mile road trip:
TL;DR - larger, lower-angled fairing is better
I just got back from a 7 week, 24 state, 9500 mile road trip with TRuDy. Overall I used 476.75 gallons of gas giving me total average MPG of 19.926 miles per gallon.
Throughout the trip I had several tanks where I got 22.5 MPG, and a couple where I only got 16.5 MPG. I only used regular fuel with no more than 10% ethanol, usually sourced via the GasBuddy app to save $$. Highest I paid was $4.299/gal (Oregon) and lowest I paid was $2.799/gal (Tennessee) although I did see some stations selling for over $5/gal in the Chicago area and rural Washington state.
The higher MPGs I found were mostly at highway speeds between about 60 and 70 MPH, or on back roads doing around 45-55 MPH. Anything higher than 70 MPH and the gas mileage really dropped off fast (one tank that got 16.5 MPG was doing 76 MPH across South Dakota).
Since there are a million factors that can effect gas mileage (outside temperature, elevation, tire pressure, road surface, flat vs. hilly/mountainous roads, running the air conditioning, headwind vs. tailwind, humidity, traffic, etc.) I don’t have a magic formula for the ideal sweet spot, but based on my non-scientific observations, I’d say the fairing was worth the investment.
My general takeaways are:
- Highway speeds below 70 MPH give better MPG
- Flat terrain is generally better than hilly/mountainous terrain, but winds can have a huge effect either way.
- The cruise control liked to run at a higher RPM to keep the speed within a much narrower range whereas if I allowed the truck to slow a little more on uphill sections and speed up a little more on downhill sections I got much better gas mileage. I only did this when the traffic allowed, but it made a difference.
- I rarely ran the air conditioner unless the temp was over 90*F so I don’t have a good read on how much it affected the gas mileage. Usually I had the back cab window open and the front driver and passenger windows cracked. Before the GFC I almost always did this and the air flow was great. With the GFC on before the fairing the air flow was greatly reduced in this configuration. With the fairing, the air flow is much better and the noise has been reduced with the back window open.
- I don’t idle my truck if I can help it. If I’m parked, I turn it off. This obviously contributes to better gas mileage.
- I removed my 2 beef bars for this trip since I wasn’t going to be using them. The weight and drag reduction probably helped the gas mileage as well.
- I was loaded up for a marathon vacation on this trip. Probably around 200-250 lbs of gear throughout the truck (mtn bike, fridge, aux battery, bedding, cooking stuff, clothing, shoes, water, etc). Without this added weight I probably would have had slightly better gas mileage.
I can’t directly compare this large fairing to the much smaller one I originally had on from Front Runner, but in my observations the big one is quieter and all indications are that it has improved gas mileage.
If I remember correctly, pre-GFC I usually got about 22-23 MPG on average in the warmer months and 20-21 MPG on average in the colder months. This was mostly commuting to work (45-55 MPH on country roads through corn fields in rural NJ) and running errands. After the GFC was installed I got about 20.5-21.5 MPG on average in the warmer months and 19-20 MPG on average in the colder months. With the new fairing I haven’t had enough time replicating that commute to make a definitive assessment (starting a new job next week) but I’ll try to see if I can make a comparison in the near future. I also park my truck in the garage so that likely affects the gas mileage in extreme temps.
Here’s some pics of my trip.
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Does the fairing move at all when you open and close the top? How’s that work?
No, it’s hard mounted to the t-track on the front of the camper. It has a felt strip along the edge where it rests on the roof (since the Tacoma bed flexes, the fairing moves relative to the roof). Sometimes it’ll knock on the roof while driving in really bad cross winds or when I pass a big truck, but most of the time there’s no noise. I think it reduces the wind noise a lot too, especially with the back cab window open.