"Gas Pods"

NarfBLAST said:

Can someone post pictures of these on their car?

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I took this just before Sandy started to hit, I should actually go out there and make sure they didn't blow off the car

I want these if only to strike up conversations with nay sayers. Look, if the return is 6% better in his mind, then it is his reality. You cannot disprove him, can you? So, apparantly some folks think they don't work. Guess what? You don't have to use them. Maybe they do, maybe they don't, but either way you can't discount the fact he got 6% better fuel economy when he had them installed.

But if he got 6% better fuel economy with them installed because he changed his driving style to suit, then it's pointless, and he wasted his money on this scam (funding further crap marketing efforts, causing more people to waste their money on this scam).

If they actually reduced the drag coefficient of the car by more than they increased the frontal area, then OK, but I want proof of that.

GaryTDI said:

I took this just before Sandy started to hit, I should actually go out there and make sure they didn't blow off the car

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An aerodynamic improvement device being "blown" off the car??? I would think proper design of a device such as this would be for it to STICK ON THE CAR IN THE WIND.

TNriverjet said:

An aerodynamic improvement device being "blown" off the car??? I would think proper design of a device such as this would be for it to STICK ON THE CAR IN THE WIND.

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Well they seemed to have passed that test even with lateral 70 MPH gusts Hey, that's faster than I drive...

GaryTDI said:

Well they seemed to have passed that test even with lateral 70 MPH gusts Hey, that's faster than I drive...

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Good magnets stick and don't move. My XM antennae didn't budge at over 120 MPH!

Wow, I cannot believe all the criticism, here is a detailed video showing how this technology works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lDpQSmEElY

Too bad inducing more drag will not help increase your mileage, no matter what the sales brochure led you to believe...fairing in the underside of your car or blocking off the grill vents in cold weather..those mods might gain you some cleaner aerodynamics..but won't necessarily help your mileage..

I don't know what I'll do with it, but I'm now the proud owner of dieselpods.com!

NarfBLAST said:

I just hit godaddy.com and the domain dieselpods.com is available... click here: http://www.godaddy.com/domains/searchresults.aspx?ci=45397&isc=gfnn5cam10

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First, let me say that I don't believe that these will do anything for fuel economy.

BUT I think I found a use for them. I noticed with the snow, I get a build-up on the rear window about a foot each side of center and about 8 inches down. But dead center, there is no snow. This made me wonder.

Then I saw an Audi with the same patch of snow (although his patch was very symmetrical which made me jealous) with the same center spot clear. Then it hit me: It's the antenna on there that is disturbing the airflow enough that it keeps the window clear in the center.

So that made me think of gas pods. I mean I was already thinking of useless things, so why not gas pods?

So maybe if there was maybe four of these silly things back there they would help keep the snow off the back window.

I'm just the idea guy, so someone besides me needs to buy some and try them out for this purpose.

Interesting observation! Are you going to get any snow pods for experimental reasons?

I may try these right after I finish my evaluation of this most excellent device:

http://inhabitat.com/blade-exhaust-filter-by-sabertec/

hutchmanhd said:

I may try these right after I finish my evaluation of this most excellent device:

http://inhabitat.com/blade-exhaust-filter-by-sabertec/

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That's a new one for me!

VeeDubTDI said:

Interesting observation! Are you going to get any snow pods for experimental reasons?

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Not me. Remember, I'm just the idea guy. Someone else can do the R&D.

You're more likely to see improvement if you went with super skinny wheels and tires, added those mooneyes aluminum wheel covers and covered all the seams on your car with thin vinyl to smooth it out. Then remove the side view mirrors and replace them with small camera pods and feed them to LCD's inside. You could pull all the glass out and replace it with lexan(leave the windshield or whatever your local law states to keep), gut the car, remove accessories like a/c. Get carbon fiber or fiberglass body panels. At that point you'd have spend so much that it's not worth it in fuel savings unless you drive over a million miles per year for like 40 years. That 5% claim is just so minimal that it's not really worth it. Change your driving habbits and you'll see a bigger improvement. I can get ~10mpg better than what my dad gets in the same car. The ones you see on race cars are there for high speed stability applications, irrelevant for 99% of us.

Votblindub said:

You're more likely to see improvement...

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Yeah, we already established these things don't work as advertised and have moved on to speculation on what they might be able to do.

whitedog said:

Yeah, we already established these things don't work as advertised and have moved on to speculation on what they might be able to do.

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Thank you for inviting our participation with your new comments about gaspods. There is no where on this forum that anyone has established anything of the sort. All criticism is simply unsubstantiated chatter.

In fact, those who have GasPods on their VW's have posted positive results, and been chased away. I'm here at your invitation to stop that.

GasPods offer one of the easiest ways for anyone to increase the aerodynamic efficiency, particularly for the VW Golf body. Increasing the aerodynamics of a vehicle does result in fuel savings. We can take that to the bank with our data. In fact, we have.

Instead of criticism, AeroHance should be given a Project Blue award by Volkswagen for giving the tens of millions of drivers who have purchased Golf body cars the easiest way to start participating in aerodynamic modification of their cars.

Susanne said:

Instead of criticism, [redacted, spammer] should be given a Project Blue award by Volkswagen for giving the tens of millions of drivers who have purchased Golf body cars the easiest way to start participating in aerodynamic modification of their cars.

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K5ING said:

Actually, dimpling the surface of the car produces better airflow, and is free. Here is a picture of me doing my other car....

Note the windshield/rear window mod. It allows air to flow through the car instead over it. Most first-timers forget this important step.

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Good one!

Unless I missed it....why are there no images of "wind tunnel" testing before the pods are placed on the car?

since we're on the topic of aerodynamics...
is there something unobtrusive and easy enough to install that can help deflect air to stay lower and roll more along the ground instead of curling upwards and vortexing right behind the trunk lid? i know im talking diesel, i know there's soot involved, i know it swirls around a bunch. i'm just curious to see of there is maybe a small aero panel that can fit below the rear valence. something with fins there. akin to what the super cars or some rally cars have there to ensure more laminar flow of air that travels under the car?

JSW results? Alternative products? Rear cross bar??

Wow, this old thread really got/gets people going... which is understandable given that there is so much BS out there preying on people trying to save money.

After reading the vendor's material I don't really see why it should not work. (I'm not a 'fluid mechanic', but at least I know roughly what's involved. And no, I didn't just sign up.) You spoil the flow separation from the car roof to increase the pressure (decrease the under pressure) directly behind the car. You pay with having to put some ugly bumps on your car.
Keeping track of MPG over 2000 miles before and after seems a pretty sound testing method, even given seasonal variations in diesel mileage. You/I should see a step if you plot the MPG, superimposed on whatever other variations there are. I'm pretty sure I would be able to see a few percent with my mpg tracking.

A few questions:

1) This product: Has anybody tried this on a JSW? What placement - on the 'spoiler' or ahead of it? (The GOLF TDI test quoted on the vendor's site shows worse diesel mileage for placement ahead of the spoiler, and improved mileage when directly in front of the rear edge.)

2)Alternative products: Is there a 'reverse spoiler' or air flow redirector kit that forces more flow from above across the hatch? That might be better than these distributed bumps, also for keeping the hatch window clean.

3)Rear cross bar: Has anybody tested diesel mileage with just a rear cross bar on the roof rails? It might be too far forward, but it could potentially have the same purported effect of redirecting more air from above to the hatch window. Worth trying if you already have a cross bar.

I've heard a nice spoiler - especially on FWD cars - will increase fuel economy.

Well... I suppose in this case it is worth saying that there can be too much of a good thing. So I will point out that the above spoiler might be blown off in a side wind.

For Votblindub: the only problem with worrying about the underside exit is that on race cars, they can make the bottom smooth and flat, or configure it for effects desired. These things don't happen on production cars. And for a lot of racers, the rules many times prohibit the underside being used for 'ground effects' stuff - the result being the underside of the cars are usually required to be flat. It is an offshoot of the stuff that F1 was doing for several years and was seen to get out of hand.

Personally I'd like to experiment with vortex generators that take on the shape resembling NACA ducts side by side. You'd need to configure them, in size and placement, to match the body type of the car as well as the best speed region where you drive most of the time. I don't have the wherewithall to do design like that. Figuring the Reynolds numbers for such things can get weird when you don't understand Reynolds numbers very well.

Diesl said:

...
After reading the vendor's material I don't really see why it should not work. (I'm not a 'fluid mechanic', but at least I know roughly what's involved. And no, I didn't just sign up.) You spoil the flow separation from the car roof to increase the pressure (decrease the under pressure) directly behind the car. You pay with having to put some ugly bumps on your car.
...
A few questions:
...
3)Rear cross bar: Has anybody tested diesel mileage with just a rear cross bar on the roof rails?

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Since apparently nobody else is going to answer my questions, I guess I have to do it myself ;-)
In order to get started, I cobbled together a small roof bar. (Real VW cross bars are $390, and seem to be a bit beefier than necessary for this purpose.)
Meet 'The Turbulator':



It has been on for a fraction of a tank; so far all I know is that is doesn't seem to have a horribly large negative effect on diesel mileage.


2014-6-16 Summary after five tanks with the bar: the turbulator saved me about 1.6%, or 0.6 mpg on a base of 38 mpg. Not enough to drive around with a stick taped to my roof (even though I took care to use color-matched electrical tape...). For details see my mpg vs temperature thread.

Can you hear it while driving?

An earlier version was mounted a bit further forward, and I could hear it hum from about 50 mph on.
Unfortunately at that location it developed (after getting wet?) a nasty vertical oscillation at about 70-75 mph, which wouldn't die down until below 50 mph, so I relocated the same bar further back, where the center contact with the antenna prevents the oscillation.

I think thats why a bunch of these are curved upward. It helps stop that wobble. What does the cross-section of that look like?

Nissan Leaf- The exterior also utilizes a flat underbody (including a large front flat floor cover, electric motor area undercover, front undercover and rear diffuser with fins) to help manage airflow under the vehicle. An innovative vortex-shedding roof-mounted antenna is one of many design elements utilized to help reduce wind noise. Nissan doesn't even advertise these features as fuel improvements.