REVIEW: Hybrid Effects Wheel Skirts

[Ichiro]

Nice work...

one downside is that it's going to be a PITA to check your rear tire pressures now :-)

[Qlara]

Interesting look with the skirt, but what happen if you have a rear flat tire when the skirt is not that easy to remove? That may become PITA.....

[allargon]

You turned your Prius into a four door Insight? (j/k)

Please continue to let us know how it works out for you.

[Hybrid Effects]

Checking tire pressure is not a problem, all you do is roll the car until the valve stem is near the ground. If you have flat aero hub caps like the ones I sell there is an access plug on the hub caps.

If you have a flat you will need to jack the car up anyways and that makes it even easier to remove the skirts. I personally can remove the wheel skirts in one minute. There is only two bolts and if you have a ratchet wrench it is not all that hard.

The cost of the wheel skirts is very fair and after looking at what it cost to make and ship the skirts I think the price might just be a little to fair. It takes a half a gallon of high quality resin alone to make a pair of skirts and that's not counting the fiberglass material, gel-coat, acetone, wax, gloves, brushes, rollers and labor etc. Plus these are made in the U.S.A.

Franklin

[Godiva]

Actually I was interested in where you got the wheel skirts and how much they cost.

[Flying White Dutchman]

theforce

do you have a bigger rear hatch spoiler like the touring? you don't have the bigger touring tires?
do you think there is enough room for the 195 touting tire's?

where did you get the front spoiler i like it

also thx for the great pictures etc.

[Hybrid Effects]

For pricing go to Hybrid Car Accessories by Hybrid Effects.

[TheForce]

Originally Posted by abra

looks good...

$350.00 hope it gains mpg. update us on that.

btw what type of mpg gain was the caps?

I'll update as soon as I get some time and get this E10 crap out of my tank. Thats the only thing bad about coming to Hybridfest. E10 is everywhere.

I never really did any official tests with the caps. I from what I experienced I guessed about a 2mpg gain with a 2mpg margin of error.

When the E10 is out of my tank I can do some highway test and see if I get better or worse compared to my previous highway experience. If I have time I would like to do a highway run without the skirts and caps for the control, then with the skirts, then with the skirts and caps and then finally without the skirts and caps again to verify the control.

Originally Posted by Qlara

Interesting look with the skirt, but what happen if you have a rear flat tire when the skirt is not that easy to remove? That may become PITA.....

Yes that would be a PITA. The skirts can be removed it just took me a few minutes to do it. I think what I really need is a smaller ratchet. The one I have now is a little big and makes it really awkward to reach up in there. I'm going to try to find another way to attach these things after I get back from Hybridfest.

Originally Posted by Ichiro

Nice work...

one downside is that it's going to be a PITA to check your rear tire pressures now :-)

With no caps under the skirts all I have to do is roll the car a little bit until the air stem comes in view. When I make my aluminum caps for the rear I will cut a hole in it to get to the air stem.

Originally Posted by Flying White Dutchman

theforce

do you have a bigger rear hatch spoiler like the touring? you don't have the bigger touring tires?
do you think there is enough room for the 195 touting tire's?

where did you get the front spoiler i like it

also thx for the great pictures etc.

Yes I have the touring spoiler. I got the spoiler before they even announced the touring would be available in the USA.

I'll have to see if a touring Prius is here at Hybridfest and take a look but I think the skirts should fit just fine.

The front spoiler I got from Sigma Automotive – Toyota Hybrid Prius 2004 - 2009 OEM & JDM auto accessories .

[problemchild]

That front license plate is creating a lot of drag. Seems like you should remove that. I would remove the mirrors too. Crawl under the car and look at all the drag there. It needs a smooth pan all the way under the car to create better coefficient. They also make a special was for jets that reduces drag.

[Hybrid Effects]

Jay get in touch with me when you are ready to explore more options for attaching the wheel skirts. I have a really good idea but it will require two small screws on the outside bottom edge of the skirt.

I know that a lot of people will say that the price of the wheel skirts are high but I can not dictate the cost of supplies and shipping and so forth but I can control how much research and development that I put into each product. One reason I was able to offer the wheel skirts at the price they are now is that I used the easiest form of attachment.

Franklin