Considering removing the windshield wipers...

i can't believe we are up to 120 posts about removing windshield wipers. keep it going!

 

How would you like to be in an accident in Southern California which requires emergency surgery and you look up just before the anesthesia kicks in and see a surgeon with a scalpel and the name "Rrolf" on the breast of his scrubs?

 

The moniker under my Username has nothing to do with my professional field. I am not really a 'surgeon' - in fact, I never studied medicine.

The moniker is in reference to the many times I have disassembled my Prius'.

That said, I would hope that after getting into that accident, on a lone highway, no gas stations near, your best bet is a kind man who stops to take you to a hospital. His only problem is no open gas stations in that direction - he's low on fuel, but driving a Prius. He realizes (thanks to Prius chat), that he needs to remove his wipers, hubcaps, quickly unscrewing your antenna, and gluing on the sharkfin. You are thankful that you notice he already put tint on his windows (which you know helps - but just a bit).

As this 2010 Prius glides into the emergency entrance, you give a knowing thankful glance at this kind gentleman - and his real world scientific knowledge....

Another life saved - thanks to PriusChat, and a carefully mod'd 2010 Prius...................... :rockon:
To those waiting on JPL test results, it looks like that may not happen tonight...

 

^^^^ just show me the "I Bolt"^^^^

 

There is another ending to this hypothetical story. In addition to his miscalculations about fuel savings from modified windshield wipers, antenna, and hubcaps, the naive samartian misjudges the coefficient of friction for the overinflated Prius tires. While transporting you to the nearest hospital in blinding rain, the driver of the heavily modified Prius momentarily loses sight of the road, skids off a cliff, and disappears into the abyss of unconfirmed Prius myths.

 

... and, after saving Daisey, the Govorner's daughter, from the wicked evil doers, the quiet masked man rides his, exceptionally endowed, stallion toward the west. As he disappears into the setting sun, the sound, "hyo silver," echoes across the valley. Her heart flutters as Daisey exclaims, "who was that masked man" and "is he anything like his horse?".

 

And so this thread ends with the story of the mysterious, kind gentle driver who averted roadside tragedy... a feel good, heart-warming tale of intrique, adventure, mystery and engineering dare-do.

This is a must read (thread); I highly recommend it to everyone

 

I lived in LA for two years, LA county is 90% desert, I agree it almost never rains, but, my windshield was filthy every morning, my wipers made it possible to clean my windshield, loved em.
I think that your best bet to save money on gas would be to mix it with water 50-50, double your money so to speak
Or fill your tyres with ball bearings, bound to get better roll, all the shiny balls going round and round.
Or remove the bottom of the interior and use your feet to propel yourself, Fred Flinstone style, yabba-dabba-do
Ahh, last and least, put a sign on the rear, a nice big one "HIT ME", sooner of later you'll get knocked where you want to go...

 

In response to the OP's most recent request:

Just for clarity, here's your original post.....

I'm amused that someone who thinks that removing windshield wipers from a car to "give it a cleaner look", and/or "improve visibility" is a good thing to do, would call any sarcastic rejoinders "immature".

I've already opined on both the safety aspects, and the ludicrous claims for any real world aerodynamically inspired fuel savings for this scheme. I think that the 18 miles per tank quoted is off by at least an order of magnitude, and even if it weren't, this is a shining example of why sometimes we actually need a large, intrusive government to keep watch over the sheeple.
JMHO....

Good Luck!

Good Luck!

 

Was unable to get lab time this weekend - but we were able to crunch numbers on a Cray CX1 work station... Since I'm going to be keeping the 'I bolt', we modeled its performance. Interestingly, we found a 'J bolt' (when the sharkfin is also in place - symmetrically aligned), increases mileage (performance) more than the 'I bolt'. We have an industrial supply company FEDEXing one out today.

It looks like the 'J-bolt' in conjunction with the sharkfin, could exceed a 4% improvement. Looks like I'll be leaving the 'J Bolt' permanently mounted (hook side aiming forward).

 

Correct... leave the J-bolt hook aiming forward. When the Prius makes an aircraft carrier deck landing, the bolt will be in the correct direction for the high-mount deck cable to stop the Prius. Whereras, jets have their hooks hanging down and forward-facing.

 

rrolf,

You have peaked my interest, thanks for posting and the updates. I peeked at ecomodder and noticed that they write that mudflaps decrease fuel economy. Why do you think your tests found the opposite ?

Regarding the windshield wipers, I wonder if the resting state on my G2 Prius can be set a little lower on the glass so that they are not in the way of airflow coming off the hood. I'll check when my wife returns with the car.

Cheers!

 

While the 'J-Bolt' can hold the weight of the car, I would recommend against torsional loads. That hasn't been tested, and likely would bend the braces in the roof.

These tests were done in a wind tunnel at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Mud flaps save gas, increasing fuel economy almost 12% or 6PMG (this has been shown in previous posts).

 

I have just done some cocktail napkin calculations on where the “I Bolt†or eye bolt single point lift point would have to go and why I think that it is all a farce that there is one on your car. A fixed single lift point would be good for testing something who’s properties do not change from test to test. A automobile that is someones daily driving car and not a permanent test specimen would be a poor candidate for a single lift point because there are to many variables to bring back to a constant to make the car balance or hang level from test to test over time. Every aspect of the cars parameters would have to be the same as when the first measurements were taken and the lifting eye was installed for it to be in the correct place for the car to balance again for repetitive tests or oil changes as stated by the OP. I have no way of conducting structural analysis of the location where I determined the eye bolt would have to go. I do not think there is sufficient support in that location to support the whole weight of the car from a single point. Nor do I think that there is a beam there because that is where the sun roof opening would be and those areas are commonly void of major structure capable of supporting the weight of the entire car from a single point. If anyone has removed there headliner maybe you can verify the lack of structure. Okay even if you have this contraption on your roof as stated you would have to have added something to dissipate the load across your roof from the eye bolt shank? Your average stainless steel eye bolt with a 4,500 pound capacity would have 3/4 inch shank diameter, that would pull right trough your roof or bend the hell out of it if not properly affixed such as to distribute the load.


I did not actually go out and weight my car today due to inclement weather, did not want to get scales wet. I did not want to take out the laser measuring device due to the rain either. I did take out a tape and plum bob to record some rough measurements. The measurements that I recorded are all eyeballed to the half inch or thereabouts, the rest of measurements, weights and dimensional data I used are published in the Toyota specifications or from other automotive publications. These are just rough calculations on where a single lift point would have to be placed on the roof of a Prius in order to lift the car vertically and have it balance.

I used the listed curb weight of a Prius 3042 lbs. for the weight, I used 60/40 for the longitudinal weight differential. With out weighing my car I can’t accurately figure the lateral weight differential so I used 50/50 for my calculations. Then I proceeded to calculated the the Longitudinal and Lateral (x) Center of Gravity for my car. Without weighing my car and measuring a little more precise as stated above this is just an approximate location and would vary slightly from car to car. I have also tried to use whole numbers and I rounded up.

total weight 3042 lbs. curb weight, length 175.6 in., width 68.7 in. published, measured width 80 in. mirrors extended.

weight on front axle 1825 lbs., left front 913 lbs., right front 913 lbs.
weight on rear axle 1216 lbs., left rear 608 lbs., left rear 608 lbs.

finding y longitudinal CG

(D1) nose of car to first load point 35.5 in., (D2) nose of car to second load point 142 in.

front (W1) 1825 lbs. x (D1) 35.5 in. = (M1) 62,142.5
rear (W2) 1216 lbs. x (D2) 142 in. = (M2) 172,672

total (M1+M2) 234814.5 / total (W1+W2) 3042 lbs. = 77.19 in. longitudinal CG y


finding x lateral CG

I used the front and rear track data for my car a car with different sized tires would be different. Front track 59.6 in., rear track 59.4 I used 59.5 an average for my figures.

left side (W3) 1521 lbs x (D3) 10.25 in. = (M3) 15590.25
right side (W4) 1521 lbs x (D4) 69.75 in. = (M4) 106089.75

total (M3+M4) 121680 / total (W3+W4) 3042 lbs. = 40 in. lateral CG x

If you plot x and y on the Prius roof y would be 77 inches from the from the front of the car and x would be 40 inches from the outside edge of the left mirror. The intersection of both CG’s would roughly be 5 inches aft of the gap between the windshield and the roof and centered. On the inside of the car that is right where the upper console is. I would like to see the hole, eye bolt, and the support structure? Granted this is not totally accurate because I did not weigh my car. I feel it is close enough using the published curb weight and assuming the lateral weight distribution is 50/50. With actual numbers and depending on package the actual CG intersection would move aft and may shift left to right.

I read the “I Bolt†was changed to a J Bolt, I would like to see a J Bolt with a capacity of 4,500 pounds.

“I Boltâ€, J Bolt, what’s next a K Bolt? I refuse to believe any of it show me this lift point? Show me your car suspended in midair. Was your eye bolt shouldered?

 

FYI - it's a 1" 'I-bolt" (not 3/4 - we chose this for its strength). The 1" 'J-bolt' should be arriving later today (relatively simple swap out). From a looks stand point, it's going to be larger than the 'I' (guess it's used on cranes and the like)...

We're looking at trying a lateral stabilizer (similar to the sharkfin - only larger) - since the sharkfin helps mileage (and really helps handling), a larger one may be better. A friend has some stabilizers off a Piper Cub (he was selling them - but we're going to borrow them for a week). We'll be placing them in the same position as the Sharkfin, and mounting them with 'L Brackets'.


Not sure how that will go - hoping to get a good bump in mileage though (it won't look great - but that's not what we are striving for)...

 

rotflmao!

 

I've never seen a cocktail napkin this big!

 

Thanks rrolff for humoring me and keeping up this awesome thread. You don't have a machinist at the JPL that could make you a custom state of the art titanium J bolt with a low drag coefficient and be invisible to radar? You all have to resort to using surplus aircraft parts for your awesome after hours, at no cost to the tax payer, data less testing? Those wing tips are not off a Piper Cub either the J-3 Piper Cub did not have wing tips it is a dope and fabric covered plane. It also did not come equipped with navigation lights of which those wing tips you have pictured are provisioned for.

When ever I read your postings the soundtrack in my mind is the song Online by Brad Paisley. If your not into the Country genre or unfamiliar with the song give it a listen.

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