Safety Recall

Couple posts back, I compared my towing mpg with and without the recall installed wing. I noticed a marked improvement with the wing. Well, now I'm a real believer. We took a trip to my wife's favorite campground (Cape Disappointment in WA state). We've gone there many times, and, as always, I hand figured our towing mileage. This is a moderate tow over lots of up and down foothills (Willapa Hills). Previously the worst and best trip mileage for this trip with this truck have been 10.1 and 11.5 mpg. This trip we got 12.7 and the conditions were not optimal for towing--rain and head and side winds--very comparable to the time we got 10.1 mpg. For my towing combo, I think the wing really does improve my mileage.

I was wondering about the comments of increased mpg after spoiler installation.  A couple of years ago, I and another member ran some aerodynamic simulations and didn't find any real improvement in airflow using small spoilers on the back of the Pod.
This is where anecdotal information falls apart...single incidents may not be valid overall.  Installing the spoiler may cause you to slow down for increased mpg. Or the first trip you take afterward may have few headwinds or few hills and valleys.  You need to travel quite a few miles under many varying conditions to validate the increase in mpg with the new spoilers.
For example, my niece will not have her kids vaccinated for the flu because a relative had an adverse reaction to the shot.  Now she believes that anyone who gets the shot will come down with an allergic reaction.  And no evidence to the contrary will convince her that it is better to get the shot!
While visiting my local FR Pod dealer, I encountered another Pod owner who recently had the spoiler installed.  He insisted that his mpg had increased from 10 to 15 mpg because of the spoiler.  The dealer had never heard about such an increase in mpg from anyone else.  After the other owner left, we both agreed that the spoiler had little if anything to do with his increased mileage.

I've only towed 4 trips since the install of the wing, but every one has been a common tow that I've done in the past, and each one has been hand figured for mpg, as always. Every trip has shown an increase in mileage over the averages from former trips. My wing trips have all been with winter blend gas, which never does anyone any good for mileage.

I find it curious that many assume it to be a spoiler, it is the shape it is because of the lights have to be visible from behind, the pod is round thus the shape.

Spoilers and MPG.  We're somewhat lucky as our RPod is a 2012 171 HRE and it came with a spoiler and all the "required" running lights.  BTW, they are all LED and really light up nice.

Our MPG was best improved by putting in a performance chip in my opinion.  That, and using non-ethanol fuel in the tow vehicle when towing.  You get more power out of a gallon that way.  We have a Ford Ranger V6, 3.0 Liter FWD and are now getting 2 to 4 MPG better when towing with just a few runs tested.  The vehicle itself now gets 4 to 5 MPG better non towing and in town/out of town.  Over the road, there is a marked improvement in mileage without tow.

The chip we decided on was made by GF.  Most of the big diesel tow rigs that tow are now using performance chips and I seriously believe that the ford "Eco Boost," is not much more than an added performance chip.

Performance chips of the right type do not just dump fuel into your engine, they work WITH all the OEM components of an engine, viz., exhausts, vacuums, fuel input, computer and etc.  Thus, they can cause your tow vehicle to achieve better results and have more ooomph on the hills.

There's my 2 bits worth.

Burt