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The Great Air Dam Debate

mrclortho

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I removed mine and did not discern a differential, plus it was ugly as hell with a 3.5" lift.
 

theblet

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Never understood why some people fail to grasp that concept.
Additionally, buy a configuration that gets poor mileage, then modify their trucks to get the worse mileage then complain about the poor mileage :ROFLMAO:
It was designed to appease the green power hungry people, and maybe as a marketing strategy since no one else has this. And not course the consumer will pay for it marked up a bunch.
 

BowDown

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It was designed to appease the green power hungry people, and maybe as a marketing strategy since no one else has this. And not course the consumer will pay for it marked up a bunch.

No, they work.
I road race my Z06, the more air I can direct around the car vs under it, the, the better the car preforms. In runway events, having it decreases drag. It doesn't work any different on this truck, its a way to increase MPG by decreasing drag. The green people may benefit from it but its a sound aero principal. That's also part of the reason they tried to flatten the bottom of the truck, less turbulence from by the air that does go underneath
 

GMetal

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Magna reports that combined with its active grille shutter, the aero system on the 2019 Ram achieves an estimated 7 percent drag reduction and 1 mile per gallon fuel savings on the highway. Across the Ram truck fleet, the active aero system is expected to save an estimated 10 million gallons of fuel annually.
 

BowDown

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23RAM

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I removed mine and did not discern a differential, plus it was ugly as hell with a 3.5" lift.
As mentioned, lifting the truck neutralizes the aerodynamic effect as it's not designed to work with more air under the front. Besides, it's a small change in drag, it's not like a 5 mpg difference where you would notice it every fill-up. There's too many other variables that would need to be controlled to be able to notice the benefit or loss in daily driving scenarios.
 

23RAM

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It was designed to appease the green power hungry people
EV's were designed to appease the greenies. Of course in reality, they're not really any more green than my RAM. 😁
and maybe as a marketing strategy since no one else has this.
It's not unique to RAM. Several other builders have been doing this for years, such as Porsche, Ferrari, Alpha Romero, just to name a frew. Many of them are much more elegant solutions too, but of course you're paying a premium for those luxury vehicles. I would expect to see more of this technology showing up on Chevy, Ford, and imports in the coming years.
And not course the consumer will pay for it marked up a bunch.
Of course...prices keep going up. But over the life of the vehicle it might actually pay for itself.
 

Dewey

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Better than -1 mpg when you rip it off thinking it does nothing. 😁
That 1 mpg claimed in the article is combined with Active Grill Shutters.

Funny thing is my average MPG has actually increased slightly since removing the AAD. It sure as heck didn’t affect anything.

My 4th Gens had Active Grill Shutters but no AAD. They averaged 1-2 mpg better than my current 5th Gen.

Point is these trucks vary so much from truck to truck that the 1 MPG they claim is negligible. Just another feel good story to lure consumers.
 

theblet

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EV's were designed to appease the greenies. Of course in reality, they're not really any more green than my RAM. 😁

It's not unique to RAM. Several other builders have been doing this for years, such as Porsche, Ferrari, Alpha Romero, just to name a frew. Many of them are much more elegant solutions too, but of course you're paying a premium for those luxury vehicles. I would expect to see more of this technology showing up on Chevy, Ford, and imports in the coming years.

Of course...prices keep going up. But over the life of the vehicle it might actually pay for itself.
Oh yea, I know others have active aero. I meant in trucks
 

BowDown

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That 1 mpg claimed in the article is combined with Active Grill Shutters.

Funny thing is my average MPG has actually increased slightly since removing the AAD. It sure as heck didn’t affect anything.

My 4th Gens had Active Grill Shutters but no AAD. They averaged 1-2 mpg better than my current 5th Gen.

Point is these trucks vary so much from truck to truck that the 1 MPG they claim is negligible. Just another feel good story to lure consumers.


You're wrong, these trucks don't vary much from truck to truck. The driving style varies person to person, features/options only enhance or detract from mpg.

As to you removing the AAD, I doubt that's true but it's your truck and your opinion. People say the same thing about AS/S but since the AC TSB that further limited AS/S engagement, my city mileage has dropped about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile per gallon or from 17.8 -18 city to 17.1-17.2 mpg
 
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Dewey

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Still one mpg better
Arguing over 1 MPG is pointless.

I’m only pointing out that real world experience with my own truck proves to me that removing my AAD did absolutely nothing to negatively affect my MPG. Figured that was good info for those here who are on the fence about spending money to repair theirs. My opinion is save your money because the payback just isn’t there.
 

BowDown

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Arguing over 1 MPG is pointless.

I’m only pointing out that real world experience with my own truck proves to me that removing my AAD did absolutely nothing to negatively affect my MPG. Figured that was good info for those here who are on the fence about spending money to repair theirs. My opinion is save your money because the payback just isn’t there.

No ones arguing over 1mpg but I bet the people getting S mileage would love that 1mpg.

Like the comment made earlier, if AAD wasn't worth anything, Ram wouldn't be spending the extra 100's of millions $$$ wasting the application on the truck when they could simply not spend that money. I don't believe there's anything on this truck by accident or that doesn't help Ram meet epa requirements.
 

Dewey

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Ram wouldn't be spending the extra 100's of millions $$$ wasting the application on the truck when they could simply not spend that money.
Are we talking about the same company?😆

Keep building Hellcats and just pay the fines👍🏻

 
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23RAM

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Keep building Hellcats and just pay the fines👍🏻
Bad analogy...they would stop building them if no one wanted to buy them.
If the demand is there, they'll gladly pay the fines to rake in the profits. They're in it to make money, and everything they do revolves around that aspect.
 

Dewey

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Bad analogy...they would stop building them if no one wanted to buy them.
If the demand is there, they'll gladly pay the fines to rake in the profits. They're in it to make money, and everything they do revolves around that aspect.
Even worse analogy. They are gonna stop building them even though everyone still wants to buy them. Didn’t you hear?

OK. I’m done now😆
 

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