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It's been 2.5 years now since we installed it. I'll try to answer your questions, but some of it I don't remember. That in itself is a good thing, because that means it went together fairly straightforwardly, and there are no memorable events (e.g. "spent 10 hours trying to pound a part into...

I'll believe it when I see it. Engineering this kind of stuff and having it made is what I do for a living (everything from prototype / low volume, to mass production), and I have an entire machine shop of my own in the garage. Most/many shops make their own tooling, so that's not really...

Something just doesn't add up. If they are running it on an automated machine, you're going to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a machined metal mold, but then part cost goes down to material cost basically (because there is so little labor to work the press, besides a few hours @ $100/hr...

I explained all this in a previous post, and came up with similar, but higher, ROM numbers. Now you're seeing why my bushings are priced the way they are, even without make much/"any" profit on them. Though I think your numbers are overly optimistic. There's really no way to cheat/shortcut...

It's not just the UV, though that does accelerate things. (In their installed location, I doubt they are taking much beating from UV.) Elastic materials don't like to be held long term in a compressed or elongated state. Think about rubber bands that you have left stretched around something...

Correct, the OEM are Shore 80A. Most "performance" bushings are harder (e.g. 90A), both to further limit movement but also to get increased mechanical properties (e.g. tensile strength). Solid bushings are not advisable. The rubber bushings provide tolerance and movement between the major...

There are a number of factors at play, including the Shore A hardness. Generally, the harder materials have higher tensile strengths, so they should resist splitting and tearing under pressure better. Aftermarket polyurethane bushings that are marketed as "high performance" typically use...

If you're doing Shore 80A hardness, I recommend PMC-780. https://www.smooth-on.com/products/pmc-780-dry/ These thick urethane rubbers, and to lesser extent the silicone rubber, really trap a lot of air bubbles. Ideally, you need a vacuum chamber to degas them. You might be able to make do by...

If you're not going to make too many of them (e.g. <12), a cheaper tin-cure silicone mold rubber will do. Be careful not to tear the mold while taking the castings out, as the tin-cure silicone is not as stretchy and resilient as the platinum-cure (which costs significantly more). You'll...

As for removing the huck bolts, the nut is only crimped to the bolt in the narrower portion of the nut. If you use a cut-off wheel to cut into the side of the nut just outward of the hex-flange, until you cut all the way through the bolt, the nut will come off leaving a short stub of the bolt...

I have used these on many personal and commercial/military projects: https://www.mcmaster.com/lanyards/create-your-own-lanyards-not-for-lifting/ I have a pair of these crimpers, which also work pretty well: https://smile.amazon.com/IWISS-Swager-Crimping-Fishing-Lines/dp/B00NJH8QXO/

Did it work? Your tires look fully inflated.

That's an oversimplification, but yes. The other key point is that while you can make the MPG way worse pretty easily, you're not going to improve it more than a couple percent with any particular mod (e.g. air dams, high PSI in the tires, fuel additives, etc.). So if the truck starts out at...

1. It's not primarily engine "resistance" (e.g. friction). When the fuel is burned, most of the energy is converted to heat in the resulting gases, and then released through the exhaust or absorbed by metal parts on it's way out. Take a look at the study above and it explains a bunch of their...

They have heavily modified FMTVs?

All these points still confuse the ideas of "which systems on the truck are easily modifiable to get fuel mileage gains" and "which systems on the truck could theoretically get large/meaningful fuel mileage gains". You can easily add aerodynamics and get some trivial gains, or you can...

It's not in contradiction. It just goes to show how wasteful the engine is (and how counterintuitive this subject can be). All that force you're feeling on your motorcycle, in terms of energy, is tiny compared to how much the engine is wasting. If you need further convincing, using your own...

That is a misleading or confusing way to phrase or think about the problem. The aerodynamic losses make up the smallest contribution, and so even if you could make them totally go away, it would only have a very small effect. However, playing with aerodynamics is way easier to do, compared to...

Yes, that's the step bumper. I have one too, and if you get the actual new kit, it comes with a new rear tailgate kit that is split in the middle, and opens like double doors / barn doors, instead of the single drop-down tailgate. I haven't installed the tailgate, but I have it.

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