My Sonex has 5.00 x 5 tires on it and no wheel pants. However I have the pants that have never been installed. Does anyone have a good handle on how much speed is likely to be gained by installing the pants?
I have read in a few places that it’s about 5 mph. No clue if it’s true, but various sources on Sonex’s and RV’s seem to agree that it is around there “somewhere.” I’d also love to hear bona fide measurements of speed increase.
My notes say 3-4 mph on the Onex. I had modified the original wheel pants to sort of fit the 5.00x5 tires, so it wasn’t the best wheel pants you could have. I’d say 5 mph is probably about all we can hope for at our speeds. For me, it’s just nowhere near worth it.
Now the RV guys get a lot more speed from their wheel pants, but that’s because they’re going closer to 200 mph and there’s a big difference between 150 and 200. I seem to recall 15 mph from my RV-8 testing, but I can’t remember if that was just the wheel pants, or also with gear leg fairing.
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