A while back someone (I don't remember who) was asking for ideas for new
products for our GMC's. Here are a couple I was thinking about while I was
swapping my final drive and doing front end maintenance these past couple
weeks.
1) Lug nut torque amplifier. For those of you who have ever tried to remove
the lug nuts from your wheels, its a real pain. It takes a breaker bar with
a long pipe on the handle. Just about the point where it feels like the
breaker bar is going to shatter, the nut lets go with a loud crack. What is
needed is a device that will straddle two lug nuts, one for leverage and
the other to be loosened. Maybe a ratio of 3 or 4 to one would be
sufficient to get enough torque to get the nuts loose without so much
effort. I have seen something along these lines but it cost something like
$300-$400. What we need is something simple and cheep like maybe in the
$100 range. Maybe just two gears, one large one welded to a 7/8" socket
(fits the lug nut) and a smaller gear welded to a socket with the inner
surfaces ground off (so it slides easily around a lug nut). If someone
knows of a cheap source of gears this may be doable. Maybe the timing gears
from a small one cylinder engine would be close??
2) Aerodynamic radiator fan. The fan blades on the GMC are made up of flat
sheet steel with a bit of a curve. This is not a very aerodynamically
efficient design. The result is a lot of turbulence around the blades
resulting in lost horsepower and excess noise. If a fan where designed that
had full airfoil blades optimized for the speed and load of the GMC it
should free up quite a bit of horsepower and be a lot quieter. It would
take some real engineering skill and a few real world measurements to
determine the aerodynamic loads placed on the fan. It could be an
interesting project for someone who knows a bit about propeller/fan design.
Maybe we could even interest a professor of automotive (or aerospace)
engineering to take it on as a design project for his students. Anyone know
any professors/teachers who are GMC lovers?? Maybe someone in the
engineering department or with friends in the engineering department?
Just a thought or two while getting prepared for the summer travel season...
products for our GMC's. Here are a couple I was thinking about while I was
swapping my final drive and doing front end maintenance these past couple
weeks.
1) Lug nut torque amplifier. For those of you who have ever tried to remove
the lug nuts from your wheels, its a real pain. It takes a breaker bar with
a long pipe on the handle. Just about the point where it feels like the
breaker bar is going to shatter, the nut lets go with a loud crack. What is
needed is a device that will straddle two lug nuts, one for leverage and
the other to be loosened. Maybe a ratio of 3 or 4 to one would be
sufficient to get enough torque to get the nuts loose without so much
effort. I have seen something along these lines but it cost something like
$300-$400. What we need is something simple and cheep like maybe in the
$100 range. Maybe just two gears, one large one welded to a 7/8" socket
(fits the lug nut) and a smaller gear welded to a socket with the inner
surfaces ground off (so it slides easily around a lug nut). If someone
knows of a cheap source of gears this may be doable. Maybe the timing gears
from a small one cylinder engine would be close??
2) Aerodynamic radiator fan. The fan blades on the GMC are made up of flat
sheet steel with a bit of a curve. This is not a very aerodynamically
efficient design. The result is a lot of turbulence around the blades
resulting in lost horsepower and excess noise. If a fan where designed that
had full airfoil blades optimized for the speed and load of the GMC it
should free up quite a bit of horsepower and be a lot quieter. It would
take some real engineering skill and a few real world measurements to
determine the aerodynamic loads placed on the fan. It could be an
interesting project for someone who knows a bit about propeller/fan design.
Maybe we could even interest a professor of automotive (or aerospace)
engineering to take it on as a design project for his students. Anyone know
any professors/teachers who are GMC lovers?? Maybe someone in the
engineering department or with friends in the engineering department?
Just a thought or two while getting prepared for the summer travel season...
