Has anyone come up with a way to reduce road splash on the windows, mirrors ahead of front wheels on a transit style bus? I believe my Thomas FEs are the worst in this regard. Can't do much about the size of the wheel opening but wondering about the 3/4" plus length of wheel stud that extends past the nut.
Do you have the optional rubber fender extensions? I'm told it helps.
One district in my area hung used those mud and splash guards that look like a brush or grass skirt.... around wheel opening on hood and rear wheel opening to keep mud/splash under bus...
Not sure where one aquires those from, except they remind me of the ones I have seen hanging on rear bumpers of pickups to keep road splash and dirt off your camper or towed trailer...Also seen them used on semi trailers for keeping road spray to a minimum...
The flat front of a FE or RE school bus causes a slight vacuum along the of the bus causing wet road spray to be thrown up and forward from the tire that extends out to the side of the body. Mirrors mounted in that vacuum location will compound the problem by adding additional vacuum swirling air. I prefer a curved windshield with mirrors mounted ahead of the windshield.
It has always been my impression that Thomas school bus bodies are slightly narrower than others. If that is true, Thomas should have the rubber fender extensions as standard on all school buses that have tires that extend out flush with the side of the bus. The Lion school bus body will not have that problem with their 102" wide body compared to the old industry standard of 96". Double Nickel style mirrors should be mounted with maximum space between the mirrors to allow air to pass between the mirrors to help break the vacuum swirl.
We had an IC FE bus that did not have a latch on the fluid check door in front of the drivers front tire, the air currents were always blowing it open. We do have the rubber fender extensions. I have noticed that the wheel openings on a Bluebird FE are quite a bit smaller to the point that you would likely have to flex the rubber fender extensions in order to remove the wheel and tire.
As an experiment on one Thomas FE: I spread the drivers side mirrors apart to the max, now 4" between them instead of 2". I also trimmed 3/4" off of the end of the wheel stud that extended past the lug nut on the drivers side. Will see if it makes any noticeable differance.
Road Splash, mirrors, transit style bus
Posted - 02/01/2016 : 04:07:57 AM
