How come we dont see more electric fans on diesels?

I cant imagine a large fan (16") or a couple mid sized (12") fans couldnt keep up. They can push/pull a lot of air if you get good ones.

 

Thats a good question, plus u gain a few ponys and torque. Is it worth the payoff...idk

 

Because they dont work, dont add enough to justify the hassle and the factory system works perfect.

 

My guess would be because;
1) they arent adequate enough
2) the factory fan works just fine
3) there's no lack of power, thus no need to scrape up extra ponies

 

"They dont work" ????

Thats not true. They do work. What do you mean.

 

i had elec fans made for our trucks. don't know if you could tell any difference in power unless it was on a dyno, but it did save maybe 2 gal. on a 620 mi. trip i make to my cabin in w.v. i took them off because i don't trust them. once the 30 amp fuse that came with them melted without blowing. what kind of draw caused that? anyway as others here have stated in the past, they don't move the cfms of the stock unite, which you need if towing or running hard in hot weather. a little power or economy isn' worth the risk. thats how i see it, could be wrong.

 

I dont have no fan at all on mine,works good so far, electric fans would work fine

 

More info please....where do you live? and how long have you had no fan?

 

Jersey, ditched the fan 9/15/11

 

Several people have tried it and it didn't work for towing. If you browse the RV forums you might run across some of those threads. One guy installed an electric fan for a cross country trip thinking he would save on fuel and his truck kept over heating. He had to have his fan shipped to him so he could finish his trip. I think the OEM fan pulls over 10,000 cfm and uses about 25 hp at full lock up. Normal mode pulls around 4 hp I think...

A pair of electric fans pull about 6,500 cfm and draw about 36 amps. You would probably have to upgrade the alternator in order to keep up with the power draw. Doesn't seem worth the effort IMO...especially when you consider that diesel engines have so much rotating mass that small loads such as alternators, A/C compressors and cooling fans have little to no effect on fuel mileage. I get a little better fuel mileage during the summer with the A/C on 100% of the time compared to the winter with the A/C on only during defrost cycles. So that means that winter blend fuels have more effect on fuel mileage than running the A/C compressor all the time. I never would have guessed that to be the case. So, I figure that the OEM fan isn't much of a power draw either...until it locks up, and then you will be glad you have that thing under the hood.

If you tow, then you want the OEM fan. If not then you can get by with an electric or no fan at all. My wife drove around the Phoenix area for 2 months in the dead of the summer with a very loose fan clutch and her truck didn't overheat once.

 

I used to be a transmission cooling engineer at Ford. Electric fans will work fine replacing the stock fan as long as you don't run the truck anywhere near maximum load, or on a steep grade, and especially not on a hot day.

We had to test at maximum GCWR, up a 12 mile long 8% grade. It often was +115°F during the test. An electric fan couldn't move anywhere near as much air as the stock fan and could not cool the truck under those conditions.

 

No... They do not work... I know this, because I helped install a set... then several months later helped remove them.

Because they did not work.

 

They did not work for you.

They do work. They have been used for YEARS in the automotive industry as cooling fans. Saying "They dont work" is BS quite frankly. A much more appropriate response would be "they dont work sufficiently for our application."

 

I can see how you might think that buddy, but if you look at your very specific question, his answer due to the specificity of your question, was worded appropriately.

A very specific, direct question that was answered appropriately.

If you had asked a generalized question about electric fans, then I could see where specificity would be needed in Joe's answer.

Example:


Stewart

 

I respectfully disagree.

Lets remove all pronouns and see how things look.

He still would have had to say Simply saying electric fans dont work is a blanket statement, and I hate blanket statements.