The wheel fender is a plate structure installed behind the outer frame of the wheel. It is usually made of high-quality rubber, but also made of engineering plastics. The wheel fender is usually installed on a metal baffle, a cowhide baffle, a plastic baffle or a rubber baffle behind the wheel of a bicycle or motor vehicle. Certainly, there are some drawbacks, so is it necessary to install it?

Are wheel fenders useful for cars?

Everyone thinks that the wheel fender on the car is very useful, which can block the muddy water thrown up by the wheels on rainy days, and keep the body clean. But almost all new cars are not equipped with wheel fenders when they leave the factory. Why is that? Is it because the auto factory has reduced the allocation?

In fact, it is not the reduction of the car factory, but the fender will affect the aerodynamic characteristics of the car, which will lead to the increase of the car's drag coefficient, the increase of fuel consumption, the increase of wind noise, and the deterioration of handling. How could this little fender have such a big side effect? Let's analyze it below:

Everyone knows that when a car is driving at a high speed, it will encounter a lot of air resistance. The data shows that when the car speed exceeds 80 km/h, the air resistance accounts for about 60% of the total resistance of the car; when the car speed exceeds 120 km/h, the air resistance accounts for about 80% of the total resistance of the car; When the vehicle speed exceeds 180 km/h, the resistance that the car receives is almost all air resistance, and other resistances are negligible compared to it.

In order to reduce the air resistance of the car, engineers usually design the car's appearance to be streamlined and make the bottom of the car as smooth as possible to speed up the flow of air and make the car have a relatively small drag coefficient. Therefore, many cars use some guard plates to wrap the chassis to make the chassis look like a whole piece.

If the car is equipped with a wheel fender, it will destroy the diversion design at the bottom of the car, hinder the flow of airflow at the bottom of the car, increase bottom turbulence, slow down the air flow speed, increase the drag coefficient of the car, and increase the tendency of the car to rise. Obviously, there will be a fluttering feeling when driving at high speed, and the wind noise of the car will increase significantly. According to the test data, if the four wheels of a car are equipped with 5cm long fenders, the more the drag coefficient of the car increases by 0.05, the more the car's fuel consumption increases by 10%.

Why do we need to install wheel fenders?

Since the side effects of fenders are so great, why don't auto manufacturers prohibit the installation of fenders? This is mainly because the fender mainly affects the high-speed performance of the car, but has little effect on the low-speed car. The vast majority of cars in the world are in low-speed driving conditions, even if the installation of wheel fenders does not increase the fuel consumption of the car significantly, and can prevent a part of muddy water from splashing on the body, making the car look more beautiful and clean.

So should this fender be installed?

Wheel fender exporter advice: If your car often runs at high speeds, it is not recommended to install it; if it is only used in cities, where the speed seldom exceeds 60 km/h, or often drives on muddy roads, you’d better install it.