jaluhn83
Full Access Member
Electric fans work okay most of the time for most people.... problem is that small amount of time where they don't. If you're in Alaska you're problem fine even running heavy.... or if you never pull heavy even in the desert you should be fine. But can you say for sure that you'll never be towing heavy on a steep hill in warm weather? The thing to realize is that you get a very large amount of airflow simply due to road speed - at 60 mph a rough calculation give ~16,000 cfm. So if you can keep up a decent speed you have enough airflow for cooling even at high load. But when you slow down you start to loose that which is where the fan comes in. However, if the fan isn't strong enough and it starts to overheat you slow down more... losing more airflow - so until you slow down enough to where the heat rejection from the engine load is low enough that the fan can move enough air you'll continue to overheat. In practice this means going up hill very very slowly or stopping to cool the engine frequently - neither of which are easy/safe in many situations. This also means that it's easy to think you have enough cooling air and not actually have enough should you get caught by the wrong conditions and start the overheating cycle....
IMHO, the electric fan setup just isn't worthwhile for most rigs. If you can live with the potential limitations than it's workable, but at the same time you really don't gain anything. The cost of the fan(s), wiring, controls, upgraded alternator, etc is likely going to not be much less than a replacement fan clutch should that be the concern, and IMHO most fan clutches can be fixed with the $4 fan trick (refilling the oil) for much less cost and hassle anyway. Another reason i have seen is to save power/fuel, which is logical but overlooks the actual numbers. From rough calculations I expect the actual fan power to be something on the order of 5-10hp fully locked, which is fairly negligible overall considering other losses, wind area, etc. Further, under most conditions it's far less - likely on the order of 1 hp or less unlocked, which is again minimal.
You can also install thin smaller fans in front of the radiator which is what I have - this give a speed/rpm independent air flow for the AC condenser and is relatively cheap and easy.
IMHO, the electric fan setup just isn't worthwhile for most rigs. If you can live with the potential limitations than it's workable, but at the same time you really don't gain anything. The cost of the fan(s), wiring, controls, upgraded alternator, etc is likely going to not be much less than a replacement fan clutch should that be the concern, and IMHO most fan clutches can be fixed with the $4 fan trick (refilling the oil) for much less cost and hassle anyway. Another reason i have seen is to save power/fuel, which is logical but overlooks the actual numbers. From rough calculations I expect the actual fan power to be something on the order of 5-10hp fully locked, which is fairly negligible overall considering other losses, wind area, etc. Further, under most conditions it's far less - likely on the order of 1 hp or less unlocked, which is again minimal.
You can also install thin smaller fans in front of the radiator which is what I have - this give a speed/rpm independent air flow for the AC condenser and is relatively cheap and easy.