Aero Trailer? Could it help FE?

[fud2468]

MetroMPG, beautiful design, but in order to be legal, both towing vehicle and trailer would have to have lights and plainly visible license plates that would create drag, even if faired.
Trailer could have a small kammback area to display a plate vertically, but not the car.
Ray Mac

[COcyclist]

It looks like there are design problems with trying to build articulated gap fillers that allow a vehicle with a trailer to turn corners and go over dips and bumps. I was looking at Phil Knox photo albums in Pickups and found this page from a study of truck bed aerodynamics.

Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - aerohead's Album: Pickup images - Picture

In the study, a truck with a fairing on the cab and a partial cover on the bed was almost as aerodynamic as a full boatail on the bed. It made me wonder if a Kamm back like Metrompg's and a trailer like AndrewJ's would be almost as good and a lot less complicated than trying to completely fill the gaps between vehicle and trailer. I'm hoping to build something like this myself to haul bicycles and camping gear. Roof mounting bikes clearly kills mileage.

[COcyclist]

Sorry, "a Kamm back like Metrompg's and a trailer like bbjsw10's" at the start of this thread.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by fud2468

MetroMPG, beautiful design

Oh, that Insight/trailer design study is Phil's, not mine.

[Cd]

Here is an AeroFlea illustration with a single wheel trailer and canvas or some sort of stretchy rubber fabric that buttons onto the vehicles ( like the spandex idea ).

The trailers' plate is visible at the back of the trailer, but the cars' plate would be covered now that I think about it . I wonder if you could mount it on the 'roof' of the spoiler so that it is visible - just have it at an angle. ( ??? )

( There is always something to make things difficult ! )

The tail-lights on the car are visible, but you would have to have something fancy done with the back-up lights to have them visible as well.
Also the third brake light would have to be dealt with - I was thinking a thin, low profile one like you see on the tops of spoilers would be ideal.
The top half of the trailer could have a lexan window that is attached at the flex point with the same flexible vinly material that Bassjoos used on V.1 of his boattail.

Another thing that could be added for safety would be some side marker lights and maybe even some caution tape that is visible at night, but doesn't look too odd in the daytime.

( I also dropped the ride height )

[bennelson]

(Commenting on the above image)

Wow, it's like if Basjoos designed the Batmobile!

[metromizer]

Here's an idea:
Whil considering construction methods for an areo-trailer, pick up a copy of Harold Peyson's "Instant Boats", he has other titles as well.

A buddy of mine turned me on to Harold's approach about 15 years ago when I was thinking about building a duck boat. It's something he calls the "Stitch-n-glue method" of building boat hulls with little or no frame and no mold or buck. You build from flat sheets of luan door skin (super strong yet thin mahogany plywood available everywhere), epoxy and associated fillers from Westsystems (any West Marine store), and a little fiberglass cloth as an overlay. It's not the true compound curves you could get if building a foam plug, a mold, then a shell from fiberglass, but not nearly the investment in time or money, either.

[Lincoln]

I have been wanting one of these UHAUL trailers for a while.
Performance Design | Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Product Design, Car Design, Web Design, Transportation Design | Cave Creek, Arizona | Phoenix, Arizona

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Lincoln

I have been wanting one of these UHAUL trailers for a while.
Performance Design | Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Product Design, Car Design, Web Design, Transportation Design | Cave Creek, Arizona | Phoenix, Arizona

I looked at one of these locally.The U-Haul people said they were rented mostly by fraternity guys to carry iced-down beer to outings.While dramatic in styling with respect to "conventional" trailers,they kinda miss the mark aerodynamically.For the distance behind the host vehicle,the exit aperture of the trailers tail makes for a rather large wake.Nothing is done to address the enormous gap,with its attendant high turbulence,between car and trailer.And potential for increased and usable cargo space is wasted.----------- As neighbor Bob would say,"it's way out ahead of nothin' ",it could be remarkably improved upon.So far,very few seem to understand the potential of a trailer for virtual profile drag elimination.-------------- That doesn't mean you couldn't modify it though! You could do a lot worse.

[Cd]

I didn't even realize that with a single wheel trailer, the wheel on the trailer turns with the car, so you can actually have side panels attached to your car and take a full turn !

What are the latest laws regarding trailers and what must be visible ? I see lots of trucks with trailers that obscure vision of the actual vehicles tail lights and plates.
It's too bad that the vehicles plates have to show - I wonder if they could somehow be attached to the trailer ( which would have one set for the vehicle, and one for the trailer itself.