[blueflame]

Some days everyone was drafting except me, the only hypermiler and ecomodder doing it slowly on my own.

So I decided to learn to draft properly and with more safety. Which was good as I was driving a slow diesel van with the aero's of a brick, and drafting really helps high CDa vehicles.

Side drafting is easy and safe. Sometimes in the middle of three lanes you get cars on both sides helping. Quite a technical skill as cornering on the extreme inside line(to reduce distances traveled), cross winds, leading vehicle shapes, beside road hillsides and windblocks, have to be constantly calculated.

Rear drafting at a good distance is perfectly safe and is better than no drafting at all.

Drafting at the right time begs consideration, especially in underpowered vehicles like Japanese diesel vans. If I was climbing a freeway hill and its going to be a strong headwind near the top, I would look for a lead vehicle prior to the accent which would allow the climb without needing to change down or reduce speed. Was a very courteous thing to do for other motorists who would have been inconvenienced by my slow van.

When boating I would always look for a wake to surf, or an island to get leeward of.

Doing a night drive Wellington to Auckland when gas was expensive, around 3am I saw 15 or so big rigs all drafting each other at around 65mph. Probably saved a stack of money. Really dangerous.

Dolphins draft up front, so the lead does benefit too