Quote:
Originally Posted by aerohead
Rick,at 75 the engine may be seeing the best island of efficiency on it's BSFC map.
Anything you do to close the void between the truck and trailer should pay dividends.Get the trailer into a '2-car NASCAR draft' so to speak.
Appreciate the heads up.It's very good news!  |
I'm really glad you did this, as it corroborates my suppositions about modding a cheap Harbor Freight flatbed trailer for motorcycle hauling.
In that case, the ~$200 trailer could be upgraded with decent wheel bearings, as the stock ones are dirt.
Then, increase floor space with elliptical plywood floor on the tongue, an otherwise wasted area, enclosed with elliptical fairing of coroplast. Enclose axle and wheel wells accordingly, then teardrop or von Kamm tail. So, 4X8 rectangular bed grows to ~5X 12 teardrop bed. Coroplast has hollow flutes, so to stiffen it will accept wood dowel rods of appropriate diameter.
Coroplast is translucent, so maybe LED light strings could be inserted into flutes for brake and running lights.
This would be a very light trailer, and with such improvements in streamlining and NASCAR draft effect, it is conceivable that highway fuel economy might be better than with no trailer.
Problems to overcome would include the wall/roof intersections, but sculpted styrofoam or polyurethane foam would work, if faced with fiberglass.