indeed, oooooooold post. i thought it was BS, a myth. drafting without motoring, cause i know i HAVE tried. 2000# car with skinny tires on HOT days drafting behind semis real close, close enough actually that i could roll down the window reach out and grab the trailers bumper. perhaps i shoulda just done that and quit trying so hard?!
regardless, this summer i did it. totally by accident. a truly surreal experience.
3000# car, not so skinny tires with the engine idling. a bit of traffic that day,
i had to motor 3x because the Ryder box van which i was rolling behind had stepped
on the brakes. Correspondigly i had to react which rapidly increased distance between us.
And lemme tell you this was a gig i did not want to loose - considering having chased
after this elusive or should i say allusive "connection" for such a long time.
mind you there was a flatbed trailer between the truck and my vehicle, making for a less than perfect draft especially comparing to my than standard, highly vaseline reliant, shall i say hookups?!
High desert <3000' hot-n-dry (100*F+) late afternoon midsummer day.
flat road except for a slight 1/4 mile downhill at the beginning of the run.
very slight tailwind <5mph.
the journey lasted for FOUR MILES, its endurance was spent in disbelief
