Quote:
Originally Posted by radioranger
I saw an article that showed a folding rear door cover on a big semi that brought the airflow in after the end of the trailer, question , has any one tried to add a extension to the top of the tailgate lip to effectively slowly bring the air back further before it mixes with the other turbulent air from under the truck I thought of this also because Chevy claims their new tailgate spoiler increases mileage,, the top plastic piece screwed to the tailgate has a flat extended surface, why not stretch it back a foot more or whatever will work , same thing under the rear bumper , add a piece of material to extend the airflow further back any ideas seems like an easy mod, or a flat bed cover could stretch back past the gate.
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The above company won a phase I & II Small Business Innovation Research grant from From DARPA to develop the same sort of thing for 18-wheelers.
They created flat panels which extend straight back,top,sides,and bottom,which capture a locked vortex against the outer face of which the outer flow field skips over,as inside a pickup bed with the gate up.
I did a model study of it and it looked good in the little wind tunnel for what it is.
There would be a very high confidence of success when applied to pickups.
The gap-filler portion of my trailer project is very similar.When closed in to form a short boat-tail they absolutely work.