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Originally Posted by stillsearching
Surprised you retired the truck.  Did the economics not work out from something unexpected, or do you just have a much better project in mind? It seems like such a winner would still be in operation is all... |
Hi stillsearching -
The economics of the BulletTruck worked out better than I had ever imagined. We did not have a rear-of-trailer treatment (boat-tail) and we still had 2 "live" differentials, and we still averaged 13.4 mpg hauling freight during that big 8003 mile trip, that my dog and I did last summer. On that
one trip alone, we saved over $2500 in fuel. Here's the math: 8003 divided by 6.5 mpg = 1231 gallons x $4.00 per gallon = $4925. 8003 divided by 13.4 mpg = 597 gallons x $4.00 per gallon = $2389 fuel burn. $4925 minus $2389 = $2536 fuel saved, again on only that one trip. And I felt that we could have easily averaged 15 mpg or possibly a little more, with a "meatball" removed from the rear differential, and that boat-tail. Hell, everyone here at the forum knows exactly how important the rear of the vehicle treatment is.
But yes, the real reason that truck was retired, is that we do have a better project in mind. That being our next-generation, "scratch-built" rig. That, and the "I hate the trucking" part. I just like to build them. Not drive them for weeks at a time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stillsearching
For your "next project" concerning IP protection and all that, consider seriously trade dress protection... patenting is difficult (and expensive, and it's not like nobody has never designed an aero truck before), "first to market" without protection still gets ripped off by the big boys within months in most markets, but trade dress lets you protect a given shape and something too close to it is considered in violation. It's intended to prevent "confusingly similar" shapes, examples might be the iconic shape of certain liquor bottles, or shampoos which might be associated with one brand or another, i'm not positive but I thought the shapes of cars tend to often have this protection hence why they have to be licensed to appear in video games and such now.
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Thanks for the tip! I have never heard of that "trade dress protection". I will have to research that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stillsearching
Did you ever have a realtime MPG figure of running at 40mph for comparison, or 70mph with the same mods? Since you have the only example of an aeromodded semi that I know of i'm curious whether it follows the general formulas used for smaller trucks and cars.
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Nope. We only ran that truck at 55 mph. Except downhill, where I let it run-out to 70-75 mph, depending on the speed limit. I would guess the results would be the same as smaller trucks and cars. Physics is physics.