[Andyinchville1]

Hi All

I've been doing delivery work for a while now but recently I started having to do a bread run that's approximately 450 miles a day 5 days a week.

With that, I started thinking more about making my van more efficient in terms of miles per gallon since fuel usually runs me about $58 a day.

Anyways I realize a lot of people like the concept of boat tales and I like that too however I have to be able to access my cargo easily and quickly numerous times during the route ...
Actually 9 times in the course of one run.

Due to the fact that I have to access the cargo area numerous times a fixed boat tail would not be a practical option and have long since thought that trailer tails would be the ultimate solution ....

My plan was to build something like the stemco trailer tail except for a van ...

I don't have access to a lot of metals so I think I would make mine crudely out of 3/8 in marine grade plywood (I'm thinking a person can still paint over pressure treated plywood?)

I watched several YouTube videos on how trailer tails work and how they're deployed and folded up but the life of me my brain is not good enough to figure out what structures are in the middle to hold the trailer tail in position that allows them to fold up ...

I don't think it would be hard for me to cut the pieces I believe I would simply use 4x8 sheets of pressure treated plywood and I do have access to circular saws and jigsaws Etc so cutting the actual pieces would not be an issue

Interestingly enough the hinges on my Sprinter van already have holes in them so my thought was to tack weld some bolts from the backside forward giving a threaded connection on which to mount the plywood tails.

You have more support I think about taking a piece of flat metal stock maybe even angle iron to join the two holes together with a piece of angle iron therefore giving a large area on which to mount a hinge (possibly a full length piano type hinge) for added support on the plywood ends for the trailer tail as well as to fill in the gap created by the joint for better aerodynamics (I don't know how important it would be to maybe even glue a piece of rubber over the connection for less turbulence? Or just leave the hinge exposed?).

I would consider using piano hinges for all the connections of the flat pieces of wood in the construction of the trailer tail for a van.

I can see from the videos there's a lot of connecting rods and such to keep the trailer tail opened up and locked in place and that's the part that I'm having trouble visualizing or building .... In theory I could use all thread and clevis type ends for the connections so I think I could make the movable connections it's just I have to figure out or have a better idea of how to make everything fold open and locked in place.

Currently I can fold my doors back on the Sprinter van all the way to the body of the van however I realize once I add a little thickness to it I won't be able to fold it all the way back to flat and that's not a big issue I could always use hardware from enclosed cargo trailers to form a lock back of sorts or simply modify my magnetic door hold open mechanism on the Sprinter van and raise it out a little bit

Anyways, has anybody here tried putting a trailer tail onto a van? I'm looking to do that and I do have the regular run that I can do to check MPGs as far as improvements Etc

Currently I can get about 26 miles per gallon running at a steady 62 mph roughly ... I say roughly because to be perfectly honest I need to get disciplined more discipline and hold the constant speed on the highway but I find myself sometimes picking up the pace if I want to finish up a little earlier but probably on my next few runs I need to maintain a steady Pace throughout the entire run therefore getting a better baseline but I have done it for probably 3 weeks now and I'll have to look through all my paperwork as far as fuel receipts to get a rough average of MPGs now so I can see if or how much the trailer tail improves miles per gallon

Oh also in thinking about it I think I read somewhere with the optimal angle for a boat tail type situation is about 12 to 15°? Is that correct? .... I know you don't want flow separations and have also thought about adding some of those vortex generators before the tail? Would that be beneficial or is simply keeping the angle till about 12 to 15° sufficient?

I'm thinking the length of my trailer tail would be 4 ft because that's exactly the width of a piece of plywood from Lowe's or other home improvement place ...

Anyways any information on how to make the foldable part?

I did actually call the manufacturer of the trailer tails and I think I've read somewhere where they are no longer manufacturing them for trucks...

Thanks in advance for any and all help and I'll try to include some pictures and links

Oh last thing, the profile of my van body is not a perfect square or rectangle like a normal tractor-trailer trailer rather mine tapers towards the top I'm guessing I'll have to somehow bend the plywood a bit to make it more closely mimic the profile of the van? Also looking at the position of the hinges relative to the body work I might actually have a gap from where the flat part of the tail starts versus the flat part of the van so that Gap might be a few inches unless I somehow space it out a bit ... Will that Gap be seriously detrimental and when I say Gap I mean looking at the van from behind the tail may actually start inside of the tail lights as opposed to on the outside of the tail lights being more flush with the body of the van

Thanks.

PS one last thing I'm just now realizing it may not be easy to add pictures or links but I'll see if I can paste them here