Quote:
Originally Posted by Clev
Read your blog post you referenced about reaction time. My concern is not with the truck braking so much as the truck seeing something in the road (like a tire tread.) He's high enough to clear it, but you may not be, and might sustain some damage.
If I did a lot of cross-country driving (where it would make sense to make the effort to draft a lot), I might get a CB and ask ahead of time if I can draft. Some truckers are more amenable to this than others, but all appreciate being asked first.
That said, I do draft at 75-150 feet (depending on speed) during my commute, for 2-5 minutes at a time.
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I can't disagree with your concern. I think it was in this forum where another poster mentioned that, for all the concern expressed about the safety of drafting and how trucks react to it, he was much more likely to see a truck at an extremely close distance in his rear view mirror than his windshield. I do understand that such a truck will see over my car and know about obstacles ahead in a way that I can't when drafting, but they sure do drive up my bumper. In other fora, truck drivers complain about car drivers who draft them, how unsafe it is, how it could affect their ability to earn an income should a drafting car hit them, etc.
In any event, I haven't found it to be one of the sharpest knives in my fuel saving drawer - finding the perfect truck at the right speed for any significant length of time is quite rare.