Aero Semi-truck butt......

[mcrews]

Originally Posted by Smurf

It's always amazed me that an industry driven by cost-per-mile would have almost the exact same MPG today that they had 40 years ago. Considering a 1-mpg increase is actually about a 14% increase...

YOu are spot on.
I think that your comment is a perfect example of how 'culture' can drive an economy.
Truck drivers tend to be a very'tough' crowd
It certainly destroys the 'simplisctic' supply and demand concept taught in college.

[Smurf]

Around here, they haul a lot of sugar beets in those hopper-bottom trailers. Years ago, I thought if someone wrapped a tarp real tight around the trailer there would be fuel mileage benefit, and now I'm seeing companies produce the wraps.

Progress?

[Xist]

Wait until they find out that there is a truck on the road spending half as much on fuel!

[mcrews]

I know!
Might be like watching evolution condensed into 5-10yrs!

[some_other_dave]

Originally Posted by Sven7

Got a source on that? Interesting.

Sorry, just my memory of the NASA-Ames "Astrogram" newsletter. They had an article on wind-tunnel testing of trailer designs either in the 40x80 wind tunnel, or at the big Computational Fluid Dynamics center. The illustration that went along with the article showed two "flaps" off the end of the trailer compared to a boat-tail design. The two flaps were about 80% as effective.

-soD