Ecomodded trucks - ahead of their time
 

I came across a blog for truckers (actually, I believe it is British, so 'lorriers'?) and here are three blogs with interesting pictures:
Whatever happened to the aerodynamic Bedford concept trucks?
The super slippery Bedford TM 'Aero' Concept truck.
Truck aerodyamics...design sketches for Renault's Optifuel Lab.

I just saw my first aeromodded semi trailer on the road this morning actually. It had skirts between the front and rear tires.

The Bedford is not that impressive. I've seen slipperier Volvos out on the road.

The Renault is possible if the truck stays hooked to the same aero trailer. That is defeated by the fact that a trucker doesn't know what kind of trailer he will be pulling tomorrow. It also militates against the standard shipping container. Nice thought. Might work, but the real world wants no part of it.

No thread about aerodynamic trucks would be complete without Luigi Colani's trucks:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_hVOW2U7K4-M/Sh...4b924dc3_o.jpg

Most appear to be able to haul standard trailers. Oddly, I've seen no reports on fuel economy gains for these rigs.

Mike

Renault: I love it when someone who's never used a truck and is not schooled in aero designs an aerotruck.

Those Bedfords were ahead of their time back in the '70's, but today most new trucks are smoother aerodynamically, though still no wheel skirts.

You usually don't care about FE when riding in a work of art ;)

Those tri-wipers are awesome, but probably not the best for airflow over the windshield. And imagine the A/C load when the sun hits that greenhouse bubble...

In the late '80/earliy '90's I saw a tv show about a trucking company that made an aero tractor trailer combo. At a certain speed gap fillers extended out from the cab to the trailer & full length "wheel skirts" dropped down from the trailer. The trailer also had a truncated boat tail. For the life of me I can't remember the manufacturer or find any photo's.

Don

A while ago someone posted that Wal-Mart was going to add aero improvements to it's fleet and school it's drivers in saving fuel. Does anyone have any follow up on the project?

Since diesel has stabilized somewhat I wonder if the program was quietly dropped.