How do you handle EXTREME tailgaters?

[johnunit]

as for drafting vs. tailgating:

I've followed a truck long enough in the Prius to notice a clear efficiency difference (10+% at the same speed, similar weather, etc. on the same trip), and ended up at the same gas station as the truck I was drafting. I identified myself as the owner of the green Prius that had been behind him for most of the last hour or so, and said I was trying to find a sweet spot between making him uncomfortable and not benefitting from his wake. He said he'd been quite ok with me being behind him, and said something about preferring my behind him at the same speed as him vs. people coming up on his butt on the hills.

As plenty of other people have said in this thread and elsewhere:
There is absolutely a distance where you can follow MOST trucks in MOST situations where you are not annoying the trucker but are gaining worthwhile efficiency.

While I'm not good about keeping fuel logs, I've also noticed what seems to be better mileage while safely drafting large trucks in my much wider, less aerodynamic, more powerful 85 Ford Crown Victoria. "Safely" in this case meaning I was comfortable and could not discern any annoyance from the trucker.


There are some people on here who seem to have downright reckless (at least on any road near me) driving techniques. Personally I would absolutely NOT use pulse and glide on any major highway. Varying your speed to that degree, especially if you're letting it dip much below the speed limit, will throw even many attentive drivers off. It's also worth noting that if you're getting marginally better fuel economy in your already efficient car at the expense of encouraging or even forcing (in the case of a difficult passing manouever) heavy foots in gas guzzlers, you may be doing more harm than good. Ie. pissing off an SUV driver every quarter mile and making them slow down then floor it to get around you might save YOU a couple cents per mile of gas, but he's burning 15 cents to get around your slowpoke but. Laugh at him all you want, but he's drinking from the same trough as you and he likely would have kept a steady speed if it weren't for you.

Put more simply: A 2 lane (each way) road with one guy doing 55 and 49 cars doing 75 is likely consuming more more gas than a road of 50 cars doing 75. It might be largely due to the stupidity of those other 49 cars, but it's still gas usage and it's still something with you as the root cause.

[Ladogaboy]

Originally Posted by slowmover

The mirrors on both sides, Bub. You won't stay visible is otherwise the point.

I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to say here. If I am not visible in BOTH mirrors, I'm not visible?

Regardless, if I can see the driver in one of his mirrors, he can see me. And that is good enough for me.

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by slowmover

...Which is why I take umbrage at the truck drafting threads which assume the concerns of the truck driver are non-existent. Petty, if they actually exist, by comparison to someone elses tiny profit. But, hey, this is America.

*(looks round, notices large presence of tartan, deep fried food and either cat strangling or bagpipes)

OH no it isn't... - its Scotland

Originally Posted by johnunit

....There are some people on here who seem to have downright reckless (at least on any road near me) driving techniques. Personally I would absolutely NOT use pulse and glide on any major highway....

I use it regularly on motorways and bypasses (equivalent of US highways in tartan land) regularly with very few problems at all. As with anything - drafting, merging, overtaking etc. - a little common sense is needed. Those who just do it and "everyone else can just accept it" are going to get into trouble. If you pick your places and circumstances carefully there is no problem. Personally I keep my engine on.

As for visibility I try and establish contact with the driver of a truck or bus I'm following, but I use it for lowering drag (still using the 2 second rule) and also as a warning to other drivers that someone is going slow - they may miss seeing me but this bloody great truck...

...yeah some of them fail to spot that too.

[ps2fixer]

Interesting stories in this thread, I guess I'll throw my little story in too .

I go to work late at night (3rd shift), and once I had someone right me with their bright lights on wanting to go 65 or so in a 55. I figured no big deal and dropped my speed from 60 down to 55 to try to give the hint to pass since tapping the brakes didn't work. I had a turn comming up so I did a long glide to the corner with my blinker on, since I didn't feel it to be safe to do my normal driving (before driving for better mpg). Funny thing is, they came around the corner as well, so I took my time speeding up to around 45mph, mind you this is in the middle of the night, no cars around, 90% passing zones. I ended up just letting off the gas and coasting till they passed which was around 30mph. That is the only time I had someone not willing to pass where I nearly had to get off the road for them, which I was going to do if they didn't pass me.

When ever I get someone on my tail end in a big hurry or someone with their bright lights on, I'll try to tap my breaks, if that don't work then I drop ~10mph under the speed limit. I have not had anyone not get the hint since the above story, but if they still won't pass my next plan of action would be to find a place that would be safe to pull off the road and just glide till either they pass or I get off the road and make them pass.

[Arragonis]

Good plan - its useful to have THEM where you can see THEM

[bestclimb]

38) Drafting: close behind (not recommended!)
1) At highway speeds there's no doubt that driving close behind a large vehicle dramatically reduces fuel consumption. 2) It's a stupid thing to do.

It's not recommended for many reasons, not the least of which is that it's illegal in most areas, and doing so sacrifices the foundation of safe and defensive driving: your ability to see well ahead.


What part of the bold not recommended are people missing?

anyhow, while it is fun to tweak the obnoxious tailgating types it is simply not worth the risk to me and mine to get them seeing red(which is entirely too easy) there is more than enough anger and people with anger management issues in this world as it is.

[Arragonis]

The bit in bold because there isn't any bold.

But yeah, it is in there.

[bestclimb]

in the 100+ tips it is bold right along with the words Drafting: close behind

[Arragonis]

No bold here though, but your point is well made.

[Sven7]

Haven't we established that we're going to call safe distances "following" now, because it's not close enough to be "drafting"? Kind of a way to differentiate between safe and unsafe. CFD results in another thread showed a significant improvement in MPG at two or even three seconds back at highway speed. This is not drafting- it's taking advantage of someone else's wake, safely. Following.

Let's use these terms separately instead of regarding all drafting and following as "OMG drafting dangerous suicide!!1!!!!11!" There is a safe way to do it and still reap the benefits- using the 2 second rule- and we call it "following".

That said, if truck drivers have a problem with you following too closely they will let you know by changing lanes or, if you don't get the message, slowing down drastically. Look out for these signs if you're following.