Respects for a few 18 Wheelers.
 

So this week I had drove over 1K miles through the I90E/W and QEW Toronto. During those trips, I drafted behind a handful of cool 18 Wheelers. These guys knows that I was drafting behind them and they were being very helpful also. For instance, whenever the trucks passes someone, he/she speed to 80MPH. When he/she passed over and returned to the same lane, he/she speed up a bit and left some room for me. Whenever they are leaving the interstate, I would drive next to them and pressed the horn. Always get 2 horn taps from them after.

On another note, there are a-hole truckers. These guys would not let you draft behind them. Whenever they see you drafting, they would put on emergency flashers and slow down. And when you passed them, they would turn the flashers off.

I wouldn't let someone draft behind my CRX, :p. My aunt used to be good friends with a trucker who liked to tell the "one day someone was tailgating me and wouldn't get out from behind me so when a lost a tread it went through their windshield" story. It's just not a fun chance to take, for either party.

I also don't draft and do recommend against it (for safety reasons mentioned above and many more not mentioned).

But based on some reading I've done, one reason I think some truckers are opposed to the practice isn't for safety reasons but out of a mistaken belief that by catching their draft, you're increasing their fuel consumption.

When going back and forth between the Bay Area and LA I like "surf" them. Highway only has two lines, with the right lane being predominately used by truckers, so I'd just ride up behind them to a point, pass them then ride up the next one. It does make some of them skirterish but having a CB helps in that regard.

Well, I don't draft that close to them. Usually 2-3 cars length.

Yeah, i think 3 car lengths is a good distance and acording to mythbusters(i like the show and i don't care what you say lol) it still has a payoff of like 15-20% increase.

If you drop your Cd low enough, then drafting provides little benefit towards increasing your mileage.

I thought about drafting, if I were not already going slower than most semis... :turtle:

I draft semi's everyday. Some will say that you should only be as close as you feel safe. Well, I may or may not have driven just a few feet from a couple before. I have a CB and i use it for just about everyone of them. I get 16~17mpg doing 60-65, not drafting, and most of the time i can go 70 and draft a trucker, and get 18~19 per tank. But most of the time I stay about a trailer length back. I have noticed trucks that run doubles or triples, their is a difference in air turbulence. Single trailers, don't have too much air pushing me left and right pretty stable, the 2+ and liquid haulers seem to have some unstable turbulent air because i can feel like constant wind on the side