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Aerodynamic Trucks Save Fuel and Money

Written by Philip Proefrock on 09/04/11

trailertail

As gas prices rise, more attention is again being paid to making transport trucks more fuel efficient. New trucks with hybrid or electric drive may be an option. For existing fleets, however, the quickest payback probably comes from making the vehicles more aerodynamic.

Most trailer trucks have tall, squared-off ends which produce a lot of drag and make the truck less efficient. Manufacturer ATDynamics is now producing an origami-like product called TrailerTail that can be attached to the trailer in order to improve fuel efficiency and economy. "TrailerTail delivers 6.6% fuel savings at 65 mph according to SAE type II J1321 third-party tests and is compatible with all major dry van and refrigerated trailer configurations." ATDynamics has several components that can improve the aerodynamic efficiency of tractor-trailer trucks.

Ideas like this have been explored in recent years with university research and studies at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These products are now becoming commercially available, and will likely be seen more often in the coming years.

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written by J, April 09, 2011
How do these stay out of the way when loading and unloading trucks and do you have to detach them to open the doors-if so about how long do they take to put back on. I'm just wondering if the fuel savings make up for the extra time to use it. If they are either easy to detach and reattach or if they just fold out of the way-this is a great step forward in transportation
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Aerodynamic idea
written by Sue, April 09, 2011
Wouldn't it be more efficient to take some of the power from the engine of the truck to create an electrostatically countrolled boundary effect layer on the outside surface of the truck body? It probably wouldn't take more than 2-5kW of energy to do this. Saves on plastic fairings and crap to break.
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written by me, April 09, 2011
Click on the TrailerTail link and you'll see how easily the origami-like tail folds.
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It took about 4 seconds to find this information, why didn't you just look for it?
written by Garrett, April 09, 2011
According to their website, the TrailerTail "Opens and closes in 4 seconds"

In the video and in pictures it shows that it's actually two pieces, one on each side, and they fold to be flat on the door, without covering the door-opening mechanism, so the only time you have to worry about is the time it takes to install them, which I imagine isn't that bad, either.
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written by jcsr, April 09, 2011
With the price of fuel climbing with no relief in sight it is obvious long haul trucking is becoming inefficiemt no matter how many contraptions experts come up with. Many independent truckers are already giving up,
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written by june, April 11, 2011
If they are either easy to detach and reattach or if they just fold out of the way-this is a great step forward in transportation.
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written by Environment911, April 11, 2011
A good concept, glad they thought of the back being able to fold, that would have greatly lowered my view on it's efficiency. It's a good method to cut down on fuel usage, but finding an alternative method of transport altogether would be ideal. Still, as an effort to help lower the environmental footprint of transport, hats off to TrailerTail for having done their part.
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electrostatically countrolled boundary effect layer
written by kootzie, April 20, 2011
@Sue I am totally curious about your reference to:
electrostatically countrolled boundary effect layer

I did a bit of searching but turned up no strong links to aerodynamics
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finally
written by Paulo, April 21, 2011
We've seen this type of thing employed on cars like the honda civic and getting incredible improvements. The impact on shipping fleets where they put down many more miles should be incredible positive... that's if it does as well as what it claims.

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