Vortex Generators

Larger companies keep track of fuel efficiency of their fleet.

I've seen KI's fleet have them. I recall that they have awards given out for the best fuel mileage. You would get any of these people tipping their hand to any competitors.

Haven't seen any on the trucks of Schneider National's fleet.

I've never noticed any vortex generators on trucks on the road, but I wasn't particularly looking for them. I guess it's possible that they haven't caught on yet.

This study with a very limited data set showed an apparent 5-8 percent reduction in fuel consumption.

I think we can now "Save the Planet!"

5% from air-tabs, another 5% for airfoil panels, another 20% for slip-streaming a convoy, another 30% for using hydrogen fraction with diesel, another 40% for load management, and another 10% for not sitting idling the engine, and all of a sudden the saddle tanks just start filling themselves! LOL

I feel "safer" already.

It's similar to that math they use to show how many people die from such and such events or disease every year.

If you add up the totals as the media reports them the whole world population would have to die and be replaced every 5 - 10 years.

I say it's more like golf clubs and swing tips and "the latest killer driver" that is guaranteed to add up to 50 yards to every drive.

And the latest and greatest $400.00USD putter that will make you "putt like the pros".

If all this crap really helped and you bought it all, then you should be shooting 18 every time you golf.

It would simplify a caddie's life, too. One killer driver, one killer wedge, and one killer putter. Done deal.

At those prices, the ball better have on-board targeting capability. And it needs to come with a tool to adjust each club to the situation at hand.

Even with all that, I doubt anyone other than a leading pro could ace a long par 5, so the new par would be more like 36 to 40 on an 18 hole round of golf. If everyone aced every hole, the game of golf would have to take a different name, not 4 letters long, and there would be no point in it. I suggest: pointless.

We call that mini-golf.

Or just a 7 iron

If you split all the differences, maybe that's the one!

Lol, my sister loves golf, she takes golf lessons, takes vacations and brings her dam clubs with her, she had drivers with the head of the driver that looks like a freaking snow shovel.

i went golfing with her and her husbands, and she did nothing but complain. I didn't say anything. But I had some good shots, and some bad shots (off the fairway) but a good shot behind some 25 foot cedars and onto the greens.

i did say anything, but her afterwards, she was complaining that she's 'off' at golfing.

i just said, I'm not that good, which her husband said, no way, he saw some of the shots I did. Guess he was watching. Well my sister was saying about her expensive clubs. She asked me, what kind of clubs I have, and I told her 'Sams Clubs'. Her husband got the joke, but I did get it at Sams Club.

she paid about twice the amount for one driver, than I did for the whole set.

I learned that in only about 20 minutes.

My dad in his later years, traveled and visited relatives with my younger sister. Where she would help him cipher where to go and things like that. Both had a lot of fun, especially when things get a little screwed up. Some very funny stories when they came back.

My older sister, the golf enthusiast was I'd say a little jealous, she would like to get invited along, but it was never that way, you just go.

Anyways, they were going to Arizona and she finally did go along. She brought her clubs. The air line informed her that she have to pay an extra $25.00 baggage fee for her clubs. Not a problem right? Wrong.

So what she did, she took my dads clothes out of his suit case and stuffed them in her golf club bag. My sister thought she was teasing until they got to Arizona and dads luggage didn't come out.

My younger sister asked her "how could she do such a thing?".

Her reply was" "Dad's old, no one minds when old people wear wrinkled clothes."

Not true, dad cares.

Unfortunately, Dad stopped traveling after that. Created a little rift between dad and my older sister, which she couldn't understand why.

Every few years when she's saying how great her golf game has been lately, now and again, I'll take my Sam's Clubs golf clubs out and go golfing with her, I'd literally wipe the dust off my clubs from being in storage in front of her on the first hole tee off... and then rather nonchalantly proceed to bury her.

Never told my dad that, but I told my younger sister, who thought that was hilarious, and then as a typical little sister went to dad to 'squeal' on me.

One time on a family gathering, dad would say, that both me and my older sister should go golfing.

siblings...

They only named it "golf" because the other four letter words were in use (at the golf course).

You are exactly right! Genius!

A driver with vortex generators is exactly what is needed!

• Review: Ping G30 Driver

By Zak Kozuchowski -

The first thing golfers will notice when they pick up a G30 driver is that its crown has six small ridges that the company calls “turbulators.”

I suspect the next improvement to sbulc flog will be the turbo-encabulator.

That's Jim, I can't stand golfing with him, he wants to ride with you in the cart with that thing strapped on.

One time, he was golfing where his ball lied, it was on a hill, he fell down and rolled all the way down the hill.

That sounds like Jim had more in his bag that just regular golf clubs.

just drive downhill for instant savings

Same as in golf!!!

That back nine is a bear, though....

I have seen them on some trucks, but not many. I do look at trucks when I'm on the road just out of curiosity and plain old boredom at times. It's been interesting to see how truck design has changed over the last 30 years.

That is an interesting study, but a back-to-back test with the same tractor-trailer combination in an instrumented wind tunnel would be much better. I wonder how one would instrument something to get the Cd on a vehicle that large and heavy?

NASA published this back in 2010.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2010/10-13AR.html

With the video of some of the testing

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4056735/?#sp=show-clips

This video below shows the wedge thing just in front of the trailer's rear tires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3xYJDLv_iU

This video describes the aero fixes I've seen the most on the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzUapgfgeU

An advert for TrailerTail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80waHuFQA6s

An advert for the Airtabs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f80a9jssUFU

The article below appears to be a refreshingly unbiased assessment of the aero testing for trucks.

http://www.truckinginfo.com/article/story/2015/03/the-slippery-slope-of-aerodynamic-testing.aspx

Especially read the part titled "Is 'similar' good enough?" for some critical review of people claiming to have tested "their product" using the SAE J1321 test.

This is why an instrumented test in a wind tunnel on the same truck, with and without the aerodynamic doo-dad would be the acid test of effectiveness.

I've been seeing more of these on the road all the time. I would think it would lessen drag.

the best vid I could find to explain this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP-YUDe9HF0

..."Meanwhile, makers of trailer-smoothing products already on the market – Airtab vortex generators and the Nose Cone trailer fairing – say they're selling well, but not to the big fleets that stand to save the most in fuel money. Even with recent spikes in diesel fuel prices, fleet managers remain skeptical of claimed cost savings and cite maintenance and operating reasons for refusing to consider the devices.

Owner-operators, small fleets here and overseas, and owners of recreational vehicles are the ones who buy Airtabs and Nose Cones, company representatives say."...

http://www.truckinginfo.com/article/story/2006/03/tractor-trailer-aerodynamics.aspx

I probably wouldn't if it made the rig look hokey....just tack on the cost of fuel...

"Nussbaum is streamlining its trailers looking to save money on fuel. Skirts, TrailerTails and a few other modifications together save close to 1 mpg."

http://www.truckinginfo.com/article/story/2014/10/full-length-skirts-add-fuel-savings-for-nussbaum.aspx

These designs that promise to double the mileage in a computer simulation would have to be proven in the field first....anybody can make outlandish claims and point to the computer screen and say, see....

https://www.wired.com/2011/06/36281/

If this bolt on kit doubled the fuel mileage and looked cool, then I would have to seriously consider the investment....

Volvo claim 30% improvement but don't quantify how they measure that.

Maybe they got smart and install on board hydrogen-on-demand generators to improve diesel fuel economy, and still remained anonymous.

These what? Vortex shedding surfaces? Airfoils? Streamers behind the box van or trailer?

Get Elon Musk to install a giant tube, and hook up a Dyson to suck out all of the air, or just have Hillary show up and suck all the air out of the room connected to the tube.

Then there will be no vortex to shed, and no drag.

More seriously, I thought those things were to prevent sucking motorcycles under the trailer. I have no idea how the ones on the end of the trailer were supposed to affect motorcyclists.

Probably the best bet, make a dedicated highway just for the trucks, have them all interconnect when they are self-driving to a similar destination. have switched exits so each truck may disengage from "train mode" when necessary, and the following units then close up with the leaders.

I'd lean towards the device that gave the highest proven cost to benefit ratio, regardless of what style it was.

Those things that 911 and SE show seem to be popular.

I didn't know you were in to fuel conservation.

Here is something interesting from a fairly reliable source.

That truly is a NASA "spin-off" in the absolute sense of the word(s).

Of the guys I know who truck for a living the #1 fuel saver around is reprogramming the engines to shut down as much emotions related components and tubing related crap as possible.

Its the difference between making 4.5 - 5 MPG Vs 6 - 6.5 MPG which in trucking terms is huge daily cost saver. Downside is if you get pulled over having to stall the DOT inspector for ~5 minutes while the cheater unit unprograms itself and resets things to OEM tuning specs.

Option two for better fuel numbers is buying the tractor units as coasters and putting in engines that are setup as the older grandfathered in minimal emissions built yet modern drive by wire capable typically found as new old stock or rebuilt/remanufactured pre ~2003 models that are commonly thought to be the near pinnacle of large truck engines for real world fuel efficiency and having the least emissions systems BS.

When did the EPA start monitoring emotions?

(Or was that was a pretty pink Freudian slip?)

Well you know how toxic certain emotions can be so would you expect the EPA to idly stand by and let them be haphazardly dumped into the environment?

That's a standard issue spell check auto correct related miswording. I see many here who also regularly suffer from the same affliction.

I type a word and a few seconds later it magically turns into another word for no reason I can follow and if I don't take the time to do a literal word by word proofread before posting you get what we have here.

I didn't notice a problem. I have seen how toxic emotions can create drag at the best of times. When you couple bad emotions with a traffic stop, there is bound to be trouble. ;)

I don't know about you, but the EPA generally causes more emotional emitting than they solve.

If you've got 'em smoke 'em, it's break time!

If I could purchase them at a reasonable price in the UK the AirTabs I'd be more than happy to use them on my Land-Rover and caravan, the technology is well proven and on large trucks with all the other skirts and roof deflectors still give am improvement. The biggest thing is the potential to increase stability for me, the fuel saving would be a bonus.

Unfortunately, I do not see much in the way of improving "your" stability.

Sorry, I could not resist the jab. No harm intended in the making of this joke.

Hi John,
I can source you some cheap ones in either panels or the single units and send to you in the UK. I sent you a message.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2wwuu1u

AIRTABS

Just as long as those things don't generate any run-away POLAR VORTEX's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka-dtpu15Zk

V-spoilers (Airtabs in panels)