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tail wind sheets for trucks

1

1946 BN IHC

Member
Over the past number of trips along our 4 lane highway in
Ontario I have seen semis with wind deflectors on the back of the trailors. Does any one know of a formula or calculation for designing these? We are looking at a class B winibago warrier built on a 3/4 ton chassie and fiberglass main body. Pondering about installing similar atachment to the back of this unit.
Apearently these are installed to lessen air drag.
Wm.
 

Boy, I dunno. I believe this is kind of a developing technology. I know I was still making a living crawling around under tractor trailers when we first started seeing them. Wicked difficult to inspect a truck with the fairings. I'd look to some RV forums and see if there are others asking the same questions. Gotta be an entrepreneur out there making them if there's enough interest.
 
Google Stemco "trailer tail". They claim 5% fuel savings for a full size (53') box trailer at 65 mph.

Savings for a smaller vehicle like your will likely be less. And savings fall exponentially as speed is reduced - probably to almost nothing under 40 mph.
 
Here are two air deflectors that are said to save fuel. One of them is those little arrow shaped on side coach and second is across top of coach.
a281063.jpg

a281064.jpg
 
misilla valley transit out of las cruces nm, uses them and other wind cheating devises on all their tractors and trailers, and claim around 5 percent fuel savings, now the thing is these things are expensive, and the savings are on trucks running 100,000 plus miles a year, on a rv, unless your on the road constantly i dont know that the cost of the devices would be recouped in fuel saved
 
My thought was to form two side sheets and a top sheet with a
curve in them, with a width of about 18 inches similar to the
shape of the back of an air streem. As I said just a thought!
That's why I was wondering if any one had further information to
go on.
 
The company I drive for tried them on a couple of trailers. The savings weren't as advertised. They were removed and thrown in the trash.
 
Without access to a wind tunnel and a lot of time and money to experiment with, I'm afraid not much chance of being successful.

Also consider, the wind beating they would take! They would need to be very well built, and very well attached. Not much to attach to on an RV, thin skinned and very little frame work.

Think of the liability if it came off and caused an accident or went through someones windshield!
 
The arrow ones are just another version of vortex generators, not really useful at slower speeds, more of a gimmick than anything else.
 
I thought those deflectors that are mounted at the rear of the roof and curve downward were mostly for keeping the rear of the vehicle clean?
 
I would think the aerodynamics of a typical class B would be so bad that trying to reduce drag at the rear of the vehicle wouldn't make much difference. Too many things sticking out the roof and sides.
 
Thank you all for your thoughts and knolegable inputs. This I tye reason I like all the sites on tis frumn since a person may pose a question, receive inputs, and come away understanding better what one has in mind; either changing, rearranging or deleating ind idea all to geather; and sense, not only a comeradery but also a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that comes from comunity.
Thank you again for all the words of advice.
Wm.
 
(quoted from post at 19:46:22 09/26/18)
They would need to be very well built, and very well attached. Not much to attach to on an RV, thin skinned and very little frame work.

Think of the liability if it came off and caused an accident or went through someones windshield!
Click to expand...

THIS..not much to anchor and hold anything but what is on it from the factory.

The "sticks and staples" construction of RV's are not strong enough to add anything.
 
Actually Winnebago uses a full steel frame in the body, not sure if it would be strong enough to support a windcheater, but they have steel frames. We were one of the first to use steel framing but a lot of
the framing is 1"x 1.5" tubing welded together in fixtures and the strength comes from all the tubes being welded together. I'm an assembly welder for Winnebago in the Forest City Iowa plant, I've done risers
and frames but most of the time I do seat and seat belt brackets, tank frames, pump brackets, angle risers and cross ties.
 
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