Airtabs - do they work?

Fixed that for you.

 

Well yeah, thanks.

 

I'm looking at a W900 across the parking lot with airtabs. I don't think they are doing much good considering the air cleaners and stacks sticking out in the air airstream......and he's pulling a flatbed

 

I don't get it. people buy a truck with no hood to cut down on wind restriction but put tabs on that in my mind add wind restriction....I just don't get it...lol

 

Yes the tabs create some drag, but the vortices they create prevent greater drag. The 'curtain' of air they generate prevents air from getting in the gap between truck and trailer, and keep the airflow attached to the trailer. It's an easily visible difference in the rain. And hauling cars around, I can tell you that the ones on the trailer greatly reduce the alternating vortices off the trailer corners. Those airtab vortices act just like the trailer tails by fooling the air into thinking the trailer has a tapered tail. That car over the hood does a fine job of catching turbulence and steering the nose, a non-existent issue behind an air tab equipped trailer.

 

Not video, but a computer simulation.

 

I attempted to decrease the space between a box van and the cab, moved the fifth wheel forward two notches and ended up struggling to keep my axle weights legal. By moving the fifth wheel forward to notches it increased my fuel mileage .04 per gallon.

 

Installed correctly, airtabs will smooth that transition further and improve gains, and may allow you to reposition the fifthwheel without loosing your milage gains.

 

The truck slips through the wind just fine, but has no idea what kind of trailer is behind it. Air Tabs may work well for directing air away from the void between the truck and a van. The vortexes that it creates keeps random air from entering the void.

I want to see a real video. That's my demand and I'm sticking to it

 

Same thing I was thinking, 99% of the time I can run my trailer up close since the loads are mostly 10-16K. I have them load it back with a spread configuration and the loads axle out very even and no where near illegal, but my back runs are always heavy and there goes fuel mileage x2. Weight and the distance of trailer to tractor.