9 - 10 mpg

The goofy aero gimmicks at not gimmicks. Getting the air to travel freely and undisturbed around the truck, creating as little drag as possible is the key. The boat tail has the biggest influence on this. They may look unsightly but it works. if you wanted it to work 100% you would actually have it continue further back than it does and end in point. All this aero add on stuff is nothing new. If you do some google digging about you can find full scale truck and trailer wind tunnel testing dating back to 2006 that confirms the benefits.

Here's a link that I found regarding some Canadian testing:

http://www.freightwing.com/docs/NRC_Wind_Tunnel_Test_SAE_Paper.pdf

What I forgot to ask the MVT driver is if the tranny was direct or not and what the rear end gears are. Based on him saying that at 65mph he is at 1500 rpm, that would put him very similar to my specs .78 od with 3.58 rears. I am sure however that you could get a similar speed/rpm with a direct drive setup. I'm pretty sure they are 10 speed, which I believe would make them od trannies. As has been noted already, the single drive axle has a huge impact on the mpg. He had trailer super singles on the tag axle.

the main reason for the original posting was that we are constantly hearing from Kevin Rutherford to slow down and lower the rpm. The slower we go the better mpg we will get, so run at 57 or 55 if you can. MVT's operation completed disproves this on a large scale. I have played around with my truck so many times and I find that it gets the best mpg at 65 mph/1500 rpm, volvo d12 with zf freedomline. I've been told it's too fast and too high on the rpm. If I drop down the turbo boosts more and the mpg drops of dramatically. My fuel numbers confirm this time and time again.

I think what all us OO can learn from MVT operation is that the aero stuff works, including the wheel covers. No matter what tractor you run, if you have your own trialer get some aerodynamic upgrades.

From experience, the SmartTruck under tray system is NOT as good as side skirts.

RE fuel discounts....Landstar gets a huge discount with TA.