Trailer skirts and mpg

That's a concern.

I think it's one of those things - can't remember who said it on here, I think @blairandgretchen - about cost of efficiency vs. simple costs. "It's more about how much you put in, not how much what you put in saves".

Skirts strike me as a cost, not an efficiency.

 

I think based on actual studies and statistics, skirts offer more fuel savings than those annoying flaps on the trailer doors. But trailer gap and height affect fuel more than any add-on for a trailer. Keep the trailer as close as possible to the cab and make sure your cab is tall enough for the trailer you're hauling. You can have a nice dry van with all sorts of aerodynamic bolt-ons but it means hardly nothing if you're pulling it with a mid-roof and have a six foot gap between the cab and bulkhead.

 

Ha. You should see me hooked up to a set of short pups. On order to cheat these landing gear in turns I got to have ther fifth wheel set so far back you could fit a small car behind the truck.

 

Do not hire idiots

 

The other thing i like with side skirts hoses and electrical cable protected from the air turbulence.

 

I run the same route pretty much every trip. We have some trailers with skirts and some without. I notice a slight (maybe .1-.2) better mileage with the skirts. I guess over time it would pay off.

 

Call Kevin Rutherford he will have the perfect thing to sell you to make you a ton of money by improving your fuel economy , because you know improving your fuel economy with his products is the only thing that matters.

 

Unemployment is very low right now so most intelligent folks are working somewhere already.

 

No. It is because CARB was setup before the EPA.

"The California Air Resources Board (CARB or ARB) is the "clean air agency" in the government of California. Established in 1967 when then-governor Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford-Carrell Act, combining the Bureau of Air Sanitation and the Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board, CARB is a department within the cabinet-level California Environmental Protection Agency."

"President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970[4] and it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate."

 

Back on topic, I remember watching a video about a guy that was trying all kinds of stuff to reduce drag on his tractor trailer set-up.
He had the skirts, but had extended them forward, wrapped around the landing gear.
In addition to the skirts, he also had a V shaped fiberglass (maybe plastic) thing mounted under his trailer.
Imagine taking a long shallow V boat. Cutoff at about a foot and a half above the keel, then mount that on the underside of your trailer.
There was plenty of other things I'm forgetting.
He seemed to be getting good mileage. Sure, his ROI was probably really bad, but he seemed to be enjoying himself.