AIRTAB

Thanks to Canuk in Da Truck for giving me the confidence to try just unbolting the roof air deflector. Wish all my projects went this well.
Thanks again.

 

glad i could help a bit---now you have a great sled for the winter--just take that deflector to a hill and away you go

 

Maybe I'm just a skeptic but I put those air tabs in the same class as deer whistles, miracle fuel additives, those in-line fuel gizmos, etc.

Everything I've ever seen about aerodynamics on a van trailer has said that the rear of the trailer sees very little airflow because the trailer blows such s big hole in the air... maybe if you drive one of these space-ship looking aero jobs it MIGHT see a little air back there.

But the problem is all that I see is so much of this stuff is tested in a wind tunnel... great but once you are on the road the first cross wind or tail wind nixes any of the results obtained in a controlled environment like a wind tunnel.

Back in the 60's there were door to door salesmen who were pitching a 'gyro-scope' in a box that you bolted in your trunk that made your car handle like a Ferrari... and accelerate and brake the same. we had guys who came into our gas station who raved about those things... best thing you could ever buy!!!!

Several years later I was working at a MOPAR dealership and a car came in with one of those still mounted in the truck. A couple of my dealership buddies and I opened the box with the aid of a cutting torch... it had a couple red bricks bolted to the bottom of the box... so much for the 'gyro-scope'!

 

i believe they work to some degree--not sure how much they claim--but it would have to be quite a bit before i put them on cause they are so ugly

 

A few weeks ago some boiler room salesman called me pitching his 'miracle' fuel additive... he was bad mouthing other additives saying they are 'mostly transmission fluid' and his was 'pure petroleum'.

I told him trans fluid is also a petroleum product and I asked what is in the stuff that makes it so good... he said, again, 'pure petroleum'. he was saying how long my injectors would last with his magic portion... I said my injectors have more than a million miles on them and they are still in good condition... and I didn't use his additive or any other for that matter.

He hung up on me...

 

Two weeks ago I bought and installed AIRTABS (80 pcs), and found out they do not have very good adhesive tape used on their body. They installed fine on the main sleeper body, but on upper sleeper fenders of my VOLVO VNL 670 I could not attach them fully, since the fenders are bent, but ... they still hold!

Anyways, what I noticed, the steering is way smoother, better feeling passing other trucks, and I gained about 0.4 mpg when going without wind or through head winds. As the the side winds, it did not help at all, and it seems I indeed started losing fuel with the airtabs installed.

Summing everything up, I am happy to have them on my truck, though there are some CONs to them in some windy situations.

 

I have ordered some Airtabs to see if they work along with some Deflecktor hub cabs for the tractor.

Waiting on the mail man to deliver them.

 

You do have a point. But since I got roughly .5 mpg better between taking off the bug deflector and air tabs, equating to almost $5000 a year in savings, and the only windshield I lost since doing this was from an owl that wanted a free ride and tried to come thru the windshield and join me as a co driver, and the cost to replace that windshield was a whopping $360, I am convinced it was worth it. I did this over 400,000 miles ago, so the fuel savings would have paid for a couple of dozen windshields. And I don't mind cleaning off the extra bugs.

 

Man, $360? Mine in my '06 W900L was $58.00 one piece curved glass.

 

Up to this very statement I was considering your input as a quite reasonable. Not anymore though, .5 mpg from a bug deflector? You are nuts my dear