Aero Trailers Slow to Catch On
Cheating the wind to save fuel — more properly known as the science of aerodynamics — seems to have caught on with the cabs of today’s highway tractors. Streamlined power units, looking as if they’ve just emerged from aircraft wind tunnels, ease their way down the road and through the air, while behind them, vans and refrigerated trailers appear to have been riveted together in a box factory.
Square-nose trailers hide behind the tractors’ air deflectors, but some sit too far behind for the fairings to do much good. And isn’t there a lot of wind drag along those expansive sides, the exposed underframe and crossmembers and at the blunt rear?
Considerable research has shown that more aerodynamic trailers could save a lot of fuel and money. However, most buyers want low-priced trailers and will not spend money on such improvements. And many trailers spend a lot of time sitting in yards and at docks, where aerodynamics do good. So fleet managers and executives have shown little or no interest in “aerotrailers.”
But maybe that is changing.
 |  Nose Cone Manufacturing Co. |
| NoseCone Manufacturing makes 150 different fiberglass drag reducers. Attached to the top of the trailer above, this model weighs about 50 pounds and can be installed in about two hours. |
Couldn’t some fuel be saved if aeroscience were applied to trailers? Why hasn’t it been?
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For the full story, see the May 8 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
