Drafting
 

Recent edition of Myth Busters

Excellent story on drafting.

It does work.

Its was predictable, since pushing the air is using energy, especially at + 50 mph.

Maybe not drafting a car, but a truck with a box.

Anyway I dont draft, I like to see in front of me when I drive, and the braking zone is just to dangerous, I simply slow and drive less.

Indeed, people are trying to find ways to travel more by using less. The problem might just be that they travel to much.

I draft, but never close enough to affect my ability to see what I need to see. A two to three second draft, which is the distance recommended by the state-prescribed drivers training program, has been found to be most effective in normal highway driving (see the drafting link in my sig).

On my trip back from Vermont I got behind a really low to the road box trailer pulled by a pickup truck and wow was that a great draft and I didn't have to get close to it either. It must have been at least 10 feet wide too. I really hated to pass it as I approached Boston.

ive done this lotta times to all sorts of things (always something that stops slower than me tho) charter busses are THE best, those racecar semi trailers (low to the ground) are also great, same wih moving semi trailers, reg semi trailers work good but not as well.

ive done the 10 feet draft before, not that scary... i figure whatever the semi hits is gonna get obliterated and it cant stop as fast as i can, it cant swerve easily.

sometimes the semi will randomly switch lanes but i just switch with it...once i guess the truck thought i was a cop cuz i got behind it started creepin up to its backend and he was at 60 for a while then slowly creeped down to 45...HAD to pass him before i got rearended.

last time i did this for 120 miles i got 42mpg in a s10. used close to 3 gallons so less than $10 to fill up. i prolly would have gotten higher but i had to get on another interstate and lost the charter bus... drove on the other interstate for about 40 minutes.

:( It's illegal and rude to tailgate.

yea well if they cant see me they dont know :P that and what damage could i possibly do to a semi....

Drafting is consensual between both parties. Tailgating is not. Many moons ago on a cross country trip to California, I used a CB radio to look for drafts with semis across the plains in my '78 Ford Fiesta. I found the best pull to be close, like 10 feet back, but off center enough to see around the truck.

My father used to tell me about people he knew who could drive up behind a truck and then turn off the engine and just be pulled along by the vacuum behind the truck...

When you have a Cd in the mid 0.1's, drafting has very little effect on mileage at normal highway speeds.