Oregon Showroom for Eco-Conscious Truckers Opens
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 02. 5.07
While long-haul trucking still has a long ways to go towards becoming a "green" form of transporting freight and materials, developments such as BioWillie biodiesel have attempted to lighten the footprint of the "big rigs." This past week, another venture jumped into the marketplace to address trucks' and truckers' environmental impact: non-profit Cascade Sierra Solutions' first "outreach center" for green trucking technologies near Salem, Oregon. CSS director and founder Sharon Banks notes that the center is designed to address a fundamental issue with products that help truckers green their ride (and save money): access.
Banks said the trucks usually get 5 miles per gallon of diesel, but a retrofit of energy-saving goods ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 could save 25 percent on fuel bills.The center is the first of five that are planned: others are slated for Seattle, Portland, Medford, Sacramento and Los Angeles. We hope truckers themselves spread the word nationally -- who better? ::Cascade Sierra Solutions via Salem Statesman Journal"If you're going to keep your truck for three, four or five years, you can get a good return on the investment," she said.
Among other items:
- Single tires: A tire with 17-inch tread can replace double 11-inch wheels on long-haul trucks converting an 18-wheeler to a 10-wheeler, and saving as much as 8 percent in fuel, Banks said.
- Radio-controlled tire pressure monitors -- running fully inflated tires saves fuel.
- A dashboard display that gives a continuous reading of fuel efficiency, allowing the driver to adjust driving techniques to save fuel.
- Diesel air cleaners that reduce emissions 90 percent -- and cost $18,000. "You can literally put a white hanky over the tail pipe and it won't turn black," Banks said.
the first three i can see a trucking company go for, but without legislative incentive, they won't be buying the fourth.
Most truckers have that wind-shroud air-deflector thing either on top of their cabs or else on the top part of the front surface of the trailer, for smoother aerodynamics. HOWEVER!:
There is turbulence at the REAR edges of the trailer. Vortices and separation and such-like. That represents DRAG.
Simple flaps that kind of taper off the back of the trailer like the tapering-down tail of a boat can reduce that drag.
SAE Technical Paper Series 2000-01-2209
Aerodynamic Drag of Heavy Vehicles (Class 7-8): Simulation and Benchmarking from Government/Industry Meeting, Washington, D.C.; June 19-21, 2000.
If you go to and find the article "Kardboard Kammback" you will find there a link to the pdf of that SAE report.
The metrompg.com fellow is into getting maximum MPG's out of a little 3-cylinder Suzuki car. His website is very well-thought-out [and illustrated] especially for the non-technically minded. And it's humorous. He fashioned "boat-tail plates" out of cardboard for his car that are better [to my eye] than the ones the computer-aided scientists of the SAE used in their wind-tunnel simulations.
As a result of me posting this comment here on Treehugger.com I expect to see boat-tail plates [which save 10% fuel costs at highway speed] on all the semi-trailers in North America, tomorrow! I don't care if it IS a week-end! Get on it!
If you visit and site-search for "Clarkson University" you will find an article and pro and con comments on the aerodynamics of tractor trailers, and a link to: "Drag Reduction of Tractor Trailers" by Ken Visser; Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York; November 2005.
referring to the back end of semi-trailers:
quote: "Federal regulations dictate that devices to improve aerodynamics that are less than 5 feet and carry no cargo ARE allowable." [capitalization mine]
quote: "A full-scale prototype ...[edit]... was road tested in 2000, exhibiting cross-country road fuel savings of about 0.5 mpg, or 8%, over a 10,000 mile trip."
"Estimated fuel savings for a typical 120,000 miles per year traveled were 1,500 gallons per truck."