Diamondpilot
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2007
- Messages
- 16,331
- Location
- Daleville, IN
- Tractor
- Jinma 254/284 Ford 861 Powermaster at work
You are right about the drag. Expanded mesh will actually create more drag than lets say a flat piece of steel the same size. Look up parasite drag on google. I have a Bachelors Degree in Aerospace but before college I would have thought the same thing.
I ran into this with my wifes cousin. He owns a trucking company. They run a fleet of semi's and a fleet of F-150's. They have a place in Columbus Ohio and one in Terre Haute Indiana. He could not figure out why 2 identical F-150's pulling the same trailer with the same load had different mpg. I went to his shop one day and saw the trailers, they were indeed the same trailer but one had a mesh gate. He said on road trips the truck pulling the meshed gate truck would have 70 miles less range running in tandem down the highway. Well he took the gate off and guess what. He did tell me later that he put the gate back on and it took 400 more rpms at x speed than with the gate off.
Chris
I ran into this with my wifes cousin. He owns a trucking company. They run a fleet of semi's and a fleet of F-150's. They have a place in Columbus Ohio and one in Terre Haute Indiana. He could not figure out why 2 identical F-150's pulling the same trailer with the same load had different mpg. I went to his shop one day and saw the trailers, they were indeed the same trailer but one had a mesh gate. He said on road trips the truck pulling the meshed gate truck would have 70 miles less range running in tandem down the highway. Well he took the gate off and guess what. He did tell me later that he put the gate back on and it took 400 more rpms at x speed than with the gate off.
Chris
