Seeing this more & more on the motorways of late.
Cars sitting right on the rears of HGV's and HGV's sitting so close together that they cannot see much more than the rear of the vehicle in front.
Any one else noticed this increase too?
M1 yesterday afternoon I saw a convoy of slip streamers that had no less than 8 x 40 tonners doing just this. 55 to 60mph and with some of them less than a cars length in front.
All sat so close together that it would have been a right domino effect if things went wrong...
I know, professional drivers [sic] and all that but yesterday afternoon at Wolley Edge the M1 was closed for a good 5+ hours and in both directions.
I have not seen of or heard actual confirmation yet but the local radio said the police had informed them that the accident may have been caused by vehicles tailgating.
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Found it nigh on impossible to get to a slip road off M25 because LH lane was filled with convoy of trucks all moving nose to tail-eventually had to force my way thro'
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They had this on myth busters and there is a significant reduction of wind resistance and therefore fuel use: you still get a useful effect 100 feet behind a lorry. I would not want to get up tight behind anyone for reasons of safety in case they braked hard. Also I think its only worth doing on a few roads. With trucks limited to 56 its too slow for a car on motorways unless its a contraflow with a speed limit.
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not worth any amount of saving for me
A) you cannot see whats happening up ahead so theres a good chance you might biff the lorry up the back
B) stone chips and water spray will ruin the paint and make driving harder in the rain
C) dont fancy being roared up the backside by another lorry if theres an accident
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you still get a useful effect 100 feet behind a lorry
If the thing in front stops dead at lorry motorway speed, you'll go right up its backside.
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Can't you stop your car faster than a braking lorry?
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It rather depends what happens to the lorry.
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Can't you stop your car faster than a braking lorry?
You assume that the lorry has room to brake to a halt, and that the driver hasn't nodded off. Neither premise can be absolutely relied upon.
Edited by Manatee on 04/07/2008 at 23:40
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Indeed - assume, for instance, that the lorry hits a bridge support. It's going to stop quite quickly. Your braking distance gap (or safety zone on a multi-carriageway road) should allow for the vehicle in front coming to an immediate halt. This is especially important when you can't see past the vehicle in question.
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Seeing this more & more on the motorways of late.
What! People actually writing when driving? Goodness, and I thought using 'phones was bad!
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Drafting a truck is not something I would do, but I can see the temptation among professional truckers. Racing cyclists reckon on using 30% less energy when they sit on the wheel of the rider in front, so the fuel saved when drafting a juggernaut must be considerable.
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As someone says above, Mythbusters did this and proved a car behind a truck could save fuel. If you literally sat on the bumper (so crazy and very dangerous) the fuel saving was something like 68% at the speed they were travelling. Just no margin for error.
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A late friend of mine, when a 2CV driver in the sixties, used to tailgate motorway coaches which could suck him along quite a lot faster than the 2CV could manage on its own. 2CVs have very good brakes of course and motorway coach drivers are inhibited against violent braking, so he reckoned he could get away with it. And it's true that when he wrote the 2CV off it wasn't against the back of a coach but the front of a Ford Consul.
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And it's true that when he wrote the 2CV off it wasn't against the back of a coach but the front of a Ford Consul.
So what you are trying to say is that it is unwise to draft a reversing Ford Consul?
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I'm afraid the poor Ford didn't have time to get into reverse. The incident occurred at the bottom of Cleeve Hill in Gloucestershire, a stretch of road that can help a 2CV fairly close to the speed of sound if the driver keeps his foot firmly in it...
I've often wondered how long the black lines were in each direction. Both drivers survived more or less unscathed, so one assumes there were black lines and the collision speed wasn't a combined 190mph...
Edited by Lud on 05/07/2008 at 19:40
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