truck technology Aerodynamics! It’s one of those seemingly endless pursuits with a similarly endless array of possibilities – some practical, some not – for conserving every droplet of fuel. For cab-over designers particularly, it’s a challenge greatly magnified by the inherent demands of turning a sizeable slab of metal and glass into a sleek, efficient workhorse. But have all the biggest gains already been made or are there more to come? Steve Brooks and Brian Weatherley report
SOMETHING IN THE AIR I
N THOSE MILDER, less vexatious days before virus, vitriol and violence conspired to make America weird again, there was a trip in mid2019 to Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) headquarters in Portland, Oregon. The main objective, obviously enough, was to see how much work Freightliner had done in preparing its Cascadia conventional for the Australian market prior to the truck’s launch here a few months later. Thankfully, like most trips to DTNA in Portland, 2019 also included a presentation at the full-scale wind tunnel – described by one wit as the ‘tunnel of shove’ – just across the road from head office. This is a truly impressive built-for-purpose facility designed entirely to determine the most efficient and practical aerodynamic shape for shoving through the air a full-size, road-going truck and all the components that hang off it. Not just Daimler’s Freightliner or Western Star trucks either, but the heavy-duty trucks of every competitor on the North American market; several sitting in plain view in a nearby yard. As the dedicated ‘air heads’ working inside the facility are only too happy to affirm, how do you know your truck is the most aerodynamically efficient unless you put it up against everyone else’s? Fair point, and with figures, charts and graphs to back them up, they weren’t shy about
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