If your gonna draft, get a C.B.

[landspeed]

Originally Posted by civic94

I heard somewhere that if you draft a truck, they waste more fuel while you save more fuel. thats probably why the trucker was pissed off.

I heard that too - but don't think it is actually correct. Mainly because all you are doing, by drafting them, is pushing the 'drag zone' forwards, towards them with your car. This means it will be dragging less on them. If you took a square european style lorry, and drove it right behind their rig, what would happen is they would have no drag behind them. If you had a convoy, the truck at the front takes the frontal drag, all the trucks take roof / sides / undercarriage drag, and the truck at the back takes the rear drag. In the UK, I would always see truckers doing close-in drafts, and they would swap around from time to time (very close in e.g. 0.5 seconds or less!)

A more extreme example... If someone was driving in a car, and I took a truck with a 8x8 metre metal plate welded on front, then drove that truck right behind the car, but not touching it, I'm sure the car would feel a lot less drag!

P.S. At night-time, particularly, truckers won't be able to see what your car is so may think it is a police car...