MONTRACON
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Given the wide variety of options, it offers Montracon says any add-on aerodynamic equipment is ‘priced on application’.
However, it adds: “Limiting the choice to ‘bolt-ons’ – added either on-line or retrospectively at a third-party workshop – necessarily limits the options to front bulkhead mouldings, side-skirts and front and rear skirts.” Of these, it says: “The most significant benefits can be derived from fitting a front bulkhead moulding and side skirts, with each offering fuel savings of up to 3%. However, the design and shape of both vary according to trailer type and operator requirement – in the case of side skirts, from the simplest panel covering the side guards only, to a fully profiled fairing that arches the wheels and tumbles inward toward the rear of the trailer.” It adds: “It’s arguable that savings similar to those gained from fitting front and rear skirts could otherwise be achieved by tidying up the trailer’s underside, although in the overall scheme of things, the savings contribution to be achieved from the latter is not significant.” It insists the tractor and trailer need to be treated as a ‘single’ vehicle: “If the tractor unit isn’t so equipped, and the tractor/trailer devices aren’t matched or ‘in tune’, any savings are likely to be severely dented or, in the worst case, negated.”