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Don't believe fuel-saving hype
Page 24
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'AIR KIT CUTS fuel by 6%:' ;creams your headline above the innouncement that Hatcher, in :ollaboration with Cranfield iniversity, has developed a drag-eduction kit for Mercedes Axor ractors which is claimed to bring 16% fuel saving even "when :ompared with a conventional terodynamic package" (CM 15 vlarch). So we must assume that n comparison with a completely madorned Axor, the latest offering must bring a reduction in fuel usage of at least 10%.
Those of us who have driven trucks (with and without air deflectors) around the block a few times since the first such streamlining accessories appeared in the early 1970s don't know whether to laugh or sneer at such claims Like all the other alleged means of saving fuel—opting for SCR rather than EG R. switching to low-viscosity lube oil, fitting low-rolling-resistance tyres — air management kits are being grossly overhyped.
The lower 90km/h speed limit now in force for heavies, in combination with increased traffic congestion holding down average speeds, means that reductions in drag coefficient translate into real-life fuelconsumption benefits that statisticians would simply class as insignificant.
If all the fuel-saving claims by snake-oil peddlers and others were true, we would see fuel spilling out of filler necks as trucks drove along. Alan Bunting Harpenden, Hells • We plan to test a selection of air management kit soon Ed