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Old 08-22-2014, 10:21 AM   #1
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Airtabs?

Any thoughts on them? Did a few searches here and they are not mentioned anywhere?

Looking to add some mpgs and looks like they add some stability also.

Thanks,

Greg
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Old 08-22-2014, 05:32 PM   #2
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Those might work. I don't know of anyone who has them. At first I thought you were talking about one of those big "jet blast" type deflectors that you sometimes see on the top of trucks and vans.

0.8 mpg increase might not be worth $200 for me.
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Old 08-22-2014, 05:46 PM   #3
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[QUOTE=mcfarmall;At first I thought you were talking about one of those big "jet blast" type deflectors that you sometimes see on the top of trucks and vans.

I thought they were something like car tabs only for air compressors.
I have no idea what they are.
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Old 08-22-2014, 07:05 PM   #4
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The little glue on tabs that supposedly reduce turbulence...? Doubtful they work. If something actually works, you would see long haul truckers utilizing it.

Something that I wonder about is putting a camper shell on a pickup truck to reduce the turbulence between the pickup cab and the front wall of the camper. Seems that the truck and trailer would "slip" through the air better with less drag if there was less distance between the dropoff at the cab and the front wall of the trailer.
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Old 08-22-2014, 07:37 PM   #5
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Here is a Link to a NASA article discussing Airtabs. They indicate that they reduce drag, but they don't provide any hard data on what level of drag reduction results from air tabs. There is a link to calculate savings and on my current trip we have traveled 3500 miles averaging about 11 mpg while towing. They claim up to 5% savings in gas. At a cost of 3.80 per gallon, we would have saved about $60 in gas over the 3500 miles. I would need to tow over 12,800 miles just to pay for the air tab kit.
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Old 08-22-2014, 08:34 PM   #6
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Save your money. A towable RV is as aerodynamic as a brick. And, like a semi-trailer, most of the economy robbing turbulence is taking place at the rear of the trailer. That's why some OTR trailers you see on the Interstate have that contraption on the rear of the trailer that looks like a wedge protruding from the back. It supposedly does improve aero enough to create real fuel economy when used with those airfoil 'skirts' under the trailer ahead of the axles.
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Old 08-25-2014, 06:39 AM   #7
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Thanks for the responses. We just did a 3700+ mile trip and the 10 mpg was getting old. Trip was great, uneventful towing, just too much filling-up.

Maybe I will make my own contraption for the rear of the TT.................
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