Trailer tails

Aerodynamic drop stitch shape for the back of a truck trailer

I regret that I do not have this sitting on the back of a tractor trailer rig. However, that is where it would ride if it was not an outdated product. The truncated trapezoidal shape was designed by a fellow named Kyril Calsoyas. Kyril came up with the idea to effectively reduce the drag placed on a rig by the square back shape of a trailer. What it does is change the shape by providing a virtual cone of air at the back simply by changing how the air flows behind the trailer. Kyril called us up, and I thought it was such a great idea we built one to test. Reality set in when it was difficult to remove and access the goods inside the trailer. At this time DOT rules would not let a hard component like sheet metal ride on the back of a trailer. That is why we were trying to make it inflatable. The rules must have changed when this concept proved to work.

Here is a picture that I took of a Trailer Tail near my home in Durango Colorado. You are starting to see these all over the interstate Highway systems these days. They really work, and can save 6% of your fuel costs.

What happened… Kyril called me a couple years after we did the project, and he had loaned the inflatable to some Princeton MBA graduates. They were in a competition with all the other Ivy league schools, and with this idea, they won the best new business model in the competition. Along with 50,000 dollars. It was then that Kyril convinced them to pay us some money for making the unit. I think that these young men were able to convince the Dept of Transportation to change the rules so they could be made out of sheet metal. Then they were easier to get on and off the back of a truck.

JPW is proud to be part of a process that led to the development of something as significant as 6% fuel savings on long haul trucking.

Read an article from the Arizona Republic about the latest designmade with sheet metal components that slide out of the way easier.

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