Fighting The Wind Blast From Oncoming Trucks
Monday, May 22nd, 2017
The wind blast from this guy isn’t going to do much; it’s very different with trucks.
During this last ride Judy and I did I made some interesting observations I want to pass along.
It was kind of windy as we set out but not bad. The road we were on was not too busy, either, until we reached Limon and turned southeast down US 287. This is a major highway and that translates into “lots of trucks.”
Anyone who has ridden a motorcycle for long knows how powerful the wind blast can be on you as trucks go by in the opposite direction. Accordingly, I braced myself every time one came along but after awhile I started noticing that not all truck wind blasts were the same. Judy noticed it, too.
Sometimes a truck would go by and the blast would like to blow you off the road. Other times they just seemed to slip by and you hardly felt it. Once I got my mind focused on the question it didn’t take long to recognize the answer.
Very simply, the more aerodynamic the truck, the less the wind blast. It’s pretty dang intuitive, if you think about it.
You know those fairings that many trucks now have, the ones on top of the cab that deflect the wind from hitting the flat surface of the trailer? Those things help semis get better gas mileage because they reduce the wind resistance. No surprise there. But the real issue is that the more smoothly the truck can just slice through the wind, the less turbulence is created. And the less turbulence created, the less wind blast felt by vehicles going the other direction.
Now surprisingly, this is not as predictable as you might think. I found that almost universally, the big trucking companies all have their trucks faired and stream-lined and they kick up very little wind. The you-rent guys apparently don’t care so much about gas mileage since you are buying the gas, not them, and they generally are not faired.
And then it matters what the truck is hauling. If it is an enclosed unit, the wind is minimized. Very open and/or oddly shaped loads kick up more wind. So a truck hauling a bulldozer on its bed can be expected to rattle you a bit as it goes by.
So I got pretty good at knowing when to brace myself and when it was not likely to matter. But every now and then, I would be expecting one thing and get the other. I can’t explain that. All I can say is that this business about aerodynamics is a good rule of thumb but there are exceptions.
Biker Quote for Today
Tunnel? Allow me to play the song of my people.
