Semi-Truck Fleets Looking To Fight High Diesel Prices Have A New Aerodynamic Aid

Diesel fuel prices reached a new record high in early September, and they kept on climbing until September 21 this year. At its highest, the average price of a gallon of diesel reached $6.53. And while things have dropped since then, it's still at $6.27 per gallon as of writing this article. Further, the Republican war to make gas more expensive seems to be working, as it had cost Americans more than $100 billion at the pump through early September. The number then topped $140 billion by October 21, and nearly $63 billion of that had come from the especially high costs of diesel.

With that in mind, some truckers are turning to new hardware to help get a few more miles out of each tank. For example, the folks at FlowBelow – headquartered in Round Rock, Texas — recently introduced the Trailer AeroSlider kit that promises fuel savings of 2.5% by improving a truck's aerodynamics. The company claims that this works out to saving 3 gallons of fuel for every 1,000 miles traveled. 

Now, that may not seem like a lot at first glance, but think of it this way: The typical Class 8 truck travels about 58,890 miles per year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, meaning the new device would save roughly 176.7 gallons of diesel every year. With diesel at $6.27 per gallon, that comes out to about $1,107 per truck. A long-haul trucker who covers 125,000 miles annually could save $2,350 per year. For the very few fleets above 100 trucks –- representing only 0.7% of all commercial carriers (via FleetOwner) -– savings could soar into six-figure territory. As for exactly how the Trailer AeroSlider does its job, that comes next.

The first thing you need to know is that semi-truck trailers can have single or dual rear axles, and they don't have to be fixed in place. With double axles specifically, they're often part of a sliding tandem, which is basically a single unit that incorporates both axles. Drivers can then slide it toward the front or back of the trailer along rails attached to the bottom of the trailer frame for optimum weight distribution on the axles. The main pieces from the Trailer AeroSlider kit are lightweight fairings, or panels, that attach one per side to the suspension part of the sliding tandem — immediately behind the rear-most wheels. Because of this, drivers don't have to separately reposition the fairings if they reposition the slider as a whole.

The panels themselves are oriented so that their surfaces are parallel to the sides of the trailer. In other words, they're essentially smaller versions of aerodynamic trailer skirts that are tailored specifically to reduce drag from wind flowing around the trailer's wheels and suspension. The AeroSlider package includes both a pair of panels along with two flow-through mud flaps and four of the company's aero wheel covers – all of which must be installed to achieve the 3-gallons-per-1,000-miles benchmark.

The whole setup can be installed in 45 minutes, and it only adds about 30 lbs of weight to the truck. The AeroSlider kit starts from $320, meaning it should theoretically pay for itself in a matter of months. FlowBelow puts the icing on the cake by making the system compatible with most other aero-style trailer upgrades and most wheel/tire combinations.