Women's World magazine has some really enlightening driving tips for its readers to save fuel in these hard economic times:

It recommends they draft behind tractor-trailers. (I'd link to the article but several keyword searches on WW's website doesn't produce any results and Google doesn't turn anything up, either).

Drafting, or hypermiling as it's also called, is when cars pull up just behind a truck's underride guard to create a low-pressure air zone that reduces drag for the following vehicle.

The author of the article stands by it and told OOIDA's Landline magazine that the story doesn't explicitly encourage drivers to do anything dangerous.

The title? "Follow that semi."

Nice, eh?

When people do follow my truck too close they end up passing me with in 5mins or backing off my bumpers. When I find one of these draft jerks I will make a sudden change as if dodging an obstacle on the road, this tends to freak them out about getting that close to a truck they didn't see what I moved for. Second best is the little bit of gravel on the road side makes wonders of the front of their cars. My personal best was just south of Quesnel BC I had this new Grande Am right up close and about to pass me but still very close to my trailer, the inside dual of my tri axle step deck blew and shredded all over the front of this nice car. The biggest piece of tire on the road was about 18" long, so this car got a lot of rubber in a fraction of a second. Cars don't work well after hitting the ICC bumper of trailers, tend to smoke a lot and most come to a stop after.

Reflecting more on this kind of writing, is showing this dangerous driving style to the public when they are trying just about anything to get better fuel economy out of their vehicles. So when the idiot who reads this crap states in a court of law "he read that he read it so it must be the truth", this kind of person is the same kind who get off when they commit a serious crime in the name of they were under some influence. People will and do use every lame excuse in the books to get away with stupid mistakes. I guess editors of said media must have dozed off at the wheel on that day or are just as gullible as their readers who believe this garbage. Need a new eye chart that is a bumper sticker, with the words your dead if you can read this writing. When I first saw this fuel saving idea on the news, the persons they seem to be reaching have no clue as to how trucks operate and the things that can go wrong. They assume the load is good and the truck is safe, but the real world is full of variables and one thing out of place can upset the works in a fraction of what it takes to sip your coffee while saving fuel. But don't expect the law to catch these people doing the tailgating of large trucks because they are too busy looking for cell users talking while driving or other such low rated cash cow ticket items.

UPDATE: On the heels of the WW magazine report comes a new study that warns of the dangers of following vehicles -- especially 80K-pound trucks -- too closely:



Sure, it's a no brainer. But you really have to wonder what the editors of WW (and any other publication irresponsible enough to print similar advice) were thinking when they greenlighted this story.

I don't want to be the first one to point it out (OK, yes I do), but isn't this even more stupid considering the magazine in question's main audience??? There. I said it.

I can't say I have ever seen a woman running up into the air drag of my trailer, I have had young males reaching out to touch the load and generally playing around the truck just in the name of kid play but the average person with the so called morals to try to get the fuel economy this way would have to be male. Females tend to be very timid around large trucks and there fore would try to stay far away from the side and rear of any truck and trailer unit. A couple of severe wrecks involving cars into trucks and the idea will stop. When the media shows cars buried into trailers after the speed limiters come into play they will not want to travel that slow and if they do they will be the extreme few who will looking for the rush of getting the max out of a gallon of fuel. Oh the things I can think of that would put the idea of this kind of playing behind trucks far from the general public wants for fuel economy. An air ram that would hook the offending vehicle to the truck to safely take it along for a 100 mile journey, think the drive home would kill the idea of getting the few MPG extra by tailgating. The best and safest way would have a camera like NASCAR on the rear to photo ID the vehicle and driver, just flip a back up light on the trailer to give a clear picture and then send it off to the police. Video would be best I guess to show the length of time the vehicle stayed behind to gain MPG.

What about the truckers who do this? Ever see two, three, four, or more running in a tight convoy formation as they fly down the Interstate?

Try the Fraser Canyon in BC, some of them run 3-4 super "B"s in tight formation heading back up into the Caribou country to reload lumber. Now in open country it's what ever but when you are loaded and climbing Jack Ass mountain and approaching the end of the passing lane and these up the bumper crazies force you almost off the road while they wander into the oncoming lane to make it. It's to the point I don't wait now to the end of the passing lane to move over into the driving lane, I figure if they are running empty they can slow down until the next passing lane. Between them and the ones who are just plain scared of the road sure makes running wide loads up that way interesting.

I guess another issue is whether they are tailing you to save fuel, or they plan on hijacking your load.

I guess another issue is whether they are tailing you to save fuel, or they plan on hijacking your load.