Alright, I searched and found no answers, so here's my question...will putting a cap on the back of my 03 SCrew help decrease the wind resistance of my enclosed v-nosed trailer? I figure it might help the air around the trailer instead of dumping it on the face of it.

After towing an open trailer for years, it is amazing how mush resistance the enclosure puts out, even with a v-nose.

 

From my experience, yes, without a doubt. The air flow over your cab immediately dips down toward the bed. The cap will keep the air flow high and make it easier to flow over the trailer.

 

Just make sure it's a lightweight cap so you don't go exceeding the payload rating of the truck.

 

Yeah, isn't that the truth. Looks like you have you been paying close attention to my payload/tongue weight posts, glc.

 

Cool, thanks guys.

 

on top of cap, you can get an air deflector from yakima to shoot the air even higher.

 

Either that, or you could just slow down.

Wind resistance increases as the square of the speed.

Unfortunately, there is nothing to be done about the vacuum created directly behind the vertical trailing face of the enclosure. The drag from that alone is significant - and also increases with speed.

IMHO - slow down, save $$$ (no cap, less fuel) and keep yer payload rating intact.

Gotta love a *free* solution with an ROI.


MGD

 

$1000 for a cap sure will take a long time to recover that in fuel. Buy a cap because you want that space covered, not to save fuel costs.

 

I found a cap used for cheap on CL and it weighs about 200 lbs. I noticed an MPG increase right away of about 2 while towing my trailer. I got the canopy for keeping camping gear dry/

 

Thats what i was thinking.