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CURVES IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES
Page 34
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Anybody contemplating putting a bow in the roof of a body shoucl ensure that it is done in such a way that load space is not compromised.
Loading patterns have to be considered too; especially whether the possible need to position taller pallets towards the centre of the body, and lower ones to the front or rear, will work for the business concerned.
Curving the body's roof can benefit 3.5-tanners as well as heavier rigids, according to Alloy Bodie, of Miles Plat-brig, Manchester.
It has recently built a Luton body with a bow in the roof on a light commercial chassis that it believes can achieve a fuel return up to 10% better at motorway speeds than can be achieved with a body solely fitted with an aerodynamic Luton head.
An aerodynamic head alone ought to be able to give an up-to-10% better return than an old-fashioned squared-off head, it adds, while stressing that both figures are approximate.
As well as applying the Teardrop concept to artics and rigids, Don-Bur has experienced using it on drawbars.
"The curve rises on the prime mover and tails off on the trailer," Owens says, They have to be close-coupled — we'd look for a gap between the two of no more than 750mm — and it's not a concept that works on demount bodies," he says.
Any fuel-saving advantages need to be balanced, not just against the additional cost of the Teardrop treatment, but against a loss of flexibility.
A conventionally-bodied prime-mover running down the road hauling half a Teardrop is going to look bizarre, and vice versa; not to mention the poor effect on the combination's aerodynamics.