Drafting for economy

[talnlnky]

unless the semi hits a wall, or flips on its side... yaris will stop faster.

For me... yeah.. safety is a big issue.. but so are rock chips... I HAVE TOO MANY rock chips from driving on highways... even with a 2-3second gap.

I wish I had those 3M decals put on my front bumper & hood at purchase.

[detroiter]

Only thing tailgating is going to get you is the guy in front of you pissed off and break-dancing to get you to back off.

That's what I do, someone's riding my ass...I'll jam on the breaks for a quick moment just to let them know back the hell up. As much as the people around here love watching it, this isn't nascar.

[supmet]

Originally Posted by detroiter

That's what I do, someone's riding my ass...I'll jam on the breaks for a quick moment just to let them know back the hell up.

I find downshifting and the ebrake a much better combo - no brake lights

[blacksandiegovitz]

Wow is it really worth it to you to save a couple bucks on gas to be stuck behind or "drafing" a semi doing 55 mph all the way down the freeway ????? I drive my yaris balls-out everyday , meaning banging out gears to 6k and driving about 85+mph on the freeway and I still get 30+ mpg's...

On a side note , drafting does gain you hugh mpg's (as proved on the show "myth busters") but is dangerous and its very boring to follow behind a big truck doing 50 .

[voodoo22]

Originally Posted by talnlnky

unless the semi hits a wall, or flips on its side... yaris will stop faster.

Yeah, I wasn't at all clear with what I meant. What I meant was that saying a Yaris will stop faster assumes the Yaris driver is paying attention and starts to brake the exact second the semi driver does. From what I've read it takes an empty semi about 355 feet to stop from 60mph and a Yaris about 180 feet, but if you put good reaction time into the equation it takes a good Yaris driver over 200 feet to stop.

It doesn't take too long for an empty rig to stop in an emergency. If someone was drafting and not paying attention, it would only take a couple seconds of not realizing a semi was stopping to put a drafter in the morgue.

So many people tail gate or drive the absolute minimum distance back and give no thoughts to margin of error. That's why I will slow down and increase my gap in front of me often to try and compensate from someone driving too close to me on the hwy or even in the city.