Safely follow a truck on the highway with Prius: 65 - 85 MPG

my father's truck looks like this one.



:blink:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(usbseawolf2000 @ Mar 14 2007, 10:12 PM) [snapback]405897[/snapback]</div>

You obviously weren't close enough, otherwise those other cars wouldn't have gotten between you and the truck.

(Note: The above was a joke, meant to be humorous)

I learned that you should use the 3 second rule; you should be able to count one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three before you pass the same point where the truck passed when you began counting.

I tried doing that in the video; it seemed to me that you were about 2 seconds behind in most of the video. However, the cars and SUV that merged between you and the truck were way too close. And that is part of the problem in heavy traffic; if you try to leave the appropriate distance, usually someone will fill that gap.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(usbseawolf2000 @ Mar 13 2007, 05:36 PM) [snapback]405008[/snapback]</div>

Birds in formation don't "draft" in the same manner as cars. The advantage the "wingmen" get is from the leader's wake vortices.

Imagine the (non-flapping) right wing of the lead bird. Like all airfoils, the wing is experiencing lower air pressure on the upper surface. The relatively higher pressure air on the under surface will spill around the wing tip and form a horizontal vortex that rotates counter-clockwise on the right wingtip when viewed from behind.

The wingman on the right will experience rising air and as a result will need to expend less energy to maintain airspeed or altitude. This is of course if he is in proper formation position in the vee.

Additionally, the leaders left wing produces a clockwise vortex when viewed from the rear and this benefits the wingman on the left.

When one is driving alongside another vehicle, the benefits one experiences are probably due to altered airflow caused by the "bow wave" of the other vehicle.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(usbseawolf2000 @ Mar 4 2007, 06:02 PM) [snapback]400003[/snapback]</div>

Cool video... By my calculations you were about 1.5 seconds behind him. At 53 mph, that translates to 933 inches per second. At 1.5 seconds that puts you at about 1400 inches behind him. That's actually about 8 car lengths. At least 8 Prius.

I say this because a guy I know got flamed when someone else said he was "one car length" behind a semi. Chances are he was closer to 7 or 8 cars behind him.

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