| 摘要 |
Substantial improvements in trucking equipment during the past few years, including steel belted tires and improved engines which developed less friction have substantially reduced the resistance to travel and the cost per mile of operating tractor and trailer equipment. These and other improvements which decreased the cost of attaining and maintaining higher speeds did nothing to reduce the cost of applying the brakes to tractor and trailer units. It was therefore desirable in the interests of safety and economy of operation to find some way of reducing the cost of applying braking forces (to the units) at less cost. Applicant's invention has the two-fold advantage of reducing the trucking costs at road speeds by providing movable air deflecting fairings to streamline the flow of air outwardly beyond the trailer unit. When braking forces are needed applicant immediately opens up the fairings, and opens side doors to scoop and channel more airflow than the normal width of the assembly to impinge directly on the front of the substantially flat front surface of the trailer. This is particularly effective on long down hill runs where the cost of prolonged braking is expensive and is very destructive to the maintaining of the vehicles braking equipment in top operating condition.
|
