AirFlow BulletTruck aims to improve fuel economy for long haulers
The AirFlow BulletTruck is the result of three years of debt, hard work and a bit of inspired lunacy. |
In the late 1970s, the AirFlow Truck Co.'s Bob Sliwa graduated from
violently shepherding a Chevrolet Chevelle down Connecticut drag strips
to the world of owner-operator trucking. Frustrated with the 4.4 mpg of
his cab-over Ford CLT-9000, Sliwa applied aero-dynamic principles to the
diesel behemoth. Through trial and error, he managed to wring 9.33 mpg
out of his 18-wheeler.
Three decades later, the American
truck fleet's average fuel economy stands at 6.5 mpg. In 2008, sick of
his software job's shrinking 401(k) and the rising price of diesel,
Sliwa decided to do something about it. He figured it would take about
six months to engineer and build a superefficient Kenworth T2000, a
tractor made semifamous by its role on 18 Wheels of Justice alongside
Billy Dee Williams and G. Gordon Liddy.
What followed was a
three-year odyssey that saw sponsors frustrated with the slow pace,
Kenworth/ Peterbilt parent Paccar monitoring his Web site and a few
platinum cards' worth of debt. The result? Well, Sliwa's not quite sure
yet. On its maiden voyage, his aircraft-style glass cockpit returned
wildly disparate economy numbers.
“It would say 1.4 mpg,” he said. “Then it would say 200 mpg.”
The problem remains elusive. Without hard consumption numbers, he estimated economy between 12.3 mpg and 14.3 mpg on his first 858-mile jaunt with an unladen trailer.
The
AirFlow BulletTruck's Cummins engine is stock, churning out 450 hp and
1,800 lb-ft of torque. There's no dramatic program to reduce weight. But
there is a custom-ducted Horton radiator that allows for the extreme
degree of rake in the hood. Sliwa figures he's put in 700 hours of work
ahead of the firewall alone.
He painstakingly reproduced
the computer model created by industrial designer Jeremy Singley using
wooden stringers and fiberglass. The pair also developed aluminum side
skirts and an inflatable end cap to streamline the trailer.
The
ultimate goal is to build a run of AirFlow cabs to mount on existing
chassis, but for now, Sliwa's hauling loads to pay bills and looking for
funding for future trucks.
“Best case,” he jokes, “is to go up to Seattle, get rear-ended by Bill Gates's chauffeur and have Bill get out
and say, ‘Hey, what're you doing?'”
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