Wind deflectors

As far as fuel savings, I never really saw any advantage that could be deemed as savings. With weather conditions different on each trip it would be hard to determine cause and effect for the device.

I have and use a second hand deflector on my 5er. At a cost of $60 I could justify it at least to myself. I had a diy deflector mounted on top of a shell at the rear with my old TT setup. I felt less turbulence with the TT, the stability increase with a SRW truck and TT made it worth having. With the 5er and a dually truck stability is not an issue.

As stated above the kamikaze critters miss their target more often and have to look for another battleship. The only downside is the surviving bugs are still able to reproduce.

In order to get any SIGNIFICANT difference you'll need a very LARGE deflector. I used to travel with my 8 foot bed cover (solid fiberglass) propped open, giving me a 4'X8' wind deflector and got a couple of miles per gallon improvement in towing my 34 footer with the 5.4 V8 engine. For the MOST part it's not practical to drive around with that much deflector and much less will of course return much less. It will be hard to justify the cost unless you get a VERY good deal on the deflector (my cover cost me over $800.00) but I had it anyway to cover gear in the truck (which it no longer did when it's propped open) :)

AS for a "topper" they might possibly improve wind resistance a little bit but you'll also be hauling more weight so my best estimate is they're about a push. A TONNEAU cover will NOT increase your mileage any measurable amount as you no longer get the vacuum effect of an open bed with tail gate closed, which is proven to be the MOST economical but the differences are minimal.
Good luck / Skip

It depends on the rig. From experience - I had a TT with a vertical front and towed with a short bed pickup. With a deflector I gained 1 MPG. My current TT has a front that slopes apx. 20 degrees off vertical and with the same truck and deflector the gain is minimal.

gotta admit though....those things look cool

Do toppers on the back of a pickup make a difference?

I had one years ago when I bought my first TT. came to conclusion that you have to drive a lot of miles like a semi truck does to pay the cost of the deflector

Airplanes are pointy on the back, not the front. The vortices behind are much more critical to laminar airflow than frontal. pressure . In easier language,
The push is simpler than the pull.

Been Discussed Many Times, Many Ways. Enjoy!


Many believe deflectors are great way to keep kamikaze insects off the trailer nose, but not much use beyond that.

Was unable to open link

bizzaro wrote:
Does anyone know if those wind deflectors have any effect on gas mileage .. Will these deflectors give you better gas mileage and if so how much

Here is a good link from a TT owner who did it and listed the statistics he got.

Horse people pulling horse trailers use them ALL the time. They DO make a difference.

Here is one RV'ers experience adding an air deflector, pixs, specs, gas savings, drag etc. Pretty interesting.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/105724........air-deflector-towing-travel-trailer.html