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Written by river95
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Monday, 03 September 2007 |
Big Rig Myths
Episode #80
Original Air Date: June 6, 2007
The Myth: While driving alongside a big rig, a tire blowout can cause a piece of rubber to come right through a window and kill the person in the car.
The Experts: Lieutenant Alan Normandy makes sure that the guys are safe around guns, as always.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Adam: That’s what you call the ghetto dynomometer!
The Action/Results:
First, the guys make their own dynomometer by cutting the bed off of a pickup truck and placing the tires of the pickup into holes. Then they used a forklift to lower a big rig trailer onto the tires of the pickup. When they get the pickup tires going up to highway speed, the big rig tires spin at that speed as well.
Next, they tried several different methods to get the tire to blow. They shot it with a deer slug, and it did leak, but the tire did not shred itself apart. They reduced the pressure and heated the tire, but it kept right on going. Then they overpressurized the tire, and it did pop, but it still did not shred. Then they ran the tire anyway, even though it had popped, and shreds of rubber started to come off of it. However, none of those shreds hit Buster, who was propped up on a motorcycle nearby.
Finally, the guys took the pickup back to the shop, and used it and a trailer to shoot the rubber chunks at a ballistics gel dummy directly. This time, the rubber did hit the dummy, and it did decapitate him. Therefore, the myth is CONFIRMED.
The Myth: Could David Hasselhoff (as Michael Knight) have actually driven KITT up the ramp and into the truck on Knight Rider, or was that all done with special effects?
The Experts:
Mike Ryan (Hollywood Stunt Driver) helps Adam and Jamie to do this safely.
The Action/Results:
The guys decided to test this one first in small scale. They got a model of the car, and used a treadmill to get it up to speed. Then they built a mock-up of the trailer that KITT drove into, and tried it out. It worked beautifully. So, they decided to go to full scale.
At the Madras Test Track in Oregon, Adam got into the car. The guys had made a ramp to go behind the truck, and they had been trained by Mike Ryan to do this stunt safely. Adam tried it first at 35 miles per hour, and it worked just fine. As he got ready to try it again at 55, it started to rain. But Adam continued, and it worked again – the car went right up the ramp, and did not shoot out the other side of the trailer. So, Jamie decided to do the second half of the myth, and drive the car back out of the trailer while it was moving. This also worked just perfectly, and so the myth is CONFIRMED.
The Myth: If you drive close to a big rig, you can save fuel.
The Experts:
Matt Markstaller (test engineer for Freight Liner) helped by driving the truck for the guys.
Mike Ryan (Hollywood Stunt Driver) taught Grant some special driving skills.
Andrew Smith (test engineer) was monitoring fuel consumption of the car.
Bruce Storms (Senior Research Engineer – AMES) helped the team calculate how much drag was generated in the small scale test.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Grant: (speaking in a low, intense, James-Bond-like voice) Grant “Danger” Imahara – I like the sound of that!
The Action/Results:
First, the team travels to the NASA/AMES research facility, where they test this in small scale. To the amazement of all, there is a significant amount of drag reduction when the model car is traveling close to the model big rig – up to 93%, in fact, so the decision is made to take this myth up to full scale.
Grant is specially trained by stunt driver Mark Ryan to drive behind the big rig, and the car in which he is driving has five-point safety harnesses. The recommended distance to keep between a car and a big rig is 150 feet at 55 miles per hour. However, Grant starts this test at 100 feet away. At that distance, there is a reduction in drag of 11%, and the fuel efficiency jumps from 32 miles per gallon to 35.5 miles per gallon. At 50 feet behind the truck, the reduction in drag is 20%, and the fuel efficiency jumps again to 38.5 miles per gallon. At 20 feet behind the truck, the numbers are 27% drag reduction and 40.5 miles per gallon. The numbers keep increasing at 10 feet behind the truck – 39% drag reduction and 44.5 miles per gallon. The last distance – two feet – yields a slight drop in drag reduction (28%) and fuel efficiency (41 miles per gallon), but this is explained by the difficulty of keeping such a small distance from the truck. Kari, Tory, and Grant explained this one best.
Tory: All right, so what are we gonna call this one?
Grant: I think we have to call this one CONFIRMED – you do save fuel drafting behind a big rig.
Kari: But it’s absolutely not worth your life!
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Episode Descriptions 
