I think suddenly in a panic stop, engulfed by burning rubber smoke is evidence enough. At least it taught me a lesson.

 

You seemed to survived OK. When did it happen to you?

 

Oh, yes, I'm fine. That was 25 years ago, nearly. I've learned a lot since then, including some things about driving.

 

What value to you place on your life?
That's the real question.
The risk far outweighes the reward.

 

I have to admit that I was curious what I could get for mpg gains. I think I ended up getting just over 60mpg in my Mini S. I drafted for about 100miles. I was about 40-50 feet back. I annoyed a couple of the drivers because they would slow down, I would wait for a faster truck to pass and then go with them. So it does work, but it took a lot of concentration. Anyway, if there was a distance that didn't annoy the drivers I would do it but it not worth the risk or road rage from a trucker.

 

I'm wondering if anyone can point to any statistics or documented cases of trucker retaliation or to the death dismemberment, & carnage that were caused as a result of truck drafting. Several posters alluded to anecdotal evidence of these dangers in this discussion, but I haven't been able to find any actual published cases myself.

 

Nonsense. Or.... you are more than welcome to live within your personal limitations. And you should. Just don't think you can impose your limitations on others.

 

Is there really that much risk being 3+ seconds behind? As stated by others, during rush hour traffic there is never this much spacing between traffic, so why is it such a big deal to do it in light traffic? I agree about close in drafting though, that is just suicidal for more than just a couple minutes IMHO.

 

When the trucker has enough of you in his blind spot and locks up the brakes, then it's a problem. I would not risk being sandwiched between an irate trucker and a distracted SUV driver behind me.

Go ahead and do what you want, it's your life. Like I wrote above, the bigger they are, the farther I stay away. Some things are more important than a few drops of gas.

 

3 seconds back at 60mph is about 260 feet or 13 car lengths. No problem, but that isn't drafting. They're talking about being within 100 feet or even 50 feet which is closer to a 1 or half a second.

In rush hour traffic, you can typically see the brake lights of the cars ahead so you at least have some early warning. When you're drafting a truck you have no such ability.