“Commercial Trucking: Using ARC's Scale Model Wind Tunnel Fleet is Easier than you Think”

The effects of increasing fuel economy are widely known to everyone in the commercial industry. ARC's testing packages allow OEMs, Aftermarket Vendors and Fleets to get the most out of their truck. What does it take to put on a wind tunnel test at ARC? For OEMs it often makes sense to have custom scale models built to match their upcoming or current product line, but for aftermarket suppliers and fleets the cost to do custom builds can make budgets tight. This is where ARC's scale model fleet comes in.

Working with ARC's staff, the tractor and trailer combinations are chosen to accommodate fleet targets. From there the customer picks from a selection of parts available to get the truck 'setup' selected, this can range from side skirts to refrigerated unit auxiliary parts that mount on the outside of the vehicle.

With the setup sheet completed for the test, the focus moves to deciding upon and creating test development parts that are needed. Once again ARC has a large stock of publicly available parts that can be tested on the specified tractor and trailer setup. For new part development, customers can draw the shapes they desire and have ARC finish the design to fit to the ARC scale model or ARC can handle all the CAD design. The test parts are then fabricated in-house at ARC for maximum privacy with experienced model makers.