Magnus Wiklund, owner of Wiklund Transport in Larsmo in Finland, has driven Scania trucks during many years. Since he ordered three New Generation Scania, he has made sure to tell his drivers to adjust the roof air deflector every time they are changing load carrier, in order to minimize the fuel consumption.
Thanks to the new Scania trucks having an adjustable roof deflector using a manually operated crank, it has not been too difficult for the drivers to follow Magnus’s wish. Setting the spoiler position has however mostly been done by feel since it takes too much time and effort to do the detailed measurements necessary to set it according to Scania’s handbook.
Magnus Wiklund therefore saw the potential in a fully automatic system that would always set the roof air deflector in its optimum position, without any actions from the driver. That is why he installed Ecosense Trailer Assist on all three of his new Scania trucks in September 2019. Now, almost five months later, the fuel consumption numbers are in: a reduction of three percent.
Magnus himself is content that his intuition was correct; that an automatic system could reduce the fuel consumption even though his drivers had always been trying to adjust the spoiler as well as they could before.
Magnus elaborates: “Some of the drivers at first thought that the spoiler was set slightly too low by the automatic system, but measurements confirmed that it was actually in the correct position. This confirms how difficult it is to set the spoiler by feel; you often tend to set it a bit too high.”
“I actually believe that the fuel savings will become even greater over time. This autumn has had quite bad weather with lots of wind and rain. This usually increases fuel consumption a little bit. Apart from the fuel savings it is also very comfortable with a fully automatic system, I have completely forgot about all the manual cranking of the roof deflector! I really do believe fully in this product.”
The three trucks using Ecosense Trailer Assist are driving mixed routes. One truck usually travels between Finland and Norway to leave and collect new trailers. Fairly often the way home can be without trailer. Another truck mainly drives in Finland with trailers that vary in height between 420-450 cm.
Ecosense Trailer Assist helps the hauler in achieving the lowest possible fuel consumption and emissions at every moment in time. Additionally, it releases the drivers from their time-consuming task of adjusting the roof air deflector after each load carrier change – an adjustment that can also be difficult to get fully right without the automatic system from Rumblestrip.
More information
Milad Pouyanmehr, Rumblestrip, +46 76 760 74 03, milad@rumblestrip.tech
Magnus Wiklund, M. Wiklund Transport, +358 50 061 7871, info@wiklundtransport.fi
