I haul a 14 foot cargo trailer with a normal nose (flat) and my fuel mileage goes way down regardless of load. My question for those that have experience with these is this; Do the V-nose cargo trailers do any better? I am thinking about making mine a V-nose if it helps increase mileage substantially.

I would make the front of mine similar to the one shown below:

 

Tried to edit but couldn't add another picture.

Here is what mine looks like now:

 

This is a controversey in the trailer industry. Common sence would say that it would be a huge help over the flat front trailers. Wind tunnel studies have shown very little difference though because of the dead air area at the rear of your tow vehicle. The front of the trailer is so to speak, riding in the wake.

To make this even more confusing the real drag of the trailer actually comes from the rear of it. The flat top and sides on conventional trailers creates a vaccuum at the back of the trailer that actually is pulling you backwards. In Europe where fuel prices have been insane since the end of WWII, several trailer manufacturers have compensated for this on their enclosed trailers. We have been spoiled in this country though and most didn't really care about mileage, just a big truck with a big trailer. To see an example of this technology you can look up Brenderup Horse Trailers. They are the only company in this country that I know of using this in their trailers. They are 1-2 horse trailers that are specifically designed to be pulled safely behind a even a 4 cylinder car. From personal experience I can tell you that I have had people using mine that have loaded 2 draft horses in it and pull it with a mini van and it is amazingly easy to handle and stop.

 

Thank You for the input. I just took a look at those Brenderup horse trailers and they look interesting.
So basically whatever I do to the front of the trailer isn't going to do much with the vacuum effect pulling on the rear end. That does make sense I just hadn't considered it.
It probably wouldn't be worth the money or time to convert the nose.

 

I would never say that it wouldn't help anything, but you would never recoup the money spent or time taken in fuel savings.

 

A wing on the back/top of your trailer would go a long ways towards breaking up that rear vaccuum. It's also a cheap and easy to do mod.

 

I'm going to check into that wing idea. A big honkin' spoiler = way cool.

This is why I posted my idea on here; I knew someone would offer up some good advice. Thanks again man

 

Almost any time.

 

I have also seen 6" wide strips that people put up the sides and on the top of the back of there trailers. They have a > pattern up them that acts as a spoiler. But I don't think you would recoup the cost of doing any of this from your MPG savings unless you live in the truck and trailer.

 

Probably not worth it really. I put about 50K on my truck a year but probably only about 5k of that is hauling that trailer.