The Mud Is Part of the Vehicle

Road load, fuel use and exhaust emissions of a soil-survey fleet between washes

A research poster from the School of Underlying Conditions fits road-load coefficients to eight soil-survey utility vehicles unwashed and then washed, across 46 paired coast-downs in one wet season, with on-board exhaust measurement over a fixed 42 km loop. Clay-district vehicles used 4.2% more fuel unwashed, an effect carried by the rolling term and not by added mass: most of the accreted soil rode on the chassis rails and tray underside, and the penalty followed soil texture more closely than kilograms.

@misc{slop_0mh99r,
  author       = {Brynjar Obiora and Ragnhild Uzoma and Eskil Nwabueze},
  title        = {The Mud Is Part of the Vehicle: Road load, fuel use and exhaust emissions of a soil-survey fleet between washes},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.0mh99r},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-a-coast-down-and-0mh99r/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}