do you get better gas mileage in a truck with a bed cover?

Question

will I get better gas mileage with a bed cover, the tailgate up or down?

Answer 1

Yes a bed cover will give you better gas mileage.

Tail gate up will give better gas mileage than tail gate down.

Answer 2

Okay ... they did about three episodes of this on Mythbusters (or was one of them a gas-mileage with a/c on versus off?) and while there was SOME improvement shown in their experiment running with a bed-cover on - it wasn't significant. (Something on the order of 5%).

Which makes sense... the added weight of the bed-cover versus the air-pressure "bubble" that is created by the cab of the truck in the bed.

Tailgate UP produced better results than Tailgate DOWN. And I don't remember if the tailgate "off" versus "on" produced much of a difference in performance. (I don't recall the results of the mesh gate versus solid or no-tailgate)

Answer 3

Tailgate up. Trucks are actually designed to have less resistance when the gate is up. I would think a bed cover would help though.

Answer 4

They tested this on mythbusters, and there wasn't much difference between all 3, but i think i remember the best being with a bed cover, but it costs money so the initial cost would be much more than the money saved so, the most economical was with the tailgate down.

Answer 5

No it is not true that they save gas milage. The only truck bed aperatis to improve mileage is the tailgate net. It is worse on mileage to leave your tailgate down than up. Its aerodynamics. Im very sure about what im telling you.

Answer 6

You should have been watching Mythbusters.

Tailgate up, surprisingly, gives better milage than tailgate down. A bed cover is best, though, and improved milage about 10%.

Answer 7

up if you have a cover...yes

Answer 8

up

Answer 9

Up.