Bed covers and MPG

[Tarawadet]

How many miles do you have on it thus far? It has been reported mileage gets better after 1000 miles.

I’m at 2200 miles and mpg has increased from 19.5 to 21.7 - drive the same route to work every day so very little devastation to account for increased mpg except break in

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[Hounddog409]

"We found that adding a tonneau cover or lowering the tailgate hurt fuel economy, rather than helped it.

With the tailgate up and no tonneau, we got 22.3 mpg. Dropping the tailgate decreased efficiency to 21.5 mpg. That 4-percent difference means that driving the Ram all year exclusively on the highway could cost the owner an extra 20 gallons of gasoline. (In reality, this big workhorse is likely to see a mix of driving and a variety of chores, limiting the potential penalty.)

We found that covering the bed with a soft tonneau cover was even more detrimental, dropping fuel economy to 21.4 mpg."

That surprises me, I thought sure I was saving fuel running with my tailgate down.
Maybe I'll just opt for a rubber matt.

Pickups are designed to cut through wind with the tailgate in place.

Find a video of a pickup in a wind tunnel. A vortex is created directly behind the rear window. Think of a cylinder of air lying on its side. The remaining air flows over this vortex, past the tailgate. Once moving, little or no air actually hits the tailgate.

Its pretty cool, but do not recall where I found the video. Makes sense that a cover or no tailgate would eliminate this and cause more resistance.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Yep....as air flow is not intuitive, things might be different, slightly... You will not see such significant gains or degradation in MPG. We always referred this to picking fly Sh*t out of the pepper...

Things change much more at 100mph or higher and it becomes significant.

You bought the wrong vehicle if you are searching for Fuel Economy in my opinion.

best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineerig
Ford Motor Company - Retired.

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