Treangen

Tailgate up down or off for best mileage? Any real world experiences??

morkable

Tailgate up, there has been testing done by mythbusters, and they found conclusively that it is better with the tailgate up.

kevin

tritont

I believe Mythbusters did a episode on the subject. IIRC, they found doesn't matter whether it's up, down or off you won't get better mileage. It's because of the way the air flow over a truck. It's broken right behind the cab and doesn't flow smoothly over the rest of the truck like you would see with a car.

Edit : I guess me and the guy above were watching two different shows. I'm just about positive they found it did not matter. Never the less.... I doubt there's much difference. If there is one is very significant.

P.J

Up, if you leave it down you will find that it gets sandblasted by the road eventually.

wap

The episod I saw said up, it makes a ball of air and some other stuff I dont want to go into, but if you drop the tailgate it messes up that ball.

tritont

I just did a search for that show and found this......

http://www.titantalk.com/forums/tita...e-episode.html

As these guys state.... a truck with the tailgate down ran out of gas 30 miles before the truck with it up. That's the show I saw ;-)

The bubble effect it what I was trying to think of that happens behind the cab.

morkable

It probably was the same show, they said that it wasnt a great ammount, but definately not worth dropping the tailgate. Not even a MPG.

Kevin

JPR Ram

I saw that episode....... Anyways, I drive 110 miles per day to and from work. I've tried both, and I NEVER saw a difference in mileage. I used a GPS to check the actual miles driven and a calculator to figure the mpg. (no such 'puter in my truck) So, the gate stays up. Besides, the truck looks way better with the gate closed/up......................

Treangen

What about off versus up or down?

JPR Ram

I think it's the same as just down............. maybe not????

wreedCTD

tailgate up.

OOK what does IIRC mean?

C4 Max

Not sure about the newer trucks, but I've seen quite a few beds bowed in from the lack of support the tailgate provides. Look into the small spoiler off the 1500, supposed to help the flow from dragging down the tailgate and hitting the bumper, putting extra drag as well.

annabelle

Up.......end of myth.

$oC@l CTD

Actually, didn't the Mythbusters find that if you removed the tail gate and put on a netted gate, it increased by like 1 tenth of a mile per gallon?

annabelle

Nope.......