Anyone take off their tailgate?

https://www.f150online.com/galleries....cfm?gnum=4132

 

Labratory tests indicate that it actually decreases fuel mileage. The tests say that the pocket of air created in front of the tailgate actually helps the airstream continue over the bed. There are other's out there that swear it does help. The difference seems to be minimal either way.

 

And the tailgate acts as a structural member too. If you've ever seen an old pickup without it's gate, or an airgate you'll see the bed sidewalls flexing. It's not worth it.

-ii

 

^^^ Yeah, what they said. ^^^

 

The bed of your truck with the tailgate closed forms a low pressure area just like a dimple in a golf ball. This disrupts the air allowing your truck to move through it more easily. Try hitting a smooth ball and then a dimpled one. If they have a similar structrue the dimpled one wil go twice as far. Just my 2cents.

 

Exactly!

 

I have heard that by leaving the tailgate down (or off), your compromising the structual integrity of the vehicle.
This could be a big problem, for example: if another vehicle, lets say a Titan is driving down the opposite side of the road, swerves into your lane due to temporary blindness caused by cheap interior materials and unbalanced exterior looks, the impact of the toaster grill could actually do more overall damage to your F-150 than if the tail gate was up.

 

If the tailgate off actually decreases mileage, what about the guys with a tonneau that effectively remove that entire area thus denying the formation of that 'low pressure' area?

I've always heard of guys talking about getting nominally better gas mileage with a tonneau? How would it be different?

Oh yeah, one sure fire way to increase a little on the mpg is to kick the wife out of the front seat and make her sit at home... HA! Whoops. Did I say that out loud? LOL!

JK!

RP

 

RockPick, What happens when the tailgate is down (or off) is the air comes right over the roof and slams down on the most rearward part of the bed floor, creating even more resistance than the gate does. If you've ever driven a soft tonneau on the highway, you can see this. The tonneau prevents this. The lab test said the best thing was actually a cap.

As far as your second comment, YES! Plus you can listen to YOUR music as loud as you want, none of that talking stuff.

 

On the flip-side of the coin, if you are THAT worried about the 1/100th of a MPG that either having the tailgate down OR up may have, perhaps you would be better off driving a Honda Civic, no?

I'm sorry, but these types of posts drive me nuts.

Its a 5700 lbs. truck with a V-8 motor. Its gonna suck some gas, and no, removing the tailgate, leaving it up, putting a bed cover on or spraying the underbody with Marvins Mystery Undercoating is not going to affect the gas mileage to any effect.

The rules are simple:

1) The heavier your right foot is, the lower your MPG is.
2) If you are in 4WD, your MPG will go down.

Its that simple.

 

Agrees with ^

 

The new trucks have such deep wells, maybe that changes the swirl in the rear some. Would think just from a geometrical stance that a tonneau might be most helpful on these new trucks. Not an engineer and have no idea if lowering the tailgate or removing it would matter much. Rather doubt it based on past studies. Also doubt that no matter what you do that you will gain enough mpg to worry much about it.

 

It doesn't help from what I've saw. I drove 470 miles to Florida with my tailgate closed on my 2001 SD V10, according the the overhead computer I was getting 15.1 mpg. Waited 2 days and drove the same 470 miles back home with the tailgate open, according to the overhead computer I was getting 15.2 mpg. I drove the same both ways, which was WFO! It's not worth it to me to risk the structural integretiy of my truck to pick up 1/10th mpg.

 

Hey Blitzkrieg - Thanks for all the words of wisdom. I be sure to go out a purhase a civic! Thanks also for the education about what impacts gas milage - I had never equated gas pedal depression with gas milage - that's a great piece of information!

FYI - If I ned any lip out you I'll pull it off my zipper BTW are you a Titan owner?

 

Ahh, the joys of public message boards.

Like tpeterson mentioned, thanks for the words of wisdom blitz. We are all better people for reading that post.

Secondly, if a thread of this nature drives you nuts, why even bother opening it and even further, why bother posting to it with a smart-**** bit of banter that is useless to the body of the thread.

We all have to get along in here and stirring the pot is something that we all frown upon in a great big fluffy way. If you have something informative or something that can contribute to a thread in a POSITIVE manner, feel free to post; otherwise, please ignore threads like this and sit on the sidelines and be 'nuts' about not playing in the game. In your words, 'it's just that simple'.

Moving on...

momalle1: Makes sense to me. I understand Brunelli's Principal about fluids in motion and, in this sense, it applies directly to what we're discussing. Muchas gracias!

RP