Never tried it, should I ??? and Why ???

 

Less drag.

 

If you have a bed cover, I see no point in it. If you have no bed cover, it cuts the wind resistence down big time. Instead of the air flowing off and around your cab into your bed where its hit against the tail gate and causes major wind resistence/pressure, kinda like a spoiler but that pushed air back into the direction it came from, with your tail gate down there is none of that resistence, it all flows through with nothing to stop it. Lest resistnce = faster, thats why some fold their mirrors in also. Kinda confusing but I hope it gave you an idea.

 

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...ight=tail+gate

 

It's really one of those ideas that sounds logical, but in reality, isn't. You'd think with no bed over, if you drop the gate the air would flow right through the bed, instead of getting "scooped" by the tailgate. But what really happens back there is with the tailgate up, an air pocket forms in the bed, and air flows over the cab, hits the air pocket and flows right over it, just like a bed cover. When you lower the tailgate, you eliminate that air pocket, and that forces the air to go over the cab, and right down into the bed, acutally pushing the back of the truck down and creating MORE drag.

Personally, I don't think either method has a measureable affect on ETs.

Credit goes to Beefcake for this one; he's the one who explained this all to me.

 

With the tailgate down the air would flow through. With the tailgate up wouldn't the space behind the tailgate be like a vaccume, the air would swirl, or rush into the space, holding you back slightly? Just my 2 cents.

 

Actually one of the car makers did a wind tunnel test on this.

I read about it on this board over 2 years ago, one of the old guys posted it. Sorry cant remember a name. But the gist of it was.....Tail Gate Up.
Dale

 

Figured that was the reason, Thanks Sal, thanks everyone.
I have a soft cover, so I'll continue to keep mine up, just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

 

When you don't want people to see your license plate clearly you should leave the tailgate down. Unless you have a hinged license plate frame in conjunction with a roll pan and receiver bar.
This is especially useful when attempting high speed manuevers on public roads(of course never exceeding the speed limit.)

 

Take 1 minute and take it off. It weighs around 50 lbs.

Dan

 

unless you just want to dump the extra weight. There were some posts about this before and someone even found an Air Force Test that showed just what Sal is saying. There is an aerodynamic "dead zone" in the bed with the gate up. Plus, less chance of it getting damaged.

 

If you have ever ridden in a truck's bed at high speed,
you would notice that laying down removes ALL
turbulence, proving what Sal and Beefy said with
empirical data.

Cliff

(OLD West Virginia Truck Bed Riders ASSOC!)

 

I tried both methods at the track 2 years ago. It was too close to call but it looked a tick quicker with the tailgate up.

Later I read the article Dale was talking about that explained why you should leave the tailgate up.

 

I tried it at the track also (no cover). Up, down, off. Made 0 difference.

 

I think the Ladies like it up better....