I saw a Seadon't fall out on a launch ramp once. Course they couldn't close the tailgate anyway.

 

But was the tailgate up or down? :o

 

That's a very good question...and one to which I have not the slightest idea. I would imagine that you'd be in some type of violation...being that your license plate would still be obstructed, but I honestly don't know. Heck, you can get a ticket for driving with snow covering your plate.

 

I'm sure you know your states law.
That's not the case in Virginia.

It just sounded like a strange law to me, especially when just about every truck manufacturer makes these things:

 

How it works... when the tailgate is down you are creating more area for air to push down on your truck causing more coefficient drag whereas when the tailgate is up, the air that lands in the bed creates a rolling effect that allows additional air to easily flow over the bed/box.

........................................... ...................

 

My buddy tried driving from Michigan out to Las Vegas with his tailgate down hoping to improve his gas milage on his F150. Not only didn't his milage improve, but his tailgate was all dinged up from slamming on his rear bumper everytime he hit a bump in the road.

It was a brand new truck also. I felt bad for him but still laugh about it to this day. People just don't think about the obvious before they try this stuff.

 

Right. What he said.

I was just about to type this....

 

Good point.

 

I did a road trip last week (303 miles each way) where I tried this just out of curiosity.

On the way there I drove tailgate down and averaged 16.2 mpg
On the way home I drove tailgate up and averaged 15.5 mpg

No traffic and was able to cruise both directions with the cruise control locked in at 73 mph. (speed confirmed by GPS) Nothing overly scientific about it... and just letting the onboard MPG computer calculate the milage.

Really I think it's a wash either way and would perhaps depend on the individual truck design and cruising speed. My father claims that he could get almost an additional 10 mph top end speed out of his '60s truck with the gate down. But I know how his fishing stories change from year to year.

Next trip will be with my new RollBak cover I just installed.

 

doesn't

 

I did the same thing but mine was the other way around I drove 500 miles round trip.
On the way there tailgate down and got 12 mpg
On the way home tailgate up and got 13.5 mpg.
My truck used to really suck on gas until I got my Edge Evo.

 

Yeah,

An Engineer buddy of mine said it's ment o be up, it's what holds the rear together if you get into a wreck!

 

It's interesting, the Mythbusters also did the show showing a tailgate net and improved fuel mileage. Thats like having both tailgate up and down. Someone explain this to me

 

Not really the same. With the tailgate down, you've increased the total bed surface area. With a net, the air can flow through and the surface area has not been increased. In a wind tunnel, my guess is the air behind the truck is pretty clean as well. Turbulence kills mileage and efficiency.

 

I say the same think every time I see one with it down. It also holds the truck together better in a rear end collision.