I seem to remember that the best setup was actually no cover and tailgate up. Tailgate down worsened the mpg but but remember by how much

 

The tonneau works great for keeping things out of sight and out of mind of prying eyes. If they can't see it, they normally won't bother it.

I have the LUND Genesis tonneau that has no brackets on the truck so I take it on and off on a very regular basis. I just keep my tools underneath when I carry them.


G

 

With my hard cover I get little to no mileage improvement. The truck is a little quieter with the hard cover on.

While towing my 28 foot enclosed car hauler, I see a huge drop in fuel mileage (about 25%) with the cover in place, plus the trailer seems a lot heavier at highway speed. The cover seems to screw up the aerodynamics.

 

Just curious,

Who started the idea of the hard and soft covers on pickup trucks?.

Those hard and soft covers are very costly $$$., is it for the look?.

I have had 6 pickup trucks w/8t beds since 1970 and never wanted to cover the bed. Bought it to use it and without a slippery bed liner. I just put in the 3/8 rubber bed mat. Figured air that got over the cab was already gone and the Ford engineers designed it to be aerodynamic.

 

I think they look pretty good, and i can roll it up in about 30 seconds. But I could much rather use a tool box, and i like the look of them in trucks


PS: True blue looks awesome after its waxed for 4 hours

 

Sadly there s no differance...I could not measure any increase. "MythBusters" show also found 0 miles increases with a bed cover.

 

I currently use a Diamondback HD Aluminum Diamondplate truck cover. You can load up to 1600lbs on top and it's lockable. So you can carry tools & gear locked up plus load up on top of the cover. I like the open bed but I like even more the lockable cover to secure things and load on top. It can come completely off in about 10-15 minutes. But there are times I want the open bed too. Oh yea no mpg increase, it weighs over 150lbs!

 

Aerodynamics are very tricky and there is no real theory how to apply them. The only thing that works are tests, tests, tests in wind tunnels or on the road.
I remember the Myth Busters tailgate down lowered mpg, but that doesn't mean on other truck it will not increase it. My friend is driving his Ranger with tailgate down for years and he swears it is increasing his mpg.
My flatbed is having aerodynamics of open shoebox. Yet when I hook up my equipment trailer with dove tail -it will improve the aerodynamics of the truck enough to offset the resistance of 4500 lb of additional weigh. With trailer or not -I am having the same mpg. Part is that with trailer I am driving about 5mph slower.

 

it can't rain in the bed while you're moving!

 

Now if you can get your wife to load it and jump in at 60mph, your stuff will be dry! O dont stop at red lights or stop signs either!

 

One of the best things for better MPG is gonna be, getting/making a larger air dam to hang off the front of the truck to divert air from going under your truck.

 

I had 2 of those roll up hard covers, 1 just a cover, the 2nd where it rolled up into the tool box, both on 8ft beds. being able to hit a button and roll it up or out and lock was very very nice and I liked the security. I hate to say it though it only gave me a +1.5 fuel increase, in windy conditions though there was considerable difference in the truck reaction, but, not enough to warrent the $200.00 cost, but the security was worth it though.
As far as Mythbusters you can not go by anything they say, 1/2 the time they are wrong.

Sarge

 

I have an Undercover on my truck. No mpg increase I noticed when empty. When pulling my boats I notice the wind from the tonneu nails the boat and causes excess drag thus hurting mpg.

 

Where did you get that lame brain idea?

 

Check it out sometime...

Next time you're highway bound and have to drive through rain, notice that your bed stays dry.

Like was said above though, once you stop (or go slow enough with a tail wind) the air bubble created by the cab disappears.

I used this phenomenon a few times... Once, I left College Station with a guy I used to ride bulls with headed for Texarkana to a stock auction. Wasn't raining in CS, was just barely drizzling in Texarkana, and pouring rain in between. We had our rigging bags in the back of my pickup, and thought we'd have to ride wet once we got there, but noticed that there hadn't been a drop of rain fall inside the bed, while the wipers couldn't keep up on the windshield. So I rolled every stop, avoided red lights, and kept on moving until the rain mostly cleared.