Hi I was just watching that Mythbusters episode where they see if driving with your tailgate down improves mileage and it got me thinking. What if you were to just remove the whole damn bed altogether?

Although it would be horribly impractical and probably not worth the loss of weight or added mileage...if any.

 

gotta have some type of bed, so unless you went with something like an all aluminium flatbed or similar I don't see the advantage. Might as well just sell it and buy a small gas miser car. But most of us drive a truck for a reason....

 

My buddy just started working in a shop that does custom fiberglass work and he gets all the fiberglass materials super cheap... He's got an 89 F150 302 and we are going to make some of the body panels into fiberglass on the outside to reduce weight. There is already a company that makes the 92-96 fenders out of fiberglass but they don't do 80-91 fender styles so their body part selection is kinda limited... We are going to try fiberglass front fenders, hood, and rear exterior box sides... You know the areas that typically rust... Well the main idea is reducing weight, getting rid of rust, and make a more rust proof truck in the future... Main concept is better looks and better mpgs. I guess we'll see how it goes. He's still in probationary period at this new job so if it holds out we'll try to get his truck fixed up... He's recording all his gas and milage so we can calculate what the fuel savings will be after he does each piece... We're basically going to make a mold of each piece out of fiberglass and then use the mold to make a fiberglass copy of the sheet metal we want... I am excited to see what we can come up with b/c fiberglass is so easy to fix and work with! It's his idea... I am kinda questioning how sturdy the bed will be after replacing the sheet metal exterior with a fiberglass one...

 

There was a magazine years back that did some tests with the tailgate up or down and it showed a 6% gas savings with the tailgate down. Driving with the tailgate down is illegal in most instances as I understand it. If you do a lot of highway driving and want the savings, I would remove the tailgate or get a tight fitting tarp to cover the whole bed to reduce wind resistance.

 

our trucks are basically bricks on wheels... you can't expect them to be aerodynamic!!! mythbusters said there is little to no savings on tailgate down or up... what little gas there is to be saved on our trucks is best spent in keeping them tuned up, a few worth while mods, and reducing the weight, and the stress on the engine while driving it (ie keep your foot off the floor). I guess the way I see it is that all my trucks are paid for and already way cheaper than buying a new truck and having a $400+ car payment... Plus the inevidable trip to the mechanic for broken things that are to advanced for a backyard mechanic to fix... If you expect 20+mpgs out of a 80-90's Ford your pretty hopeful and probably dreaming. You either need a smaller truck, a newer truck, or a car if your worried about the gas pump eating your wallet!

 

With a bed off a pickup truck, theres going to be a traction problem. I ran my 84 F250 for about a week with out a bed and did not like it one bit. Need weight over the rear end so the tires can get a bite. I burned rubber alot fun but not worth it.