A tailgate post....

nastygunz · January 01, 2011, 01:23:38 PM

..in the Tailgate section

Fuel Economy Tip â€" Keep Your Tailgate Up
by Brian Carr

Todayâ€™s tip will probably come as a surprise to most of you, but will be especially useful for those of you who drive trucks.

Driving with your tailgate down doesnâ€™t help you save gas.

Iâ€™ll be the first to admit, I bought into the notion that by having your truckâ€™s tailgate down while youâ€™re driving down the road (especially the highway) you would greatly increase your truckâ€™s fuel economy. Apparently that just isnâ€™t true.

According to several sites (Ask Yahoo! for example) state that you get roughly the same gas mileage driving with your tailgate up as you do when your tailgate is down.

According to the Ask Yahoo! article, this is the reason why:

â€œWhen the tailgate is raised, a â€œseparated bubbleâ€ of stagnant air is formed in the bed of the pickup. Wind tends to swoosh over this bubble as though it were part of the truck. Lower the tailgate, and the bubble disappears, which leads to increased wind resistance.â€

So, get rid of that net you used to replace your tailgate and go ahead and drive around with your tailgate up!

Hawks Feather · January 01, 2011, 02:01:41 PM

Thanks, but I always try to keep my tailgate up. I feel so exposed when it is down.

Jerry

FinsnFur · January 01, 2011, 02:46:52 PM

http://www.scangauge.com/support/tailgate.shtml

BigB · January 01, 2011, 08:18:21 PM

Didn't mythbusters do a TV episode on the tailgate up vs tailgate down?

Brian

nastygunz · January 02, 2011, 07:51:44 PM

They sure did thats what got me interested n the subject

FinsnFur · January 02, 2011, 07:53:43 PM

How did it pan out on MythBusters?
I still drop my gate when I have to drive across the states to get my daughters. I may just stop doing that

nastygunz · January 03, 2011, 08:26:03 PM

'Anybody see MythBusters tailgate down v.s tailgate up episode? They drove two identicle F-150's the same way over the same stretch of road at the same time and found that the F150 with the tailgate down ran out of gas thirty miles before the one with the tailgate up.'

FinsnFur · January 04, 2011, 08:28:08 AM

Interesting

THO Game Calls · January 07, 2011, 01:38:14 PM

Perhaps you should forward this to Public Service of New Hampshire Nastyguns.

They run a fleet of small GMC Pick Up Trucks that have all had their tailgates removed and a cargo net installed in their place.

Obviously there was a cost involved in doing this, and the added fuel cost to run their fleet are both added into our electric bills, which are among the highest in the country.