weight v. mpg.

[cycloneace55]

If there's nothing in the bed of your truck, drop the tailgate and you achieve the same efficiency.

This is a myth that has been addressed on Mythbusters. Dropping the tailgate increases the drag created by the cab of the turck and REDUCES the fuel effiecncy. With the tail gate up it creates a pocket of air behind the cab the causes the air to flow over the bed and tailgate and not be drawn down into the bed. I know it sounds counter intuitive but the logic makes sense once I saw the experiment the gus on Mythbusters did. Got 2 identical trucks, filled both up with gas, drove them until they ran out of gas. The tailgate was up on one and down on the other, and the one with the tailgate down ran out of gas miles before the one with the tailgate up did.

[Phaedrus]

This is a myth that has been addressed on Mythbusters. Dropping the tailgate increases the drag created by the cab of the turck and REDUCES the fuel effiecncy. With the tail gate up it creates a pocket of air behind the cab the causes the air to flow over the bed and tailgate and not be drawn down into the bed. I know it sounds counter intuitive but the logic makes sense once I saw the experiment the gus on Mythbusters did. Got 2 identical trucks, filled both up with gas, drove them until they ran out of gas. The tailgate was up on one and down on the other, and the one with the tailgate down ran out of gas miles before the one with the tailgate up did.

Ummm, if you read the thread, you'll see the response three before yours says exactly the same thing.

Just pointin' this out, yer friendly internet ranger....