In the following video the Mythbusters examine the following modifications to a truck's bed to see how it affects the truck's MPG:
Oddly enough, the truck used in the test is Jamie's trusty Dodge Dakota (de-badged... I guess Dodge didn't want to pay for any advertising!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3aqHbD-O9E&feature=related
Here are the results:
WORST: Tailgate down
BEST: Mesh Tailgate (a little more than 5% savings)
All of the rest were relatively the same, and having installed a tonneau recently I can confirm the lack of an MPG boost.
MORAL: If you're buying a tonneau for the sole reason of improving your MPG you're wasting your money. It seems like there's a lot of MPG improvement myths when it comes to vehicles, but this one is especially bad because tonneau-cover MPG improvements seems so intrinsically plausible. The bed just seems like a massive wind catcher!
This also shows that you shouldn't trust any manufacturer's claim on MPG improvement. With the internet, it's trivially easy to verify their claims so spend 15 minutes before spending a few hundred dollars on snake oil. Perfect example for me is the Throttle Body spacer. They supposedly improve MPG, but a quick search on the web told me (for the types of engines in a Dakota) that this really is a big scam.
Oh, and always be skeptical of perfectly nice round numbers! Many tonneaus claim a nice, neat, and perfect 10% improvement.
- Tailgate up (control test)
- Tailgate down
- Hard top tonneau
- Mesh tailgate
- No tailgate
Oddly enough, the truck used in the test is Jamie's trusty Dodge Dakota (de-badged... I guess Dodge didn't want to pay for any advertising!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3aqHbD-O9E&feature=related
Here are the results:
WORST: Tailgate down
BEST: Mesh Tailgate (a little more than 5% savings)
All of the rest were relatively the same, and having installed a tonneau recently I can confirm the lack of an MPG boost.
MORAL: If you're buying a tonneau for the sole reason of improving your MPG you're wasting your money. It seems like there's a lot of MPG improvement myths when it comes to vehicles, but this one is especially bad because tonneau-cover MPG improvements seems so intrinsically plausible. The bed just seems like a massive wind catcher!
This also shows that you shouldn't trust any manufacturer's claim on MPG improvement. With the internet, it's trivially easy to verify their claims so spend 15 minutes before spending a few hundred dollars on snake oil. Perfect example for me is the Throttle Body spacer. They supposedly improve MPG, but a quick search on the web told me (for the types of engines in a Dakota) that this really is a big scam.
Oh, and always be skeptical of perfectly nice round numbers! Many tonneaus claim a nice, neat, and perfect 10% improvement.
