Fuel Economy Tip - Keep Your Tailgate Up
Today's tip will probably come as a surprise to most of you, but will be especially useful for those of you who drive trucks.
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:
"When the tailgate is raised, a "separated bubble" 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."
So, get rid of that net you used to replace your tailgate and go ahead and drive around with your tailgate up!
Driving with your tailgate down doesn't help you save gas.
I'll be the first to admit, I bought into the notion that by having your truck's tailgate down while you're driving down the road (especially the highway) you would greatly increase your truck's fuel economy. Apparently that just isn'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:
"When the tailgate is raised, a "separated bubble" 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."
So, get rid of that net you used to replace your tailgate and go ahead and drive around with your tailgate up!
posted by Brian Carr at 9:33 PM
4 Comments:
good info, and had always wondered about that... well wondered about it to the extend that I never looked it up.
Thanks, I'm glad I was able to finally post something you agree with!! :)
This is great info. Not only did Mythbusters prove it, but so did the car guys years ago... and they both are MIT grads. Another important concern in the tailgate issue is that people look like tools when they do that. Even no tailgate is worse than a tailgate (sorry Pre-runner dudes)because the aerodynamics are very specific to the design.
I know it seems silly to discuss the aerodynamics of trucks... but I am on my fifth different type of truck and so am always up for learning
Glad to hear I could help you out. I was actually really surprised when I came across this information.
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