[Slade8]

Though I keep my truck clean after every wash I have to deal with white water deposits in the bed of my truck so I thought I would look into buying a cover for it. I noticed an ad here on TT for access.com bed roll up bed covers etc. They claim that scientific data proves you can get up to 10% better fuel mileage by covering the bed of your truck. I thought mythbusters proved this wrong.. so I googled it and found this video. Yes, I know the "up to 10%" statement could be considered true if it's only a 1% increase.

YouTube - Insert from MythBusters - Tailgate Up or Down 2 (from More Myths Revisited) fuel consumption test

 

[Slade8]

Wow what a response and thanks to everyone for throwing in their two cents. From the responses and mythbusters it doesn't sound like the cover will ever get you more than a few percent of better gas mileage. Unless you drive with a cross wind all the time(which is what we have in the summer here in the desert:bump.I do like the look and function of it though.
There's also a couple things that are obvious and that's if you bought a Titan in the last couple of years you don't care about fuel economy in a truck. Just like I didn't when gas prices were below $2.00 a gallon in 2005 . Hence the 2005 LE I drive.:teethmast

 

[Slade8]

I'm sorry guys but I have owned truck covers on my last three trucks and they each got a bit better milage with them on. The faster I went cruising, the bigger the reduction in fuel usage. Now as to the test in the video. Am I wrong or did their flow meter say 5.0+ gallons per hour when he announced he was doing 55 mph? If so, then that means a truck that is getting 11mpg or less at 55mph. I don't know of any truck that is that terrible on gas. Here is another point. It seems to me that the faster you would go, the better a cover would work and the worse an open bed would be. 55mph is a poor testing speed imo. How about 65mph or 70 like most highways are posted? I think there would be a significant change in the results then. What do you think?

Good point! you are correct imo where speed is a factor to consider. Here in vegas it is normal to drive around 85mph plus on the highway and near 90-100mph going between cali and vegas. I know their are calculators out there that use mass to calulate how low your drag coefficient would have to be in order to reach a top speed. So it makes since that the increased drag at higher speeds could make your truck benefit more from any of the things they tried.