Tailgate, open or closed?

I just drove 4.5 hours from the San Francisco Bay area up to Fortuna CA, in the far northern part of the state. I had to drive with the tailgate down, and had no problems. NO chips of any kind. However, these things can happen at any time depending on what kind of roads you drive on, and of course, just what is ON the road at the time! Also, as someone else mentioned, if you have mudflaps, they will certainly help but not completely eliminate the chance of something popping up and hitting your lowered tailgate!

 

Many years ago I experimented with mpg by driving with a net across the bed and tail gate down, never got a road scratch.
But all TOYOTA SR5 trucks came standard with mud flaps back then, so there’s that

 

Different Gen, but my tailgate has been down for 60k miles, no chips. Rough wheeling, dirt roads & all, It's our front porch after all...

 

This.. why are people so afraid of a rock chip or a scratch.. these things are show cars, they are trucks.. If a couple of rock chips worry a person they really don't want to look at the in depth rocky mountain pin striping and rock chips on my truck..

 

I do this all winter no chips

 

Don’t do it OP! I put my tailgate down once to haul a Christmas tree and now its ruined!

 

Hauled stuff with my tailgate down dozens of times, never an issue. I always had black trucks too.

I wouldnt worry about unless you are on a gravel road.

 

Well, you should have asked TW for advice first... lesson learned.

 

7 feet? Just stick it in stump first, keep the tailgate up and have the tree sit at a slight angle hanging 2 feet out of the back. WTF why is this a thread?

 

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99.99% of people who buy/own pick-up trucks drive and use them as a regular car. Which is why the Honda Ridgeline is the only correct and properly built pick-up truck on the market. Everyone else has it wrong. These people "think" they "need" a pick-up truck, but they actually don't.

 

Tail gate down.
All I can see with my back up camera is the road surface.

 

Thats how i offroad actually, to see the obstacles when im in reverse. Works great!

 

He’d still need the tailgate down in a Ridgeline.

 

I do this all the time. Now I'm going to have to quit fishing

 

Yeah, but then I would understand him making a forum post about not wanting to get scratches/chips on his car.

Also the tailgate on the Ridgeline swings out, pretty sure it's highly illegal to drive that way but he's a cop so he will never get a ticket.