Any Adverse Effects???

from riding with the tailgate down a long period of time? or on long trips? the way I haul our mountain bikes I can either leave it down and have the back wheel sit on the tailgate or I can leave it up and have the back wheel strapped down to the top of the plastic on top of the tailgate. just wondering if I am gonna mess something up riding with it down? we travel a lot to ride our bikes, so we can drive up to around 300 miles depending on where we are going.

 

These trucks are built for it. Your cam may get a little dirty but it should be completely fine.

 

Read somewhere that you get worse MPG with the tailgate down. Other than that there are no other adverse effects that I can think of.

 

No. My old Tundra has 160k miles on it, probably 80k of those are with the tailgate down. The retaining straps have stretched, but not enough to warrant replacing them.

 

They actually proved this on an episode of Myth Busters!

 

Tailgate down puts a lot of stress on the cables, and if you ever get rear-ended ...