Bestop is killing my MPG!!!

All in all, Iam happy with my Bestop so I dont think it will dissapoint you. I was more shocked by the fact that its causing this much drag and milage reduction. My reccomendtation would be to either remove the windows, lay it flat if, or jsut remove it if not needed for long freeway trips.

 

So I just filled up at lunch today for my first tank without my Bestop and I avereaged 18.9 mpg. I got almost 400 miles on 20 gallons. 381.8 miles from gps, 383 miles from scan gauge, and 344 miles from trip meter (344 time 1.10, my tire cal factor on scan gauge, give me 378 miles).

Thats easily the best milage i have ever gotten. I figure if I did a whole tank on the freeway and stayed at 65 I could easily average over 21 mpg a tank right now. Not to shabby. Plus I know my air filter is WAY dirty, my truck jsut threw a CEL P0101 code today. That was for the MAF Sensor. I reset it and it hasnt come back on but I am going to pull my air filter and clean it tonight. I havent cleaned it in a couple months and a few dusty, dirty offroad trips so I know it needs it. Plus I will give my MAF a blast with some MAF cleaner. Should solve any problems and improve my milage slightly I hope.

 

i have a softopper,and i get regularly 20mpg. Though i never have driven with the sides rolled up for any distance.And that's in some stop and go traffic,some 65 mph speeds.I love my top.And it does'nt leak at all!Even in driving rain storms.A little diff.than the Bestop,but close in design.

 

That's good info! Thanks for sharing that.

I mainly do my mileage based on $ per distance. I know exactly how far $30 will get me. If my light comes on, I toss $30 in it, and I'm at half a tank.

I pulled my Bestop off (just the top and hoops) last night to go put a sectional couch in the back, so I'll leave it off until next Sunday and see if my $30 gets me any further than it does with it on and no windows.

I do agree with the heat/sun playing a roll. Mine got really saggy and loose once it started hitting 100 or so.

 

Ninja,
Any more info on your milage since you took off your Bestop?

I almost always fill my tank up when I hit a gas station. I have a pretty good idea of what milage i get based on how full my tank is. I cant use the $ to figure out milage because gas prices fluctuate so much as I travel all over in my truck, differant states and such and there can be as much as a dollar per gallon difference depending on where I fill up so I just go by milage/gallons.

We both come out with the same info, we just use differant ways to get there.

 

I dunno, I've had mine for quite a while now and I consistently get good milage on and off the highway - better on the highway actually, as you'd expect. I can only wonder if there's some other factor(s) affecting your milage.

 

My gas light just came on around 4 this morning, right when I was pulling up in the driveway. I wrote down my mileage from when I started, then this morning, and all my gas receipts for the week.

Lemme hammer out the details here as I'm waking up and see what I come up with.

Kenney

 

The only differance was the removal of the Bestop. Driving stayed the same. In fact I didnt even take the Bestop off to check milage, I jsut took it off for shits and giggles, no real reason so I was shocked and suprised when my milage turned out to be that much better.

I think one big thing is that down here in Arizona the heat allows the Bestop to REALLY stretch a lot becoming loose and floppy. This allows it to be pushed sucked in on the sides and top really turning the thing into a very un-aerodynamic shape.

Ninja, thanks. I am interested to see your numbers. I am on my 3rd tank without the bestop and my average of those three is around 20mpg. This one is my lowest at around 18.5 mpg because its 95% in town driving.

 

Sorry, did all that work this morning and left to go work on my boat without saying anything.

From the looks of things, I gained a whole 6 miles out of half a tank without the top on. Very negligible in my mind. This is 80% freeway and 20% street.

I figure my mileage to be right around 20.3 mpg. If I aired up my tires ALOT, it would probably be a bit better. But, having to constantly air up and down almost daily, I just bring them up to between 32-35 psi each time.

 

i have a softopper, not a bestop, and just finished a roadtrip from dallas to the grand canyon and back and my mileage stayed about the same at 20ish mpg

 

Interesting. Some people have said they seen a loss of milage, others havent. I will have to play around with it up and down and see if perhaps that is the difference or not.

 

I may concur with this finding, I am testing it now with top up.

 

I have had my Hard top A.R.E on since i bought it. Sure its sucking more gas due to its weight. I should try driving without it too. Thing is its heavy and big that i need another guy to pull it off (and safely store it).

 

Yea, your going to be heavier than our Bestop but assuming yours isnt one of those ones with the raised hump in them you will be more aerodynamic than our bestop. Its a safe assumption you will gain 2-3 mpg back once you take it off just due to the weight.

 

I notice recently I get lower MPG also. I have my bestop on all the time but w/o the windows attached. I do feel wind drag at times, I will do some testing with the top on and off when I get the truck back.

 

(I'm a little late but I thought I would post anyway).

I have a Softopper for my Tacoma D-cab short bed. It's similar to a Bestop but can be installed or taken down much quicker, like in 6-minutes. I noticed if I have the top installed the mpg doesn't change much at slower speeds (less than 40mph), but if I drive fast (70+ mph) my mpg will drop about 3 mpg.

 

Actually, it's good you posted that! I forgot about this thread entirely. It'd be a good repository of experience with canvas tops, should anyone accidentally use the SEARCH function.

Now's as good a time as any to update my findings after a couple seasons:

I just drove to Phoenix and back this last week (~300 miles each way) and made a couple observations. On the way there, it was a ton of up-hill pulls, but essentially ended up at the same elevation i'm at in Las Vegas. I had to stop once (close to 1/4 tank) in Surprise to throw a few $$ in the tank. This is with nearly 200lbs of wedding gifts in the bed and all windows removed.

On the way back, I topped off in Fountain Hills and made the whole push back to Vegas (317 miles total) and landed at the door step at 1/4 tank. No real wind to speak of in either direction. The trip back was an empty run.

 

Very old post I know, but I remembered this Tacoma in particular when I read this post...


































If I could pay someone to fabricate something like this for me out of fiber glass, I would do it in a heart beat! I rarely use the bed, mostly just to throw my mountain bike in it, fishing gear, or beach stuff.

I would pay $$ for this, mostly because I like the look of the "shell". But I'm sure the rest of the truck really helps the look of that particular shell. haha