College Study on Tonneau Covers saving mpg

http://www.fordf150.net/misc/tonneau-covers-save-mpg-article.php

Baseline of the study = 16mpg
With Tonneau = 17.18

 

Recently added one to my Tundra and so far my mileage has gone from an average of 15.2 to a beefy 15.4. Same gas station, same driving habits.

 

Normally there are to many variables in daily driving to know if a mod is having the advertised effect. Unless you are doing stringent tests then it's tough to say how your "driving habits" are effecting your tanks. 1 extra highway trip can change a whole tank by over +-1mpg. A tonneau has a fixed effect on coefficient drag which has a direct correlation on fuel efficiency. At highway speeds over half the horse power needed is to overcome drag, so the tonneau will have a greater benefit to someone doing more high speed trips.

 

I live in the sticks and run 95% highway miles. Not saying anything for or against, just tossing out my anecdotal results so far that have shown a very slight increase. Hell, at 15 mpg I'll take any increase I can get!

 

Didn't Mythbusters do a show on this?

 

^^ yeah they did but i cant remember their outcome for it

 

It was on tailgates being up or down I believe, didn't change anything if I remember correctly. More like a placebo imo.

 

tail gate up gave you slightly better mpg while tail gate down lessened it. The mesh for a tail gate yield the best mpg.

 

They also did one with a van, windows down ac off vs windows up with the ac on. IIRC results were the same, so they said you might as well be comfortable with the ac on.

 

Aerodynamics ladies and gents.

You have a higher and smaller revolving ball of air behind the cab, which allows the air to be more gently replaced, giving you better mileage once you're cruising around town/highway.

Hard shells give even better mpg because they streamline the stop of the truck.

 

Pickup truck aerodynamics

Just a quickie,based on T-100/Dodge research

*Flatbed ------------------------- Cd 0.668
*Pickup bed (open)---------------- Cd 0.44
*Full tonneau --------------------- Cd 0.415
*Suburban type roof (Lear cap)---- Cd 0.39
*GM' Half-tonneau -----------------Cd 0.357
*Texas Tech Aero Shell ----------- Cd 0.352
*ITworks double-geometry shell --- Cd 0.325
*Complete boat-tail -------------- Cd 0.12