Tonneau Cover Range Improvement numbers

[ZeusDriver]

A X4S was also my first purchase. Had it for about 18 months. I mainly got it because I liked the look of a covered bed better and it beats having to push snow out of the bed the once every 5-10 years we get any. Can't say I've noticed any discernible difference in mileage which lines up with every test I've seen. Shame mythbusters didn't do this test when they did their tailgate up v down. I averaged 2.2 at 60mph and 1.8 at 75 the month before I got it and still get the same. A brick is a brick is a brick after all.

Asked chatgpt to give me a more aerodynamic lightning. I ran out of tries to make it 4 door

How cool! I was an AI guy for a while when it was a hot investment in the mid 1980's -- and designed a quite successful expert system for diagnosing a packaging machine. Back then, I thought we'd be further along by now, but that second rendering is pretty impressive.

Sponsored

 

[PJnc284]

this is a "futuristic ev truck design"

 

[FloridaMan655321]

I started covering my truck beds for one single reason, to keep asshats from using my truck as their garbage can. Too fking lazy to keep holding that empty until they get to an actual trashcan, no they just drop it in the bed. Infuriates me would be describing it lightly.

This is such a strange thing that happens. I've literally never been holding an empty container and saw a bed truck and thought "let me throw it in there"

 

[FloridaMan655321]

This subject is so tired that I remember reading a study back in the late 90s that tested tailgate up, tailgate down (because that was a thing back then), and then those weird tailgates that had holes in them and looked like snowmobile fencing (except not orange). It was stated even back then that the air kept in the bed with the tailgate up created pressure to keep the airflow over the whole vehicle. So even back in the 90s we knew putting your tailgate down or having those air tailgate things were useless. Still applies with a tonneau cover.

 

[Firn]

I expect the bed of the Lightning is too short to make any difference.

Everything i have seen or read, including Ford themselves, says the air needs a place to "land" for efficiency gains. This is part of the reason the tailgate top is so big. But on our trucks the airflow off the top of the cab won't touch down till behind the gate.

Fwiw I have done tuft testing and did not observe any airflow off the cab hitting before the tailgate.

I bet it works on long beds. But not our trucks.

Sponsored