Tonneau Cover And Mileage

daveor · April 27, 2010

will a tonneau cover increase your mpg? have heard that it will but have never had one before. 2008 5.3 z71, Just got back from a trip to Iowa from Oregon, lots of wind and 75 mph speed limit. Got 15.7 overall. Thanks,, DAve

Matt_ · April 27, 2010

if you buy one specifically for a mpg increase, you'd be a fool.

buy one for the functionality of it.. and if you get a .5-1mpg increase, all the better.... but don't expect to get that out of it.

Diesail · April 27, 2010

yeah, good luck with that.

Zembonez · April 27, 2010

I had a tonneau cover on mine before I got the shell. I never got any better or worse mileage with it. I also expected a drop in mileage when I got the shell, but the mileage has remained the same. I'm glad!

jblakeney · April 27, 2010

I can offer this..... The worst I have ever hydroplaned was in a truck just like mine with a ARE Tonneau cover....

Basically I was driving and the back end got up on the water I noticed the engine changed sounds..... Felt the back end was floaty........ My buddy was in the passengers seat drunk outta his mind....... AHHhh, another story.... It was his truck. It was raining so FREEKN hard.... His tires were pretty good, no where near the wear beads.

Best I could figure it reduced the load on the rear end at speed...... But IDK......

I would like to have one on my truck... I frequently have stuff I would like to be able to toss in the back of the truck with out worrying about getting it all wet.

Jbo

Edit: Don't flame me about hydroplaning is a common thing..... This was way to weird... I know how trucks hydroplane I have been driving them for quite a while (I don't even panic any more)....... I have never had one do like that truck did that day..

daveor · April 28, 2010

thanks guys,, was kicking around the idea of a tonneau cover and wondered if it would affect mileage.. DAve

grimmysnr · April 28, 2010

On my 06 when it was brand new i ran without a cover for 3-4 months before finally getting one. I would average 17.5-22 MPG on the highway being particular gas concious. I bought a Truxedo Rollup soft cover and actually lost mileage and averaged 15-17.5.

Mythbuster's also did a show on this and debunked this theory showing it was actually more fuel efficient to leave the cover off.

I will say that despite my MPG loss it was still the single best thing I put on that truck. I could put stuff in the bed and not worry about it getting stolen, or effected by weather, or blown away while driving. Made it really easy to kick the snow off in the winter. Then when I needed to put big stuff like camping gear or the ATV's id just roll it up and do so. Plus it made the truck look really nice got a lot of compliments just from the cover alone. I got the low profile one so I shined up the bed rails and used some Rubber and vinyl cleaner and shined up the cover. Id say get one its just a nice thing to have. I didnt particularly care for the hard tops though, pretty much limits what you can do with your bed unless u feel like taking that thing on and off a bunch of times.

kawtoy_77 · April 28, 2010

The g/f's father has a 95 Chevy Ext Cab 4x4 (350cid) with a hard tonneau. He said he went from 18 mpg to 19 mpg. FWIW, He also is never in a hurry and drives 50mph everywhere.