Tonneau Covers and MPG

[bills]

I'm surprised y'all aren't seeing much difference. I drove my truck home from dealer when I got it, 2 hours, 140 miles. Averaged 16 MPG at between 70-75 MPH. Truck was already leveled with magnaflow catback and AFE air intake. I drove it back about a month later for an event that I had near the dealer, and on the way there and back, I was going, once again, between 70-75. And I averaged between 20-22 MPG. That's on a CCSB Sierra SLT. By the time that I went back I had time to purchase and install my BAK Roll-X tonneau. It helped my mileage a lot!

 

Other myths like leaving the tailgate open are just BS, leaving the tailgate open, or even removing it all together (which is surprisingly the worst thing to do) disrupt the airflow over the truck that flows down to the bed, causing far more drag becuase the air flow can not become uniform like it can with the tailgate up. The tailgate up keeps the air flowing in a circular movement which basically repels some of the air that comes over the cab. Therefore keeping the drag less.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Could be the difference between a head wind and a tail wind. Just my .02 worth.

[2014MallCrawler]

You got it from a dealer with 21 miles on it and a leveling kit magnaflow exhaust and a cold air intake .... What dealer does that

When my truck left the lot I had 15 miles with a fabtech lift, 35" tires, exhaust, intake, bed cover and bed liner and tune.... Whats weird about that? All the custom work is done in house.

[gilles81]

The dealers around here say omg you have a k&n air filter that's why the tail lights don't work

[Mike1220]

Could be the difference between a head wind and a tail wind. Just my .02 worth.

I thought that may have been it at first, but I watched the instant mileage on the DIC the while time and it didn't change much except when accelerating. And also those are both averages from 2hr road trips so I don't think the winds stayed with me the whole duration

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ventilator]

Believe it or not, I got 28.2 MPG over a 19 mile stretch between 2 towns today on a rural 55 MPH highway. 27.0 MPG for the last 25 miles, and 26.8 MPG for the 25.6 miles when I parked in my garage. And no it is not down hill, it is flat, with a slight tailwind. Can't believe it took me 8 months of ownership to crack the code, but we had a long hard cold winter, so cut me some slack. Going to be even more fun now. Then we'll see if it is repeatable, and if the numbers add up at the pump.

[bass mechanic]

Believe it or not, I got 28.2 MPG over a 19 mile stretch between 2 towns today on a rural 55 MPH highway. 27.0 MPG for the last 25 miles, and 26.8 MPG for the 25.6 miles when I parked in my garage. And no it is not down hill, it is flat, with a slight tailwind. Can't believe it took me 8 months of ownership to crack the code, but we had a long hard cold winter, so cut me some slack. Going to be even more fun now. Then we'll see if it is repeatable, and if the numbers add up at the pump.

I absolutely believe it, I get 23 MPG highway with my 2014 6.2L AT running 75-80 mph.

I do live at 5800-6200 feet asl but I have some theroys..

ive found that at 75 mph I can just barely stay in the V4 mode. I think the 6.2 makes more torque with the same applied throttle than the 5.3 if I was driving 55 mph I know for a fact I can do that all day in V4 mode and I know for a fact when I drive that speed my mpgs are easy to keep in the 27 mpg range.

 

here is whats really interesting, I was driving through the middle of Denver one day over about 25 miles in traffic that was flowing about 45 mph a few stops here and there but my 25 mile average was showing 28 mpg at the end of my trip.

the thing is to get mpg like this you have to be trying for it, use no more throttle than you need and coast whenever possible. the heavy truck carries speed pretty good and if you can predict the traffic ahead you can get some good mpg.

[2014MallCrawler]

Well... I took my bed cover off and i dropped .1 mpg on my last 50 miles. LOL dont think it really works.

[Mike1220]

Well... I took my bed cover off and i dropped .1 mpg on my last 50 miles. LOL dont think it really works.

Did the 50 miles that you had it on for consist of very similar driving habits, conditions, weight of cargo in truck and other factors? If not then saying that it's not effective because you only dropped .1 MPG isn't saying much becuase the tests weren't the same.

 

Try going through about 3-5 tanks of gas. 3 with the cover on and 3 with it off. While trying to keep your driving habits the same for all 6+ tanks. I'm curious of the results in a lifted K2.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[2014MallCrawler]

If you want to know the MPG of the truck thats easy. I've had it for a while now. I averaged 14.9 in mixed driving mostly city and 18.6 on mostly highway travels.