Which One Will Help Better For Mileage

[Dano07]

I am looking at getting a tonneau cover or a programmer/tune. i was wondering which one you think would be better for fuel mileage. I am thinking the cover will help more.

[VMax2007]

Think again....

 

Neither will do much though. A tune "can", but more than likely, you will "enjoy" the added power/driveability too much which will offset any MPG gains.

[Darkanion]

The best and cheapest way to adjust your fuel mileage to to adjust your driving.

[Guest Riggs]

a cover of almost any sort will help fuel mileage..... but get a nice one... it will take about a year to pay itself off,

 

and a tune will help somewhat but with all the extra power/driveability you might actually lose it....

[Nick The Great]

I know what some say about Mythbusters, but they busted the whole tonneau / tailgate issue.

 

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/12/episode...s_revisite.html

 

I agree with the others, the best way to improve mileage is to watch your right foot. I'm sure certain tunes could do something, but your time and $ could be better spent.

[slimjim2525]

 

 

The best and cheapest way to adjust your fuel mileage to to adjust your driving.

Absolutely. I just did this, this past week. My average up until this was 15.7mpg, going 75 on the highway, and in general 10mph over the speed limit everywhere. This last tank I set the cruise everywhere at the posted speed limit, and coasted to stop lights etc. I got 18.6mpg, and almost 400 miles on the tank, which is still going until the light goes on. I ususally got 330-340 miles per tank before this. I'm slowing down until gas gets cheaper, if ever.

[therealdeal770]

The best and cheapest way to adjust your fuel mileage to to adjust your driving.

Absolutely. I just did this, this past week. My average up until this was 15.7mpg, going 75 on the highway, and in general 10mph over the speed limit everywhere. This last tank I set the cruise everywhere at the posted speed limit, and coasted to stop lights etc. I got 18.6mpg, and almost 400 miles on the tank, which is still going until the light goes on. I ususally got 330-340 miles per tank before this. I'm slowing down until gas gets cheaper, if ever.

 

 

Im in the same boat. iwent from jackrabbit starts and driving 80+mph to starting easy and going posted limit.I have gone from 14.7 to 17.3 in the Driver Info Center. I dont see how anyone gets 20 mpg with these trucks like Ive seen posted because I know my throttle hasent been more than 20% down on this tank.

[zxcv]

The best and cheapest way to adjust your fuel mileage to to adjust your driving.

Absolutely. I just did this, this past week. My average up until this was 15.7mpg, going 75 on the highway, and in general 10mph over the speed limit everywhere. This last tank I set the cruise everywhere at the posted speed limit, and coasted to stop lights etc. I got 18.6mpg, and almost 400 miles on the tank, which is still going until the light goes on. I ususally got 330-340 miles per tank before this. I'm slowing down until gas gets cheaper, if ever.

 

 

Im in the same boat. iwent from jackrabbit starts and driving 80+mph to starting easy and going posted limit.I have gone from 14.7 to 17.3 in the Driver Info Center. I dont see how anyone gets 20 mpg with these trucks like Ive seen posted because I know my throttle hasent been more than 20% down on this tank.

 

 

They drive downhill to work...and downhill again back home.

[gvbhunt]

I know what some say about Mythbusters, but they busted the whole tonneau / tailgate issue.

 

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/12/episode...s_revisite.html

 

I agree with the others, the best way to improve mileage is to watch your right foot. I'm sure certain tunes could do something, but your time and $ could be better spent.

That is only true for trucks with a full length bed. Check this article out...

SAE paper on truck drag

 

Since his truck is a crew cab short bed he will benefit from a reduction in drag.

 

But you are correct. Egg under foot = better mileage 100% of the time.

[Nick The Great]

I know what some say about Mythbusters, but they busted the whole tonneau / tailgate issue.

 

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/12/episode...s_revisite.html

 

I agree with the others, the best way to improve mileage is to watch your right foot. I'm sure certain tunes could do something, but your time and $ could be better spent.

That is only true for trucks with a full length bed. Check this article out...

SAE paper on truck drag

 

Since his truck is a crew cab short bed he will benefit from a reduction in drag.

 

But you are correct. Egg under foot = better mileage 100% of the time.

 

 

I have the document, I just forgot I did.

 

But what you say is right. There is a woman at work that says she unplugs her toaster, and other appliances when not in use. She said I should unplug my home theater gear when not in use, because of the power draw. My big hog of a plasma uses .2 W on standby. I told her instead of doing all that crap, she should turn her living room lights on at 8:30 instead of 8:00. She'd be saving 100x the power as my unplugged TV.

 

Kinda missing the forest for the trees, I think.

[Guest Riggs]

mythbusters is a joke,

 

the tailgate up will only get better if there is no crosswind... In there test it showed that the air would circle around and help fuel economy.... but if there is any crosswind this changes and it doesnt help at all and is better with the tailgate down. so if there is absolutly no wind leave the tailgate up but 99% of the time you can leave it down.

[Lincoln30]

A tune will help even if you "enjoy" the gas pedal a bit more after the tune. On my 99 5.3 I got 2-3 mpg on every tune I've had (Hypertech, Westers, and Wait4Me) without adjustment of driving style. On the 08 6.2 I don't have any tune yet but this past week I decided to try driving the speed limit and accelerating more slowly. My mileage is up by 2.3 mpg. I'd rather pay for a tune and continue to drive the way I want to and still get 2-3 mpg more instead of adjusting my driving style to "granny" mode.

[Nick The Great]

mythbusters is a joke,

 

the tailgate up will only get better if there is no crosswind... In there test it showed that the air would circle around and help fuel economy.... but if there is any crosswind this changes and it doesnt help at all and is better with the tailgate down. so if there is absolutly no wind leave the tailgate up but 99% of the time you can leave it down.

 

Well I don't knkow, I haven't run the aerodynamic calculations on them. It's only been a few years since I took those classes, and I don't wish to do it for fun. I'll let you do it.

 

My point is/was that if a tonneau cover increased mileage SIGNIFICANTLY, GM would send all their trucks out with 'em. The tailgates would come without latches, or not on at all. I can see the headlines, "GM Meets CAFE Standards by Removing Tailgates!"

[Darkanion]

mythbusters is a joke,

 

the tailgate up will only get better if there is no crosswind... In there test it showed that the air would circle around and help fuel economy.... but if there is any crosswind this changes and it doesnt help at all and is better with the tailgate down. so if there is absolutly no wind leave the tailgate up but 99% of the time you can leave it down.

Maybe it's different on different trucks, Riggs. I did the tailgate up/down experiment on a road trip last year and I consistently got slightly better mileage with it up than with it down. Similar terrain, same direction... Every time, I got slightly better with my tailgate up.

 

Additionally (and I don't have any engineering behind me to "prove" my point, but....), if the truck is running 75-80 mph north-bound and you have a 15 mph crosswind, I doubt that 15 mph crosswind is going to effect the aerodynamics in the truck bed a lot. I could be wrong... It just seems like the 75 mph north-sound wind would more than counteract the effects of the 15 mph east-west wind... (I'm sure someone with more engineering experience than I will point out the error in that logic, though.)

[BigJayDogg3]

mythbusters is a joke,

 

the tailgate up will only get better if there is no crosswind... In there test it showed that the air would circle around and help fuel economy.... but if there is any crosswind this changes and it doesnt help at all and is better with the tailgate down. so if there is absolutly no wind leave the tailgate up but 99% of the time you can leave it down.

 

Well I don't knkow, I haven't run the aerodynamic calculations on them. It's only been a few years since I took those classes, and I don't wish to do it for fun. I'll let you do it.

 

My point is/was that if a tonneau cover increased mileage SIGNIFICANTLY, GM would send all their trucks out with 'em. The tailgates would come without latches, or not on at all. I can see the headlines, "GM Meets CAFE Standards by Removing Tailgates!"

 

 

Well I don't remember where I saw the article, but there is this guy that takes diesel engines and makes them more powerful, more efficient, cleaner, and biodiesel compatable. The point? Each car costs something like 7-8 thousand dollars to do.

 

Now I'm sure if he mass produced something like this, the price for each individual car would go down to something like 4-5 thousand, but you have to do R&D to make sure that after you put 10,000 miles on the odometer the car doesn't spontaneously combust or something. Then after you have the warranty issues out of the way, the problem becomes building the machines to handle this.

 

Now let's just say for the sake of argument this program did go this far, you now have to include the price of overhead into the price of the vehicle. Do you really want to be paying an extra $10,000 on top of your $30,000 vehicle? Especially when you can just build a bare, basic truck and have you go to the aftermarket to accomplish the same thing.

 

From a business standpoint it doesn't make sense.