One often overlooked factor in gas mileage is the ability to lower your wind resistance. Wind resistance is often referred to by the scientific community as the coefficient of drag. This idea of drag took center stage when Western New England College Department of Mechanical Engineering placed a 2WD 5.2 liter V8 Dodge pickup in a wind tunnel.* While experimenting with various different ways to reduce drag on the truck they found that the bed of the truck was a problem area. Some of the tests included removing the tailgate, lowering the tailgate, and installing a cargo net. All of the previous tests however resulted in a lowered MPG until a lid was installed. This lid increased the MPG of the Dodge truck by 7.3% because the air was now able to flow freely over the truck bed. 

*Source: Improving Aerodynamic Characteristics of A Dodge Ram Pickup Truck, 1997, Todd J. Ortolani, Vanwijak (Kehm) Ewosakul, Western New England College .

• Install a lid or tonneau cover to improve gas mileage.  Laboratory tests have shown that a lid or tonneau cover can reduce drag on trucks and less drag means a higher level of fuel efficiency. 
  • Feel free to use the calculator on one bottom of this page to calculate potential gas savings that might be acquired by adding a lid or tonneau cover to your truck.
  • Click here to view our Lid and Tonneau cover selection.
    

• Routinely check tire inflation to insure that it meets manufacture specifications. Traveling with under inflated tires causes excess frictional energy which reduces gas mileage.
  

• Plan/logically group errands and other activities so that driving is minimized while productivity is maximized. It is much more efficient to make one trip where you go all cover town in a loop rather than making back and forth errands every day.
  

• Maintaining a constant speed while avoiding rapid speed changes is another way to improves gas mileage. Constantly changing speeds is a major drag on gas mileage because energy lost through breaking is not recovered.