Does anyone know of any state laws that it is illegal to drive without a tailgate in place? Assuming nothing in cargo bed...

Seems this would increase gas mileage.

94DakLover

AC, Cruise and OEM radio ALL fixed now!

 

It does not increase gas mileage...according to myth busters!

 

Well there are no laws that require you to have a tail gate, but there is a downside to driving without one, it will give you worse mileage. The way they designed trucks to to allow the airflow to build in the bed of the truck and circle in the rear window of the truck. Your best way to get mileage is to remove the tailgate and replace it with a Bully Net Tail Gate (most part stores have them if not look on the net). Mythbusters covered it in one of there episodes, they tried with a tail gate, without one, and with the Bully Net, and the Bully net took the win added about another 3mpg to a Ford F-150 with a Triton V8. Sounds crazy but it really did work.

 

Someone told me that on some trucks driving without a tailgate can cause the bedsides to bend inwards over time from the stresses of wear.... don't know if this is true or not.

 

ummm no they are full of it, just saying


edit: unless its one of those all plastic import not really tucks, trucks

 

Check with your state troopers and maybe your local mounties...it's illegal in some places to run without a tailgate or some way to keep bed cargo in place. Here in Tejas, the solution is a bed net, or some folks cut a board to fit tight enough across the bed so stuff doesn't roll/fall out.

 

Yeah or outward, the bed corner supports can weaken with out a gate, hence the reason for the lip on the latch posts, besides alignment.

 

Yup, like said above, it won't do any good. If you've ever seen a pickup truck in a wind tunnel, you'd see that a pocket of air forms in the bed and the air coming up over the cab flows over that pocket. If you have the tailgate down, or take it off, you will actually increase the drag coefficient on your truck and get worse gas milage.... not better, not the same... worse.

Think about it like this since not probably not many people have seen a truck in a wind tunnel... if you've ever watched a leaf blow around in a bed, you see it swirl around within the confines of the bed, and maybe at some point randomly blow out, but the point is, that is the pocket of air the leaf is trapped in.

 

No law against it, As long as you have a bumper.

But MythBusters wasn't using a Dodge for the test.

 

I'd imaging laws concerning this depend on what state and county you live in. Try Google. Also as everyone mentioned leaving the tailgate down does indeed increase drag. So does using a cap (although I can't imagine living without one.)