I must be lucky... no complaints on the stock stuff... 'cept the brakes. I converted to 4W discs recently. Real rear brakes! What a concept. Bought this R/T new in 2000.

 

milage...Tailgate up or down? One group project I did in college for my Mechanical Engineering degree was the topic of fuel milage with the tailgate of a truck up and down, and with a tonneau cover. We found conclusively that dropping the tailgate allows more airflow through the bed and thus INCREASING drag and increasing gas milage. The gate up creates a buffer zone in the bed, and air passes over the tail gate. The best results of course were with a tonneau cover.

The worst drag was encountered with the gate removed and replaced with one of those tail gate nets! THe marginal weight savings of the gate removed are much more negated by the increase in drag.

So... leave the gate up, throw away the tailgate net, and buy a tonneau cover if you really want to improve milage.

 

You're exactly right.

 

dont know what to say except your was probly put together on a friday i bought my 01 last year no major problems other then brakes and tires but i think thats from me smoking them, tring not to hit deer lol any ways sorry to hear it but must be a lemon an gas well i didnt buy it for milage just to rip up the trails and roads

 

wholy 2 year old post batman!

 

For sure. And I wonder if they all realize that with the tailgate down you get WORSE gas mileage. (Not toomuch) But it is better to have the tailgate up.My advice to some people is to watch mythbusters, and look around the site. I think there is several posts about the tailgate topic.

 

Another thing about having the gate down or removed is that over time the bed sides flex quite a bit and will start cracking the welds that hold the bed sides and start wiggling around.

 

Yeah, and with the tailgate down, I keep losing all my stuff!

 

and it looks gay..

 

I've got a '00 4.7 with about 85k miles. I have only had one problem that I didnt cause myself. The front right hub was grinding. From what, I have no clue. Things that I have caused myself was the rack, steering pump, front diff seals, u-joints replaced, transfer case fixed, and breaks a couple of times. That was all from a couple months of some pretty steady, moderitly tough 4x4ing. If it wasnt for the 4x4ing, I would have only been about $400 dollars in repairs. Sounds like you just got a bad one from an owner (like me lol) that didnt take care of it.